3) How do I install RedShift (more detailed instructions than those found in your box)?
4) Space Flight - what are the general principles? What do I need to know?
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1) I'm a new user - where do I start?
RedShift has an entire feature designed to help new users; it's called
Tutorials. Do this:
1) Install RedShift (you have printed instructions in the box, and they
are repeated in a little more detail at the end of this file) and
double-click on its icon to open it.
2) Click Main Program or press Return.
3) Go to the Information menu and select Tutorials.
4) All the tutorials simultaneously teach you astronomy and how to use
RedShift's controls and settings. If you want to reach straight into
outer space, try going to Mars with Observe Mars from its moon, Phobos [13/20]
(scroll down the list).
For information on other features not covered in the Tutorials you may access Help from the Information menu within the program.
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2.) What are the new features in RedShift 2.0?
RedShift 2 is the first major upgrade to RedShift. For those who have
already used the program, this is a review of the new features.
The opening screen for RedShift 2 offers you two options: Guided Tours and Main Program. To go to Guided Tours, the new astronomy tutor feature with music, sound and narration, click on the Guided Tours Button. The music is from "RedShift Suite", a space-age symphony, written about the original RedShift by composer Jean-Pierre Garatoni. RedShift Suite is available separately. Narration is by Hannah Gordon.
The ten Guided Tours introduce the basic principles of astronomy and help users find their way around the sky. Choose a tour by clicking on the picture of the tour you've selected. To experience the range of the Guided Tours try these three: History of the Solar System, Double Stars, and Find Your Way Around The Night Sky.
Tip: You can advance quickly through each tour by clicking the Progress Bar at the bottom of the animation. Tours can be interrupted at any time to return to the Guided Tours interface screen by clicking the Back button located on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
This will return you to the Guided Tours Menu Screen.
RedShift 2 lets you hitchhike on satellites, space probes, comets, and asteroids with
Space Flight. From the Guided Tours menu screen, click the Space Flight button in the
left-hand corner. To ride Apollo 13 from Earth around the moon, scroll down the list.
Click the folder to open the file. Click the settings file. Click OK.
To start the flight, go to the Control Time Panel and click the far right arrow.
To stop the ride, click on the Stop Button (the black square button in the Control Time Panel).
To choose another experience, hit the Stop Button on the Control Time Panel and choose
Space Flight again.
Another great voyage is Lageos-1, a satellite that orbits Earth. Or try a ride on fragment nine of the Shoemaker-Levy comet as it crashes into Jupiter. (You'll see Jupiter loom close up, but don't worry, you won't see the crash!)
Tip: If you click the Show me it Button, you'll get a different perspective of your adventure.
Try Venera-13 both ways. Venera-13 is a space probe that was launched from Earth to Venus. Watch the orbital paths (click Show me it) or experience the flight (click Locate me on it). Remember, because these are being calculated in real time, and the distances the objects are traveling are enormous, the flights can take a while. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride!
Once you have finished with the Space Flight feature, select Default Settings from the
Controls Menu. This will return you to a general view of the sky. (If the command is dimmed, close all the controls and settings panels open.)
From the general view of the sky (the default settings) pull down Display from the Main Menu Bar and choose Object Filters. This opens a dialog box that lets you control the display of the various objects you can see in the sky. Click the Stars Tab; this brings the Stars page to the front. Drag the right Magnitude Slider down to the bottom of the scale (Magnitude 12) and switch off the Zoom-dependent filtering button. Then click OK.
This procedure shows all 260,000 stars stored in RedShift 2 (the default operation, limits the number of stars displayed depending on their brightness and the current zoom setting). You will now see the sky covered with stars. Each star displayed is 'hot'. Clicking any one of them will result in an Object Window being displayed. This window links to the Penguin Dictionary of Astronomy.
Tip: To change your view of the sky, first click the Constellations or Grids (or both)
buttons on the control panel to the far left of the screen. This will help orientate you
relative to your hemisphere. Then pull down Display from the Main Menu Bar and choose
Telescope Views, and any sub-menu, eg Equatorial View, Inverted Equatorial, Ecliptic
View or Galactic View. For a real change of pace, pull down Display and choose Atlas Views, Polar Projection. To return home go: Display/Telescope View/Horizon.
Displaying nearly 260,000 objects slows down the speed at which RedShift can draw the sky, so you may want to check again the zoom dependent filtering box in the stars filter. Pull down Controls from the Main Menu Bar and choose Default Settings to restore the general view of the sky.
