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PC-SIG Diskette Library (Disk #2139)
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Information about “THE NIGHT SKY 3 OF 4 (1796,1797,2140)”
This computer planetarium is capable of plotting 24,000 stars to
magnitude +7.49. The registered version is capable of plotting 45,000
stars to magnitude +8.49. THE NIGHT SKY is a very easy to use
menu-driven program for the amateur astronomer. In fact, this program
was
written by an amateur astronomer who, when he is not looking at the
stars, drives a London transport bus. He has spent many of his off
hours working on this program, which originally started as an exercise
in programming.
Use THE NIGHT SKY to draw a star map and move around the sky, show the
night sky to a magnification and resolution of your choice, plot all the
planets and the Moon any time from January 1, 1600 to December 31, 3000;
predict solar and lunar eclipses; and view your local sky. Also covered
are comets, the minor planets, the sun, moon, and satellites of Jupiter.
From the stars menu you can choose the constellations, 21 brightest
stars, bright star catalogue, map the night sky, star atlas, deep sky,
FILE2139.TXT
Disk No: 2139
Disk Title: The Night Sky 3 of 4 (1796,1797,2140)
PC-SIG Version: S1.2
Program Title: THE NIGHT SKY
Author Version: 2.07
Author Registration: 24.95 pounds.
Special Requirements: Hercules graphics or CGA.
You may never figure out where all that stuff in your house came from,
but as long as you have it, you might as well keep track of it. The
HOME INVENTORY RECORD KEEPER lets you do just that, room by room.
It's not dramatic, but it is a handy way of keeping track of everything
you have in your house. You can, of course, give a location for
everything, and indicate the actual or estimated value of each item.
This will be essential should you ever suffer a loss by theft or fire.
You can also print a list of your possessions and tuck it away for safe
keeping.
There is no manual on the disk, because you won't need one -- that's how
easy this program is to use. If you need help at any time, just press
the F1 key and you'll see a context-sensitive help screen.
PC-SIG
1030D East Duane Avenue
Sunnyvale Ca. 94086
(408) 730-9291
(c) Copyright 1989 PC-SIG, Inc.
GO.TXT
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ <<<< Disk #2139 THE NIGHT SKY (disk 3 of 4) >>>> ║
║ (also disk 1796, 1797, 2140) ║
╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ To start program, insert disk #1797 and type: NIGHT (press enter) ║
║ ║
║ To print documentation, insert disk 2139 and type: ║
║ COPY MANUAL.DOC PRN (press enter) ║
║ ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
(c) Copyright 1990, PC-SIG Inc.
MANUAL.DOC
THE NIGHT SKY
Version 2.07
A COMPUTER PLANETARIUM
The Stars to magnitude +7.49 for the Epoch 2000
By A.C.Stevely
1990
1
Introduction.
The Night Sky is a computer planetarium capable of plotting
24,000 stars to magnitude +7.49. If you have the special version
of The Night Sky,it will be then capable of plotting 45,000 stars
to magnitude +8.49.
The Night Sky is a very easy to use menu - driven program.
This program was written by an amateur astronomer who, when
he is not looking at the stars, drives a London Transport bus.
He has spent many hours working on this program, which was
originally started as an excise in programming. Only when it was
almost finished did the author think of distributing it as a
shareware program. He hopes you enjoy this program and perhaps
become interested in looking at the real night sky.
The author would like to thank David Belinfante for his kind
help in testing the Hercules version and writing the Hercules
graphics version of the Moons disc.
The Night Sky was written using Turbo Basic. Copyright
Borland International, INC.
2
Configurations supported.
The Night Sky runs on any IBM personal computer (PC, AT, XT)
or true compatible. For example, The Night Sky was written
with a Amstrad 1512 personal computer. The program supports the
following computer systems:
Hercules display
Colour Graphics Adapter, with either a colour or
monochrome display.
Using MS-DOS 2.0 or later, the program also supports the following
disk drive systems.
Single disk drive
Double disk drive
Hard disk drive
The Night Sky Disks.
The Night Sky program was distributed to the shareware libraries on
four standard 360K 5.25 inch disks.
Disk one. (NIGHT)
NIGHT.EXE.......The starting program which controls all the
sub-programs and data files.
