OS/2 Shareware BBS: Educate/Educate.zip/cosmos.txt

Text File | 1995-05-16 | 18KB | 395 lines

    Haarlem, 29 March 1995


    Dear OS/2 User,

    It is our pleasure to send you the press release of "The Cosmos
    for OS/2" and the exciting new features of the new version 4.0.

    The Cosmos for OS/2 is a unique OS/2 software package. It is
    both educating and entertaining. It will show you the sky with
    thousands of celestial objects, any time, any place!

    Among the many new features is the simulation of celestial
    events. Just enter a time increment in minutes, hours and/or
    days and see the sky change at WARP speed! And feel as if you
    are in a spaceship with the new animation feature!

    To order: fax this letter to Mensys [phone] or in the
    USA to Indelible Blue: 919-878-7479. Please include your credit
    card information. Shipping costs from Mensys are US$ 10.00, for
    Indelible Blue call 800 776 8284 for exact shipping costs.

    YES I ORDER: (prices excl. 17.5% VAT for EC-countries)
    0 The Cosmos for OS/2 version 4.0 US$ 89.00
    0 The Cosmos for OS/2 upgrade US$ 39.00
      my current serial number is:
    0 The SAO database US$ 15.00

    Credit Card number (VISA MC DC AMEX);
    Exp. date:
    Shipping address
      Street:
      Postal Code:
      City:
      Country:
    Signature:

    COSMOS FOR OS/2 VERSION 4.0 PRESS
    RELEASE

    "The COSMOS for OS/2" Version 4.0 is a versatile
    program in the category "edutainment". It is not
    only the first but also the only one of its kind
    available for OS/2. Integrating many features not
    often found in a single program, this is more than
    just a desktop planetarium.

    Whether you are just intrigued by the richness of the night
    sky, are an armchair astronomer, or an experienced observer
    wanting to plan and record your observations, this program will
    appeal to you. COSMOS is a program which was designed to aid
    the astronomical observer, from the novice to the expert. It
    offers one of the quickest and easiest ways to learn about
    astronomy and get acquainted with the heavens even without a
    real telescope and clear skies.

    The program fully exploits the graphics capability of the
    personal computer and the OS/2 80-bit ANSI precision and
    multithreading capabilities to accurately display and print
    star charts, simulate celestial events such as conjunctions
    (groupings of planets), occultations (events that occur when
    the Moon passes in front of a star) or eclipses (Moon obscuring
    the Sun), or zoom into or out from a sky region, with or
    without animation, at Warp speed. Star charts are displayed
    using stereographic projection which is conformal, and
    accurately preserves shape relationships even for large areas
    of the sky. A great deal of effort was expended in writing the
    program to achieve as much accuracy as possible in predicting
    celestial positions over a large span of time while preserving
    performance.

    The program comes with the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars which
    includes 9,091 stars brighter than magnitude 6.5, a deep-sky
    catalogue containing 8,414 entries with all 110 Messier
    objects, Index Catalogue (IC) objects and New General Catalogue
    (NGC) objects, and an additional deep-sky database containing
    1,953 entries with a variety of deep-sky object types,
    including Dark Nebulae and the recently discovered Dwingeloo-1
    galaxy. Optionally a binary version of the Smithsonian
    Astrophysical Observatory catalogue (SAO) can be purchased
    which contains accurate positions of 258,997 stars as faint as
    magnitude 11.9.

    With a click of the mouse information about every object can be
    accessed instantly. Not only can you add your own notes and
    photo's for each and every one of these, but also for many
    objects you will find informative text and 256-color images.
    Those interested in history, mythology or astrology will like
    the Constellation dialog. Select one of the 88 constellations
    from a list and read about its history, add your own notes,
    plot the related sky region for today, tomorrow or for the
    actual day and year of your birth. See the planets move along
    the ecliptic relative to the constellation and see the zodiacal
    constellations move through the sky throughout the year.

