═══ 1. General help for Night Vision ═══ Welcome to Night Vision, a "planetarium" program for OS/2. Night Vision opens with a view of the heavens looking straight up from the user's preferred location. (Or, until a preferred location has been selected, a default location of Niwot, Colorado, the author's favorite small town.) Two scroll bars control the direction of view: Moving the vertical scroll bar (right side of window) controls the altitude, or the angle from the horizon to the center of the view (center of window). With the scroll at the top the view is straight up. With the scroll at the bottom the view is along the horizon. Brown tinting will indicate where the earth blocks the view. (This horizon indication can be turned off.) Moving the horizontal scroll bar (bottom of window) controls the azimuth, or direction along the horizon. With the scroll in the center, the view towards the horizon is to the south. Moving the scroll to the right moves the view to the west, then the north. Moving the scroll to the left moves the view to the east, then the north. Thus north can be achieved by moving the scroll either to the far right or the far left. Altitude and azimuth are indicated in the information window at the top. Interpret altitude as follows: Alt View 0 Along the horizon 90 Straight up (zenith) Interpret azimuth as follows: Az View 0 and 360 North 90 East 180 South 270 West Magnification is controlled as follows: Pressing 'z' will "zoom in" to magnify the view. Pressing 'Z' will "zoom out" to de-magnify the view. By pressing 'Z' and/or enlarging the window an entire 180° view can be seen. (I.e. 90° in all directions from center of window.) 'CapsLock' must be off for 'z' and 'Z' to work. Explore these and other options and enjoy the view of Night Vision! ═══ 1.1. Help for save location ═══ Use this selection to save your current location. Future program startups will begin at this location. Location data includes whether or not daylight savings time is in effect. (Daylight savings time is set via the "Location" window or the "Set local date/time" window.) ═══ 1.2. Help for save preferences ═══ Use this selection to save your current preferences. Future program startups will begin with these preferences. Preferences include:  Current viewed objects  Current selected font  Current star parameters  Current window size and position ═══ 1.3. Help for close ═══ Use this selection to exit Night Vision. A window will pop up to verify this selection. ═══ 1.4. Help for set location ═══ Use this selection to set viewing location. Any city in the city database, or any longitude/latitude coordinates, can be selected. (The city database can be altered to user's preferences.) ═══ 1.5. Help for set font ═══ Use this selection to set the font. This font will be used for all text in the main window. ═══ 1.6. Help for set stars ═══ Use this selection to set star parameters, such as limiting magnitude and star size. ═══ 1.7. Help for select objects ═══ Use this selection to select objects to view, such as planets and deep sky objects. ═══ 1.8. Help for zoom in ═══ Use this selection to zoom in. ═══ 1.9. Help for zoom out ═══ Use this selection to zoom out. ═══ 1.10. Help for set date/time selection ═══ Use this selection to set the date and time to any point from 1900 through 2099. ═══ 1.11. Help for freeze selection ═══ Use this selection to freeze time (i.e. time does not progress). ═══ 1.12. Help for thaw selection ═══ Use this selection to thaw time (i.e. allow time to progress). ═══ 1.13. Help for set time rates ═══ Use this selection to set display update interval and time speed. ═══ 2. Setting up Night Vision ═══ Night Vision can be set up for any location. Begin by going to the "Location" window (via the "Set" pull down menu). Select the city closest to your location, select/deselect "Daylight savings time", and press "OK City". Or enter your longitude, latitude, and time zone, select/deselect "Daylight savings time", and press "OK Coordinates". If your new location is in a different time zone, then your local time (as displayed in the information line above the star window) will have changed, and you must reset the time. To do so, go to the "Set local date/time" window (via the "Time" pull down menu), and then press "Set to computer date/time". You are now re-sync'd to your computer time. Be sure to save this location information if you would like Night Vision to always start at this position. Go to the "File" pull down menu and select "Save location". You may also save your viewing preferences (objects, font, and star parameters) by selecting "Save preferences" from the "File" pull down menu. Note: The city database used in the "Location" window may be edited to suit the user's preferences. Follow the directions at the top of NVSN.CTY. ═══ 3. Help for Location window ═══ This window is used to select a location anywhere on earth, either by selecting a city in the city list box, or by directly entering the longitude and latitude of the desired location. The cities shown are the cities listed in the city database: NVSN.CTY This database may be edited to suit the user's preferences. Follow the directions at the top of NVSN.CTY. Longitude is entered as sddd:mm where s is the sign (+, -, or blank), ddd are degrees ranging from 0 to 180, and mm are minutes ranging from 0 to 59. Longitude is negative for locations west of 0°. Latitude is entered as sdd:mm where s is the sign (+, -, or blank), dd are degrees ranging from 0 to 90, and mm are minutes ranging from 0 to 59. Latitude is negative for locations south of the equator. Time zone is entered as shh:mm where s is the sign (+, -, or blank), hh are hours ranging from 0 to 12, and mm are minutes ranging from 0 to 59. Time zone is negative for zones west of Greenwich, England, and represent the time difference between the location and Greenwich. Note: Changing the location will change the time indicated in the information line above the main star window if the new time zone differs from current time zone. This allows the user to hop from location to location while maintaining the same time in the first location. For example, hopping from Denver to Dallas changes the time from say 1:00 to 2:00, because the time in Dallas is 2:00 when the time in Denver is 1:00. Select or deselect "Daylight savings time" depending on whether it is in effect for this location. (1 hour will be subtracted from the indicated time if selected.) Daylight savings time can also be set via the "Set local date/time" window. Use tab, space bar, and arrow keys to control without a mouse. Press "OK City" to accept a city