PROG1.TBC.......Stars
PROG2.TBC.......Planets
PROG3.TBC.......Comets and minor planets
PROG4.TBC.......Your local night sky
HOME.DAT........Your latitude and longitude,date,disk type
TITLE.DAT.......Scanned image used for the title screen
Disk two. (STAR DATA)
This disk contains the data files which are used by the NIGHT
disk.
STARNUM.DAT.....Location of data on the star map file
STARMAP.DAT.....The star map file
MAG6.DAT........Data on stars mag. +3.50 to +6.49
MAG3.DAT........Data on stars mag. -1.50 to +3.49
DEEPSKY.DAT.....Data on the deepsky objects (R.A. Dec.)
DEEPSKY2.DAT....More information on deepsky objects
CONSTEL1.DAT....Data about the names of the constellations
3
CONSTEL2.DAT....Text based maps of the constellations
CONSTEL3.DAT....Data for drawing lines
CONSTEL4.DAT....Constellation names, used by PROG1.TBC only
BSTAR21.DAT.....The 21 brightest stars
BRIGHT3.DAT.....Bright star catalogue
Disk three. (SOLAR)
This disk contains the solar system programs.
PROG5.TBC......Solar and lunar eclipses
PROG6.TBC......Sun
PROG7.TBC......Moon
PROG8.TBC......Satellites of Jupiter
PROG9.TBC......Transits of Mercury and Venus
MAP.DAT........Map of the Earth
TVM.DAT........All the following files
SOL.DAT........are sprite graphics used by
SOJ.DAT........these programs
EOT.DAT
LCL.DAT
LDT.DAT
LPS.DAT
MANUAL.DOC.....This file
Disk four. (STAR ATLAS)
PROG10.TBC......The Night Sky star atlas
MAG7.DAT........24,000 stars to magnitude +7.49
Running The Night Sky
To run this program first load MSDOS. If you wish to print
any of the sky maps, now load GRAPHICS,to prepare your PC
to print graphic screen displays. (CGA mode only) Please note
that while the Night Sky program will run with MOUSE.COM
loaded. NIGHT.EXE reads the system clock and runs at its
correct speed if you DO NOT load MOUSE.COM.
CONFIG.SYS
When you first start up your PC, the text file CONFIG.SYS is
automatically processed by MS-DOS. You should have the
following commands in that file. For example, my CONFIG.SYS
file reads as listed below.
Files=20 Buffers=5 Device=Ansi.sys
4
The files command sets the number of files that can be opened
simultaneously. The Night Sky will open simultaneously in
some of the programs up to 9 files. The buffers command sets
aside an area of memory for holding data being moved back and
forth between the disk and the program. The command device =
Ansi.sys, makes the PC load the enhanced screen diver, which
is of course called ANSI.SYS. If you need to change the
Config.sys file, the best way to do it is use a word
processor.
If you are using a double disk drive system please copy the MS-DOS
file COMMAND.COM onto the NIGHT disk and LEAVE IT ALWAYS IN DRIVE
A. The other disks always go in drive B.
So after loading MSDOS etc, type NIGHT and press Enter to
load and run The Night Sky.
You will first be asked if you wish to skip the configuration
mode. The configuration mode sets your computer system to
either the Hercules or Colour Graphics Adapter and the type
of disk system. Your location is also set. This information
will then be written to the HOME.DAT file. When first used
the program is set to the following location.
Latitude 51.28 North
Longitude 000.01 West
Name of Location Saint Johns
Country England
Time Zone 0
Correction for daylight saving 0
The first time you use this program you will most likely press
U,as in - <U>se the same location as Saint Johns. Later on, you
will have to set the program to your own location by pressing C,
to <C>hange the location, or by pressing S, to <S>elect a city.
The latitude and longitude, including the time zone settings are
used for plotting your local sky and the rising and setting times.
The locations you can select are :-
Greenwich Bristol Birmingham Manchester
Edinburgh Glasgow Paris Berlin
Rome Athens Moscow Peking
Tokyo Jakarta Cairo Khartoum
Dakar Lusaka Sydney Montreal
Anchorage Dallas San Francisco Mexico City
Bogota Rio de Janeiro Honolulu Saint Johns
If your city is not on the list then you will have to look up
the latitude and longitude of your city in an atlas. To set
your town or city, just follow the instructions and the
program will write your location into the HOME.DAT file. If you
are using disk drives, leave the write protect tab off.