RedShift 2 displays a grid to show the plane of the ecliptic. This is an imaginary
plane in our solar system in which nearly all of the planets orbit. The exception is
Pluto, whose orbit is angled significantly relative to the ecliptic. From the general
view, pull down Display from the Main Menu Bar and choose Markers. A dialog box will appear. Check Ecliptic Grid, Ecliptic Axes, and Show Markers. Click OK.
To get a good view of the plane of the ecliptic, we will locate ourselves on Pluto,
which is the outermost planet. Pull down Controls and select Choose Location.
A dialog box will appear; select Pluto. Click the Center of Object button under Location.
Click OK.
Now pull down Controls and Center on Planet and choose Sun from the sub-menu.
Finally, pull down Display and choose Object Filters.
This opens the Object Filters dialog box. Choose Planets. In the Planets dialog,
click the Icon Button (each planet will now display as an icon), check the Show Labels and Show Orbits Buttons, and then click the Labels and Orbits Buttons under
Magnification to turn them on for every planet. Click OK.
You can get a good idea of how close the Earth is to the Sun, relative to the outer planets, by slowly zooming in (press the + key repeatedly). There will be a
slight delay as RedShift 2 calculates each frame in real time, and moves through
the massive distance from Pluto to the inner planets!
To see the next new feature, go to the general sky view by pulling down Controls
and selecting Default Settings.
RedShift 2's Movie Gallery contains many new videos and animation sequences.
From the general view of the sky, go to Information on the Main Menu Bar.
Pull it down and go to the Movie Gallery. There are 20 movies to choose from.
To get a range of what's available we suggest you view these three:
Merger of Galaxies (it's number 2), Mechanism of a Nova (number 4),
and Local Structure of the Universe (number 9).
The movie of the shuttle Endeavor's Rescue of Intelsat IV is an excellent
example of mankind's voyages into space. The movies of Venus are also quite spectacular.
To select a movie, click on the Film Strip Icon on the movie thumbnail.
Click the Start Button to play the movie. To stop a movie, click the second
from left button on the Progress Bar. To close the Movie window click the button
in the upper left-hand corner of the window. After you have viewed the movies,
leave the Movie Gallery by clicking the upper left corner of the Gallery Window.
Try the Photo Gallery next.
The updated Photo Gallery contains the most stunning views astronomers have photographed. Pull down Information from the Main Menu Bar and choose Photo Gallery. To see a particular photograph, scroll down the index to choose a gallery. Enter the gallery by clicking on your gallery selection. To bring a particular photograph full screen, click the Magnifying Glass Icon.
Try looking at the following photographs. First, locate the 5th photo in the Historical Maps Gallery which can be found under The Sky, Constellations. It's the constellation of Auriga. This map was created in 1732 by Bayer Uranometria.
Clicking Return on the photo and Back on the Gallery will return you to the Gallery Index. Also try to find the 13th photo under: The Galaxy, sub-gallery Interstellar Matter. It's the dust lanes in Messier 16. (No traffic jam jokes please!) To return to the
main program simply click the Close box in the Photo Gallery window.
Tip: Don't miss the Eruption from the Sun in UV light from Skylab series-in the last third of the Sun gallery. Another beautiful shot is the Tarantula Nebula
(look for it in the Photo Gallery index). To fully appreciate the beauty of the universe,
turn out all the lights in the room and go through the galleries in the dark.
RedShift can now show you four detailed Planet Maps: Venus has been added to them.
From the general sky view (default settings - pull down
Controls from the Main Menu Bar; choose Default Settings), pull down
Information from the Main Menu Bar, choose Maps. Earth is the default map.
To select Venus, click the second button from the left in the icon panel.
This will open the panel that controls which planet's map is displayed.
Scroll past the maps of Earth, Moon, and Mars by pressing the Up Button next to the
black dialog box. Venus is the map after Mars. Click OK.
To explore the planet, click the first button in the top icon box, the one that looks
like a globe. This pulls down a Globe Control Panel. To label points of interest, click
the square Map Setting Button between the Grid and Label Buttons. Click on the features you want to label: Features or Landing Sites (or both). Click OK. Click the Label button to activate the labels.
To find something click the Find button. This will bring up the Gazetteer Dialog Box.
Click on Features to list the geological points of interest on Venus, or Landing Sites
to list those. Select from the list displayed to the left of the buttons. Click OK.
RedShift 2 will place a red cross-hair over your choice. You'll probably have to move
the Control Panels to find the cross-hairs.
To move the Control Panels grab the horizontal lines across the top of the icon bar
and drag the panel to somewhere else on the screen.
To return to the default settings, click Return on the top icon bar.
This ends your tour of the biggest new features in RedShift 2. Of course, there's
much more to the program including sky charts, visibility reports, eclipses,
conjunctions, and all the other features you've come to expect from RedShift.