location. Press "OK Coordinates" to accept a location via the longitude and latitude coordinates with the specified time zone. Pressing "Cancel" (or Esc) rejects any changes. Use the "Save location" selection from the "File" pull down menu to save the current location so that Night Vision begins there when starting. "Save location" also saves whether or not daylight savings time is in effect. ═══ 4. Help for Set font window ═══ This window is used to set the font for all text appearing in the main star window. "Name", "Style", and "Size" are drop-down listboxes whose contents may be displayed by clicking on the down arrow on the right of the box. The contents are also displayed (and removed) by pressing 'Alt-down arrow'. Use tab, space bar, and arrow keys to control without a mouse. Pressing "OK" accepts new values. Pressing "Reset" resets any changes to window. Pressing "Cancel" (or Esc) rejects any changes. ═══ 5. Help for Set star parameters window ═══ This window is used to control how different magnitude stars are to appear. Magnitude (a.k.a. relative magnitude) refers to how bright a star appears. This is an inverse relationship: the higher the magnitude, the dimmer the star. Very bright stars have magnitudes of less than zero. The "Limiting magnitude" spin button controls how bright a star must be before it can be displayed. It can be set from 2.0 to 7.0 (dimmest). The two sliders control what size dot is used to represent the brightest and dimmest stars. The "Dimmest" slider refers to stars having a magnitude indicated by the value on the "Limiting magnitude" spin button. Use tab and arrow keys to control without a mouse. Pressing "OK" accepts new values. Pressing "Cancel" (or Esc) rejects any changes. ═══ 6. Help for Select objects window ═══ This window is used to set which objects and options to display. "Deep sky" refers to objects outside the solar system, such as galaxies, nebulas, and star clusters. Constellation names can either be full length, or a 3 character abbreviation. "Celestial grid" refers to a grid of celestial longitude and latitude, which astronomers term as right ascension and declination, respectively. This option also displays the ecliptic, which is the path the sun follows through the heavens. "Horizon" refers to a brown tinting that is used to represent that part of the view that is blocked by the earth. Use tab, space bar, and arrow keys to control without a mouse. Pressing "OK" accepts new values. Pressing "Cancel" (or Esc) rejects any changes. ═══ 7. Help for Set local date/time window ═══ This window is used to set the date and time to any point from 1900 to 2099. Use the mouse to select the month, day, year, hour, and minute, then activate the corresponding arrow keys to set to the desired value. Click on "AM", "PM", and "Daylight savings time" as desired. Control without the mouse is achieved with the tab, arrow, and space bar keys. Pressing "OK" accepts the new date and time. Pressing "Set to computer date/time" immediately sets the local date/time to the computer date/time. Pressing "Cancel" (or Esc) rejects any changes. ═══ 8. Help for Set time rates window ═══ This window is used to set the display update interval and the time speed. The display update interval is the amount of time Night Vision waits before updating the display. For example, setting to 1 minute will update the display every minute. Use longer intervals for slower computers that take a lot of time to update (or specify less stars to display with the "Set star parameters" window). The time speed is the rate at which Night Vision advances time relative to the computer. Set to "1X" for normal operation. To watch time move backward, set to "-1X". Set to "1440X" to watch a day pass within a minute. Note: Time must not be "frozen" (see Time pull down menu) for time to proceed. Use tab and arrow keys to control without a mouse. Pressing "OK" accepts new values. Pressing "Cancel" (or Esc) rejects any changes. Only the update interval can be saved in user preferences. ═══ 9. Keys Help ═══ The following keys are active in the main star window: Key Function F3 Ends program z Zoom in Z Zoom out Up arrow Shift altitude up 1° Down arrow Shift altitude down 1° Right arrow Shift azimuth right 1° Left arrow Shift azimuth left 1° Page Up Shift altitude up 15° Page Down Shift altitude down 15° Ctrl-Up arrow Shift altitude up 15° Ctrl-Down arrow Shift altitude down 15° Ctrl-Right arrow Shift azimuth right 15° Ctrl-Left arrow Shift azimuth left 15° 'z' and 'Z' require that 'CapsLock' be off. ═══ 10. Editing the city database ═══ The city database, NVSN.CTY, contains all cities listed in the city listbox in the Location window. It can be edited to suit user's preferences. To edit, use a standard text editor. Do not use a word processor unless it can save to a standard ASCII file. Maximum number of cities is 100. Blank lines and lines beginning with "#" are ignored. All other lines must have blanks at columns 26, 34, and 41, have no tabs, and contain the following information in the specified columns: Columns 1-25: City name Columns 27-33: Longitude Columns 35-40: Latitude Columns 42-47: Time zone For example: #-------- City name -----|--Long-|--Lat-|--TZ--|-Ignored- Niwot, Colorado -105:10 40:06 -7:00 Refer to the "Help for Location window" panel for proper values for Long, Lat, and TZ. Cities will be listed in the Location window city listbox in the same order as they appear in this file. ═══ 11. List of files ═══ Night Vision contains the following files: File Description NVSN.EXE The executable (program file) for Night Vision NVSN.HLP The help file NVSN.DB Sky database NVSN.CTY City database - May be modified, but please distribute only the original NVSN.DOC Documentation INSTALL.CMD Installs program object onto desktop NVSN.INI Initialization file - Created by program - Should not be distributed with other files ═══ 12. Registration ═══ Night Vision is shareware. It may be freely copied and distributed provided that the program in all of its components (program file, help file, database files, install file, and documentation) are kept together and all remain unmodified. Considerable effort has gone into the making of this program. If you find it useful please register by contributing $15 to: Brian Simpson P.O. Box 773 Niwot, CO. 80544 ═══ 13. Future updates ═══ Night Vision will be updated in the future. Future updates may include:  Printing  Precession  Star identification  User selectable colors  User selectable fonts per object  User modifiable information line  Constellation boundaries  Altitude/Azimuth grid  Labels for grids  Comets  ...