5
After reading your location, the program will now show the
Main Menu, where you will be given the following choices:-
NIGHT SKY
1....Stars 2....Planets
3....Comets 4....Local sky
SOLAR SYSTEM
5....Eclipses 6....Sun
7....Moon 8....Jupiter
9....Transits
STAR ATLAS
0....Night Sky star atlas
<E>xit to MS-DOS
We will now look at each one in turn and see what they do.
STARS
After pressing key 1 for the stars, this program will then
load and run. You will also be asked if using disk drives, to
remove and insert the Star data disk. The new main menu will now
be as follows:-
1............The Constellations
2............21 brightest stars
3............Bright star catalogue
4............Map the night sky
5............Star atlas
6............Deep Sky
7............Objects & magnitudes
8............Spectral types
9............Exit
Also shown will be your local civil time and your local sidereal
time. Your LCT is taken from the system clock. Your LST is
calculated from the data in the Home.dat file. You can also
change your correction for daylight saving.
Drawing star maps
Common to most choices in the Night Sky program, is by
using different keys, you select the map you wish to draw.
Since the Night Sky program is 100% menu driven you cannot
get lost or have to remember what key to press. YOU DO NOT HAVE
TO READ ANY MORE OF THIS MANUAL TO USE THE PROGRAM.
6
However, taking as an example, lets say we wish to plot the
constellation Orion. Indeed,this example could even be a plot of
the planets or even the path of the the minor planet Ceres. The
basic principles are the same.
Stage one, is press the key number 1. This will bring onto the
screen a new menu. This shows a list of constellations, next to
one of then is an arrow. At the bottom of the screen the
following keys are marked, <M>ove arrow, <N>ew page, <C>ontinue or
<E>xit.
Stage two. Press the <N>ew page key until Orion is on the screen.
Then <M>ove the arrow to Orion, and then press <C>ontinue. If you
pressed the <E>xit key it would return you to the main menu.
Stage three. A new menu will now be shown on the screen. In this
example, you will be shown information associated with Orion.
This is any mythological connotations, its position in the sky,
and a little map text based map showing what to expect when you
finally draw the map. Also shown are the rising and setting times
for that constellation.
At this point I will discuss rising and setting times. All rising
and setting times are calculated from the positions you set in the
start-up program. These are local civil time, or the time on your
clock.
Right, back to your quest in the plot of Orion. On the bottom of
the screen is the choice of going <F>orwards to the next listed
constellation to Orion, which is Pavo, or <B>ackwards to Ophiuchus.
You can also set the <M>agnitude of the faintest star plotted,
this can be 5 or 6. You can then <P>lot Orion. Again, you can
also <E>xit back to the main menu.
After pressing P to plot Orion, the screen will clear and the
program will look through, and plot the stars upto magnitude
+3.49 in and around the area of the constellation Orion.
At the bottom of the screen you will also see the message,
" Working on the bright stars ".
After stars of magnitude 3.49 have been drawn,the program
will then start drawing stars from magnitude 3.50, to magnitude
6.49. You will then see at the bottom of the screen a new message,
" Press the spacebar to stop drawing stars ".
When you think you have plotted all the stars onto your map,
just press the spacebar to stop, now a new menu will show
itself on the bottom line. This is, " <D> <B> <S> <N>
<L>ines off <E>xit ". Now taking one at a time, we will look
at what they do.
7
<D>eepsky. If you press D, the program will look through the
list of deepsky objects and draw them onto the map. Pressing
<F> or <B> for forward or backward, will the draw a little white
box around the object. At the bottom of the screen is printed its
catalogue number. The Right Ascension and Declination of the
deep sky object is also listed. This is common to most maps
drawn in the Night Sky program.
If you pressed 6 from the main menu - Plot the deep sky
objects. You can then chose a deep sky object and like the
constellation sub-menu be informed with information on that
object.
<B>right star. Each bright star will also be boxed, while you read
its common and scientific name.
If you pressed 3 from the main menu - Bright Star Catalogue.