    Chose the controls you want, standard Common User Access, a
    Toolbar or hide them all to take advantage of the full screen
    size. Functions are available to allow corrections for
    precession (the slow wobble of Earth's axis over 26,000 years),
    proper motion, nutation, aberration (and parallax for the
    Moon). Find the position of a planet now, 2,000 years ago or
    2,000 years in the future, look at the distribution of stars,
    galaxies, clusters or nebulae, simulate the motions of planets
    through the sky, show the positions of asteroids
    (minor-planets) or see the rapidly changing orbit of a comet.
    Of course you can also add your own objects and let COSMOS take
    care of the calculations and projection.

    A multitude of options is available to customize the charts to
    your specific needs: planets, moon phases, stars, deep-sky
    objects (galaxies, all types of nebulae and clusters,
    star-systems, quasars), labels, lines, numbers, color
    (including B-V index), orientation, size, shape, scale,
    daylight/twilight, and more. The program even shows the size,
    shape and orientation of a galaxy and other deep-sky objects if
    the information is available in the database.

    The fully integrated on-line help uses the OS/2 Help Manager
    and includes a "Quick start" option. It provides a convenient
    way to get acquainted with the basic concepts of visual
    astronomy, OS/2-Information Presentation Facility and the
    COSMOS program by means of hypertext, hypergraphics and a
    comprehensive and easily accessible Encyclopedia of Astronomy
    in which all astronomy related terminology, used in the program
    or on-line help, is explained. It even lets you add your own
    notes to the help sections. The index section contains over
    1,300 entries.

    COSMOS runs on any machine capable of running OS/2 2.0 or
    higher. Although it can run without one, a mathematical
    co-processor is highly recommended. Free hard disk space
    required is 5 Mb with an additional 4.2 Mb if the SAO database
    is to be installed (not included). The "COSMOS for OS/2"
    Version 4.0 comes on 3 1/2" diskettes.

    Pricing           Version 4.0 price: USD 89.00
                      Upgrade from 3.0:  USD 39.00
                      SAO Database: USD 15.00

    Outside the USA:
    Mensys
    Crayenestersingel 65
    2012 PG Haarlem
    The Netherlands
    Call [phone]
    Fax [phone]
    CompuServe 100272,3130

    In the USA available from:
    Indelible Blue, Inc.
    P.O. Box 31306
    Raleigh, NC 27622
    Call 800-776-8284 or 919-878-9700
    Fax [phone]
    CompuServe 76256,3334

    NEW IN "THE COSMOS FOR OS/2", VERSION 4.0

    - Optional is a Toolbar with 18 Smart-Icons, offering a short-cut to
      some of the most used functions and menu options.

    - A dialog window is available to customize the Toolbar.

    - The frame controls (menu-bar, title-bar etc.) can now be hidden.
      Clicking Mouse Button-2 will bring op a pop-up menu.

    - Simulation of the apparent sky motion and ephemeris of Sun, Moon
      and planets, eclipses, conjunctions, occultations, phases etc.

      "Playing" with the simulation controls and chart types permits you
      to more closely study various phenomena such as eclipses and
      conjunctions.
      It is also an excellent way to study the effect of nutation,
      aberration, precession etc.

      Simulate:
      - Coordinate grid, Equator, zero meridian of RA and ecliptic.
      - Include names of planets and stars.
      - Constellation names, abbreviations, connecting and boundary lines.
      - Forward or backward in time, in steps of minutes, hours or days.
      - Continuous loop within a small time frame or within the whole range.
      - With or without realistic civil twilight.
      - Refresh or photographic exposure mode.

    - Animated zooming at Warp speed can now be performed.

      Animated zooming out of, or into a sky-region will result in an
      even more realistic three-dimensional display of the sky.
      The spectator will seem to move along an apparent path trough the
      sky as though traveling trough space at warp speed.

    - Many options are available including auto-start and demo mode.

