PLANETARIUM for Atari ST/Mega/TT By Atari NEW Mint

Description

Atari Planetarium
. New sealed for 520/1040ST, Mega, Stacy, TT or Falcon
See Review
START VOL. 3 NO. 7 / FEBRUARY 1989 / PAGE 27
Star Light, Star Bright
Atari Planetarium and Robtek Skyplot
.......Twinkle, twinkle little star--how can I tell which one you are? At one time or another, just about everyone has indulged in a bit of star gazing. Trying to make sense from patterns in the night sky has been one of my favorite preoccupations.
Atari Planetarium and Robtek Skyplot are two programs that bring the fascinating science of astronomy to your ST. While differing in style and depth of functions, they are both well suited for a wide range of practical and educational activities. Atari Planetarium is an upgrade of an earlier program for the Atari XL/XE computers. ....
Atari Planetarium
Planetarium runs on any ST or Mega in either low or high resolution. It is not copy-protected and can be installed on a hard drive. The program follows normal GEM protocols and is both mouse- and keyboard-driven. The accompanying manual is excellent, one of the best I've ever seen. It is well-written, logically organized and has numerous screen shots, illustrations, examples and information for self-study or classroom use.
Planetarium's basic function is to calculate and display a star chart for any date and time from 9999 B.C. to A.D. 9999. By moving the mouse cursor over a map of the world, you can select an observation point. While the map is not accurate enough to obtain a precise location by mouse-clicking, you can get reasonably close and then use a screen icon to lock into the nearest minute of latitude and longitude. A table of geographic coordinates for over 150 cities and islands is given in the manual.
The star chart is drawn from a database of over 3,500 stars and 300 deep-space objects. Options include showing the connecting lines and three-letter names for constellations, symbols for the solar system planets and a grid of celestial coordinates. Planetarium shows the sun as a circle and the moon is shown with its current phase (ea. full moon, crescent, etc.). The display works best in color because the background tracks the time of day: black at night, lightening at dawn and bright blue during the day.
The normal display view mimics that of an observer looking out toward the horizon. An altemate view mode shows the sky as a typical astronomical chart, looking straight up to the celestial north pole. The view magnification can be varied by a factor of two over four levels--good for focusing on specific events such as a solar eclipse where you can actually watch the moon's shadow pass over the sun.
Alongside the display chart is a control panel where you can change the date time and viewing angle; the display is updated within seconds. Using the find menu, you can quickly locate the sun, moon, a planet or any of 88 constellations and have the display redrawn to be centered about it. Halley's comet can also be located, but only over the limited time window of its last approach during 1985-86.
The mouse pointer can provide two types of information. first, click the right button while positioned on a star or object to open a text window at the bottom of the screen. This window gives the star's name and description (if available). Click the left button on any position in the display to show the star's corresponding azimuth and elevation in the control panel area.
The strongest feature of Planetarium is its abiliy to change the display to reflect the passing of time. The clock can move at real-time or up to 64 times faster, either forward or backward in time. This lets you set up conditions prior to an eclipse or other event, then watch it happen on the screen as it would be seen from Earth. This is an outstanding function for educational applications. The manual gives a number of astronomical events--historical and those yet to come--that can be studied via this simulation approach........
The Auction is for the ST version Atari Planetarium
Shipping weight is estimated to be 1 pound.
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