Again, like the other sub-menus this also contains information on
the 285 bright stars to magnitude +3.49.
<S>tars. If this time you press S, the program will go to a
new menu namely," <F> <B> <E>xit ". What this does is go
through the stars drawn on the screen, <F>orward or
<B>ackwards, and tell you, by drawing a little box around each
one in turn, what that stars spectral type is and its R.A.
and Dec.
<L>ines. In the constellation mode pressing L, will draw lines
marking the outline shape of that constellation. Pressing L again,
will erase these lines. In the other modes, pressing L will draw
onto your map the coordinates marking the hours of Right
Ascension.
<N>ame. This key will add to your map the names of the
constellations. Like the others options, this is also common
to all maps.
When you have done all this, pressing E will exit you back to
the main menu. To print any map in the Night Sky (CGA mode),
just press the shift and Prt Sc keys if you loaded GRAPHICS.
Star atlas
The Star atlas will draw for you a map as fast as your hard, or
floppy disk drive can read the information. By use of the number
keys you can quickly move around the night sky. This mode is
useful if you do not know your way around the night sky. Unlike
the main star atlas on PROG10.TBC. this is a predrawn star atlas
to magnitude +4.49.
8
Map the night sky
This part of the program gives you the chance to plot any
part of the night sky to a magnification and resolution of
your choice.
Press 4 from the main menu to enter this mode. Following the
instructions on the screen, use the space bar to set the Right
Ascension - the celestial longitude. Then again, using the
space bar set the Declination - the celestial latitude.
You will then be asked for the magnitude of the faintest star
plotted. Press 3, 4 or 5, or 6. Last of all, you will be asked to
set the width of the map in degrees. The range of the field
width of the map depends on the magnitude of the faintest star
chosen. The Night Sky will then draw your map.
The objects and magnitudes screen will draw colour coded, and by
using that color, give an indication of a stars spectral type.
The deepsky objects will also be drawn. The spectral type screen
will give a quick indication of the spectral classification
system.
PLANETS
Pressing 2 from the main menu, allows you to plot the Sun, Moon,
and all the planets at any time from the 1st January 1600, to
the 31st December 3000.
Touching the space bar will list the positions the planets
for todays date. Pressing <T> will allow you to change the
date.
When the planets and the Moon have been listed for the date
of your choice. You can then set the magnification of the sky
map, by pressing <W> to change the width of the map. Pressing
<O> will draw a plan view of the solar system. (Colour CGA
mode only) Pressing <T> will set the time in days. The value
is from one to thirty one days.
The Moon can be turned on or off by pressing <Y> or <N>. When
showing the motion of the planets the Moon can get in the
way, so it is best to turn it off. Pressing <+> or <-> will
list the positions of the planets and the Moon for any given
day - set by pressing <T> - from the chosen date. This is
also common to the Sun, Moon and Comet programs.
The apparent <D>iameter key will draw all eight planets to scale.
You can then press the spacebar a number of times and watch how
the planets change in size viewed from the Earth.
9
The <A>ngle between any two objects of your choice can also be
chosen. What this does is draw the angular separation between two
planets, for example, over a given time period set by you.
Pressing 0 to 9 will plot the positions of the Moon and the
planets onto the night sky. After the stars have been drawn
onto the map a new sub menu will be listed at the bottom of
the screen. This is - <C> <P>lanets <M>ove <B> <S>
<P> <E>xit. Pressing <P> will plot the position of the
planet you picked, plus any other planet or the Moon in that
area. The position of that planet is marked by a small white
cross, plus its name. Pressing P again will erase its name
and just leave the cross. Pressing <C>, allows you to chose
a new planet to be plotted. Pressing <E>, exits you back to
the main menu.
Pressing <M> will show on the same map how much the planets
have moved in the time interval set by the clock. Set
interval to one day and the width of the sky map about 60
degrees, then pick the planet Mercury. Press M a few times
then sit back and watch Mercury move across the sky. For the
outer planets such as Jupiter, set the time interval to about
7 days. To get the best effect just experiment with
different widths and times for each planet. If you set the
Moon to the on position, the program will not only plot the
Moon but also its phase,or how bright is it.