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3.) HOW DO I INSTALL REDSHIFT 2.0?
Printed instructions are supplied as an insert that comes with the RedShift
jewel-case or box; if you have mislaid the sheet you can use the instructions
below, which also give a little more detail. RedShift will run directly off
CD-ROM; however, performance will be considerably enhanced if the application
is copied onto hard disc (it occupies about 3 megabytes). The software
requires a minimum of 2 megabytes of available memory, preferably 4 (Macintosh
users should give RedShift as much memory as they can).
For Macintosh and Power Macintosh users
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Step 1. Insert the RedShift Cd-ROM into a CD-ROM drive attached to your Macintosh.
The disk windows will open to show you the RedShift 2 program icon.
Step 2. Install QuickTime 2.5 --QuickTime is a System Extension developed by Apple Computer. It should be installed in the Extensions folder, inside the System Folder, on your computer's hard disk. A copy of QuickTime 2.5 is provided on the 'RedShift 2.0'
CD-ROM. To install QuickTime 2.5 on your computer double-click the
'Install QuickTime' alias on CD-ROM.
Step 3. Drag the RedShift 2 application to your hard disk. Although RedShift
will work perfectly from the CD-ROM, many operations will be faster if the
application is installed on your hard disk. Create a new folder and drag the RedShift application (not the whole CD-ROM) into it.
Step 4. Double-click the RedShift 2 application icon installed on your hard disk to start the program. Click Main Program on the title screen.
For up to date technical help with RedShift see the world wide web pages at
http://www.maris.com
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4.) Space Flight - what are the general principles? What do I need to know?
A significant addition to RedShift 2 is the Space Flight feature. To access
Space Flight select Events, Space Flight... the dialog box gives you a list
of folders that contain settings for different objects. Double-click a folder
to open it, then click a setting and select it. Some objects have more than
one setting file.
The dialog opens with buttons preset; if they are altered, next time you open
the dialog in your RedShift session your choice will be shown and applied to
further settings.
"Locate me on it" is activated by default; this view uses the space flight
object as your viewing platform. Or, you can choose "Show Me it," which gives
a view of the object from a preset point in space.
The settings file for an object may include not only the date and time and
the step sizes in which the time runs, but also the magnitudes of nearby
planets and filters for stars and constellations, among other parameters.
This combination is called the "Recommended settings & controls" for the
object setting, and its effect is to give two of the most interesting views
possible for the object (one view from "Locate me on it,' the other with
"Show me it.") When you first open the Space Flight dialog box, Recommended
settings are selected by default.
When RedShift has implemented the Recommended settings and redrawn the
screen, start time running to enjoy the sequence. Within Recommended settings
you can alter all settings except date, time and time steps.
To end your session either select Controls, Default Settings... (to start
afresh), or click Stop Space Flight Session (if you want to preserve your
view but change to a new date, switching off the special calculus.)
Note 1: RedShift Space Flight calculus does not take account of the facts
that spacecraft land, and comets vaporize on impact with a planet - so an
object that crashes or lands will appear to pass through a planet's center.
Note 2: If the "Locate me on it" button is dimmed in the Space Flight dialog
box, you will need to close one or more of the Follow Planet, Position, Zoom
or Location panels before you can use it.
Note 3: If you want to locate yourself on a special object without resetting
time, do so using "Choose Location" or the Location panel.
Note 4: If you alter the settings panels, the OK light glows red to show that
you must click it to confirm changes.
Two significant improvements have been made to the program's Space Flight
feature since the manual was written. Bear these in mind when use this feature.
1) When you choose an object that has more than one setting, playing the
Recommended settings will join together the settings files and show them
end to end. For example, if you select Voyager 2 Injection to Jupiter (Locate me on it) and run time, when that sequence has finished playing, RedShift will load the settings for Voyager 2 Jupiter entered, and so on for the whole Voyager mission.
This means that you can sit and travel through the whole Solar System on
the Voyager missions, or see the entire sequence of other missions in
nearly continuous space travel. These are not movies: you can change them.
If you stop time running you can see the planets with different magnifications,
phases switched on or off, varying all RedShift settings except date and
time steps. Enjoy your journey!
You can stop the sequence at any time by clicking the Stop button on the
Control Time panel; you may wish to do this to examine a planet in more
detail, or implement some of the suggestions in the leaflet.
2) Time steps now alter dynamically, to speed up and slow down the rate at
which you view a journey, according to the interest of visible features.
For example on Apollo 13's journey to the moon, the time steps are larger
on the flight in space between Earth and the Moon, which is a relatively
lackluster journey through cold dark space!
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