Pressing <O>, (colour CGA mode only) from the Solar system
menu will draw a plan view of all 9 planets. Hint: First
set the clock to 7 days. Then press <+> or <-> a few times
and watch how the planets orbit the Sun. The <A>spec<T> keys
will effect how much tilt will be the orbits when redraw. You
can also move and set the scale of the orbital drawings.
As a test for the Night Sky program. Set out below is a list taken
from The Astronomical Almanac for the positions of the planets
for January 1st 1988.
The Night Sky The Astronomical Almanac
R.A. Dec. R.A. Dec.
Mercury 19.05.04 -24.38.35 19.05.27 -24.38.02
Venus 20.59.36 -18.57.35 21.00.01 -18.55.55
Mars 15.30.08 -18.29.48 15.30.46 -18.32.12
Jupiter 01.16.37 +06.42.32 01.16.41 +06.42.54
Saturn 17.40.34 -22.15.01 17.40.24 -22.14.52
Uranus 17.52.20 -23.36.20 17.49.47 -23.35.20
Neptune 18.30.55 -22.16.41 18.33.39 -22.15.30
Pluto 14.57.11 -00.17.08 14.58.03 -00.20.14
Sun 18:42:35 -23:04:47 18:42:32 -23:04:58
Moon 04:08:21 +25:49:34 04:08:30 +25:42:53
10
COMETS AND MINOR PLANETS
Pressing 3 from the main menu will allow you plot 25 preset comets
and 25 preset minor planets or asteroids. You can also add your
own comet and minor planet positions and plot them. The
Astronomical Almanac for example, gives the orbital elements of
140 minor planets.
Lets now list and plot the position of the minor planet Ceres
on the 1st January 1988. First, using the <N>ew page and
<M>ove arrow keys select Ceres. Press C to continue, and the
program will then give you information on the orbital elements of
Ceres. Press C once more and change the date to January 1st. The
program will then list the position of Ceres. You can then <P>lot
Ceres on a star map, and like the planets <M>ove it.
Once again we will test the output of the Night Sky program
against The Astronomical Almanac.
The Night Sky The Astronomical Almanac
R.A. Dec. R.A. Dec.
Ceres 20.12.23 -25.56.58 20.12.21 -25.54.51
The Night sky also gives the Ceres- Earth distance as 3.86
astronomical units, the Almanac gives the distance as 3.858 A.U.
The astronomical unit is the Sun-Earth distance of about 93 million
miles.
LOCAL SKY
This part of the program will draw your local night sky on
any night of the year. The planets will also be added and you
will be given their rising and setting times. Included in the
map will be the position of the Moon together with a little
drawing of its phase.
Pressing 4 from the main menu will take you to a new sub menu
where you will be given three choices. One, touching the
space bar will draw your local night sky. Pressing T will
temporary change the date and time for any night of the year.
Pressing E will exit you back to the main menu if you change
your mind.
Lets say, you pressed the space bar for drawing tonights
local night sky. The computer will tell you its " working "
and after a few seconds you will be asked to set the
direction of the first map drawn. This can be <N>orth,
<S>outh, <E>ast or <W>est. Pressing any one of these keys
will draw the first map. Pressing N,S, E or W after this
11
will redraw the map almost at once. Pressing the spacebar at
any time will exit you to the main menu. Pressing <R> will
make the sky slowly turn. If any planets are drawn, they will
be listed on the left hand side of the map. Pressing the *
key will draw a line from the listed planet to the marked
cross on the map. Pressing the # key will erase this line.
You can also set the scale of the maps by pressing + or -.
Pressing <F> or <B> will list forwards or backwards, all the
objects drawn on the map; each will be boxed.
The time between plots of your local night sky after pressing
R is about one minute. You can also press R a number of
times and then sit back and watch the night sky slowly turn.
Pressing N,S, E or W after pressing R, will clear the screen
and again plot the sky, at whatever the time was when you
left the R mode.
Pressing T will give you a chance to temporary change the time and
date. Just follow the instructions for doing this, you set
the date and time by mainly using the space bar.
Pressing the <M>ap key will draw a whole sky view, and add to it
the positions of the planets.
ECLIPSES
Pressing 5 from the main menu will allow you to predict Solar and
Lunar eclipses from the 1st January 1600 to the 31st December
3000.
From the new menu press make your choice for a <S>olar or a <L>unar
eclipse. You will then be asked to set the starting date and the
direction of the search for eclipses. What the program then does
is look for new and full Moons and see if an eclipse is possible.
When an eclipse is found it will list the elements of that
eclipse. That is, the positions of the Sun and Moon. The
circumstances of the eclipse, or its type and times will also be
listed. All times listed, are local civil times. You can then draw
a map of the Earth and plot the motion of the Sun and Moon across
its surface. But most important, you can also plot the rising
and setting curves, and check if you can see the eclipse from your
home.
You can then draw an eclipse diagram. These drawing are
calculated from the positions of the Sun and Moon every quarter
of a hour during the eclipse.
12
The Lunar eclipse drawing will show the path of the moon across
the Earth's shadow during that eclipse.
The Right Ascension and Declination of the Sun and the Moon are
coordinates that would be observed at the center of the Earth.
During a solar eclipse you have to take into account the Moon's
geocentric parallax, and transform these coordinates to those that
would be observed from the surface of an invisible Earth.
What you have to do is match the coordinates of that of the Sun
with that of the Moon by moving your position on the surface of
the Earth. Taking as an example, a total eclipse of the Sun took
place on the 18th March, 1988. The Night Sky program lists the
Right Ascension and Declination of the Sun and Moon at the middle
of the eclipse as:
Sun Moon
R.A. 23:51:33 R.A. 23:50:50
Dec. -00:54:51 Dec. -00:31:31
The sub-solar point is listed as 00:54:51 South, 151:47:16 East.
The sub-solar point is the location on the surface of the Earth
where the Sun directly overhead. The program also informs you
that the eclipse took place in the northern hemisphere of the
Earth. By pressing the marked keys you can move your position
across the surface of the Earth in one half degree steps. If you
move to latitude 22.0 North and longitude 142.0 East, the
coordinates of the moon are now R.A. 23:51:28, Dec. -00:54:39.
Checking with the Astronomical Almanac, this position is indeed
in the path of a total eclipse. You can then draw the path of
the Moon across the surface of the Sun. When completed, you can
then <R>eplay or show the <P>ath of the moon again.
SUN
Pressing 6 from the main menu will list the the positions of the
Sun from the year 1600 to 3000. It will also draw a graph of the
equation of time, which the difference between the mean Sun
time and the real Sun time.
Also listed by the program are the angular diameter of the Sun
and the Sun - Earth distance. The rising and setting times are
also given. The equation of time, plus the transit time
is also given. Lets now test the Night Sky program. Once again
the date is the 1st January 1988.
13
The Night Sky The Astronomical Almanac
R.A Dec R.A. Dec
18.42.35 -23.04.47 18.42.32 -23.04.58
Angular diameter Sun-Earth Dist: Transit time
NS 00.32.31 0.98331 12.03.17
AA 00.32.31 0.98328 12.03.16
Angle of axis Heliographic Latitude Longitude
NS +2.40 -2.96 258.34
AA +2.39 -2.95 258.34
You can also <D>raw the sun showing its angle of axis, or <M>ap
its path across the surface of the Earth. Rising and setting
curves can also be added to the map.
MOON
Pressing 7 from the main menu will list the the positions of the
Moon from the year 1600 to 3000. It will also draw the phases of
the Moon. It will also list its age, Earth - Moon distance,
phase, horizontal parallax and rising and setting times. Also
included will be a bar going from new to the full Moon, this
will give you a quick indication of the fraction of the lunar disk
illuminated. You can also plot graphically the lunar disk,
just press <D> to draw the Moon. It will then every time
you press the space bar, you will get a new picture of the
lunar disk. You can if you like press the space bar a number
of times and sit back and watch how the Moon changes in
brightness. You can also <M>ap its path across the surface of the
Earth. Rising and setting curves can also be added to the map.
The <L>unar calendar will plot the phases of the moon for each
month,drawing the moon to scale. The <P>hase mode will show how
the moon orbits the Earth, changing its phase as it does so. The
<A>pollo manned missions mode will give you some information on
these missions from Apollo 7 to Apollo 17.
For the last time we will test the program against the
Astronomical Almanac for January 1st 1988.
The Night Sky The Astronomical Almanac
R.A. Dec. R.A. Dec.
04.08.21 +25.49.34 04.08.30 +25.42.53
Angular diameter Distance km Horizontal parallax Phase
NS 00.30.34 390865 00.56.05 0.91
AA 00.30.19 394022 00.55.39 0.91
14
SATELLITES OF JUPITER
Pressing 8 from the main menu will draw the the positions of the
four moons of Jupiter from the year 1600 to 3000. These moons are
Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
This a pure graphics program which will from the date you select
draw the orbits of these moons for 6 days. The form taken by the
drawings will be that used in The Astronomical Almanac,which is a
series of curves from the top of the screen to the bottom. Also
included in the bottom of the screen will be an sideways look
at Jupiter showing how the moons move back and forwards.
Pressing the <P>ause key will stop the display and mark each
moon.
TRANSITS OF MERCURY & VENUS
Pressing 9 from the main menu will calculate and plot 94 transits
of Mercury and 24 transits of Venus.
After calculating the positions for each transit, it will list
the times at the following points. Ingress, exterior and interior
contact, middle of the transit, and then the egress, both
interior and exterior contact. You can then <P>lot the transit.
This will show the path of the planet across the surface of the
Sun. Pressing the <T>ransit key will then plot the next transit
onto the same drawing.
NIGHT SKY STAR ATLAS
Pressing 0 from the main menu will allow you to map any part of
the night sky, showing 24,000 stars to magnitude +7.49.
You can also plot from preset positions, all 88 constellations or
the brightest deep sky objects.
EXIT TO DOS
Pressing <E>xit from the main menu takes you back to the disk
operating system.
SHAREWARE
Shareware is the distribution of software by which the value
of a program is best determined by the user of that program.
While the copying of this program is encouraged, it should be
15
distributed in an unmodified form and no charge made, expect
for a small fee for postage and materials. Copying of The
Night Sky is allowed for the purpose of backup and to allow
others to try out and evaluate the program.
If you found The Night Sky useful and enjoyable please think
about registration. The author has spend many long and arduous
hours working on this program.
The cost of registration is only 24.95. (Pounds Sterling) If
you live outside the EEC please add 1.50 to cover postage and
packing. Registration provides other benefits, such as
support. You also will receive one of the following special
versions.
Version A:
Four standard 5.25 inch 360K disks. Plots 24,000 stars to magnitude
+7.49.
Version B:
Six standard 5.25 inch 360K disks. Which is version A, plus two
extra disks for hard disks users. Plots 45,000 stars to magnitude
+8.49.
Version C:
Three standard 3.5 inch 720K disks. Plots 45,000 stars to
magnitude +8.49.
The author would be interested in any comments on improving this
program. Some of its better/best ideas came from suggestions by
registered users. While this program as been fully tested, no
doubt some minor errors will have crept in. The author would also
like to hear about them.
The author would also like to make a list of what computers
are used to run this program. So will you please tell me your
make of PC in any correspondence.
Registered users can always receive copies of any later updates to
the program. When any new issue is completed you will be
requested to send blank disks for this new version.
April 1990.
A.C.Stevely. 5c, Saint Johns Vale, London, SE8 4EA.
Telephone : 081 692 8265
Directory of PC-SIG Library Disk #2139
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory of A:\
EOT DAT 884 2-16-90 9:57p
LCL DAT 724 2-16-90 9:59p
LDT DAT 642 2-16-90 10:00p
LPS DAT 644 2-16-90 9:58p
MANUAL DOC 36165 4-02-90 12:09p
MAP DAT 15928 11-03-89 8:08p
PROG5 TBC 42524 6-04-90 8:24p
PROG6 TBC 33866 6-04-90 8:25p
PROG7 TBC 42403 6-04-90 9:09p
PROG8 TBC 19787 6-04-90 8:27p
PROG9 TBC 54694 6-04-90 8:29p
SOJ DAT 706 2-16-90 10:02p
SOL DAT 652 2-16-90 10:01p
TVM DAT 2240 2-12-90 8:38p
GO BAT 38 1-01-80 1:37a
GO TXT 883 7-11-90 12:43a
FILE2139 TXT 2147 7-12-90 3:22p
17 file(s) 254927 bytes
58368 bytes free