    - A "Quick start" option is now available from the "Help" menu.
      It offers a convenient way to get acquainted with the basic
      concepts of visual astronomy, OS/2-IPF and the COSMOS program
      by means of hypertext and hypergraphics.

    - A new option has been added to suppress interim screen refreshing.
      The performance gain may be as substantial as up to five times.

    - Up-to 5 star databases can now be selected (or excluded).
      You can even add your own.

    - The star database layout has been extended to include additional
      information. It was restructured to further improve performance.

    - New is the optional SAO database which includes 258,997 stars up-to
      magnitude 11.9.

    - Up-to 4 deep-sky object databases can now be selected

    - The deep-sky object database layout has been extended to include
      additional information; it was restructured to further improve
      performance.

      The database includes references to a number of alternative catalogs.
      In addition information like distance, x, y size and position angle
      information is included for a great many objects.

    - The MESSIER database has been replaced (and extended) to an NGC
      database.
      It now includes all of the (R)NGC objects and most of the IC
      objects, totalling 8414 deep-sky objects.
      In addition it includes cross-references to a variety of catalogues.

    - Deepsky1 database includes some 1952 deep-sky objects from dozens
      of different catalogs (in particular dark nebulae).

    - Faint limiting magnitude selection has been extended to enable
      selection from 1.0m > 20.0m in steps of 1 (Ctrl+M).
      The star size assignment has been aligned to this.
      Both limiting magnitudes, stars and deep-sky objects, are now the
      same.

    - To better support the large databases the color assignment for
      stars with regard to the magnitude has been changed.

    - A bright magnitude limit has been introduced to enable magnitude
      range plotting.

    - Object types have been extended and can now be selectively
      included or excluded from the chart (Ctrl+T).

      New: Dark nebula, Galaxy clusters, Quasars, Diffuse nebula,
           multiple star-systems etc.

    - Further improved positional accuracy of planet ephemeris, taking
      full advantage of OS/2, 80 bit double precision.

    - The "Identify" dialog now includes the additional information
      available in the databases.
      It is also changed to support the enhanced on-line documentation
      facilities (see below).

    - A new option, "Identification controls", has been added to enable
      more selective searches, skipping of objects and enforce full
      database scans.

    - If the information is available in the databases, deep-sky objects
      will be sized in both the x and y direction and will be projected
      with the appropriate position-angle (the latter only for sky
      regions smaller than 180 degrees).

    - Screen-refresh count has been decreased to show more activity when
      plotting many objects.

    - Search function performance (find functions) has been substantially
      improved.

    - A new function "Find Planet, Sun, Moon" has been added.
      If not within the visible sky-region, a new chart can be plotted
      with the object in the center.

      A "Lock on object" option is available to perform animation of the
      selected ephemeres.

    - The "Find Star" function now alternatively accepts a SAO or BS
      number.
      If the star is not within the currently visible sky region a new
      chart can be plotted with the stars location as the chart center.

    - The "Find deep-sky Object" function now alternatively accepts an
      alternative name (built from an index list), NGC number or IC
      number.
      If the object is not within the currently visible sky region a new
      chart can be plotted with the objects location as the chart center.

    - A function is now available (under the Tools Menu) to copy the
      current sky-chart to the clipboard.

    - A dialog window, to visualize the positions of the four bright
      Jupiter satellites through the course of a day, has been added
      under the Tools menu.

    - Most of the new settings will be saved in the COSMOS profile.

    - Using a Mouse button when the main window was resized will now
      issue a message about this status.

    - Deep-sky objects will also be plotted when only partially visible
      in a sky region.

    - Minor enhancements have been made to the City list.

    - Measuring an angle (by draging MB1) while holding down the Shift key
      will create a file "USER.DTA" in the COSMOS directory and write the
      cross-hair coordinates in RA and Dec to this file.
      If the file does not exist it will be created. If it does already
      exist, data will be appended to it.
      Writing will continue until MB1 is released.

    - The on-line documentation and  help has been updated to reflect the
      above updates and to refect the latest developments in astronomy.
      Additional help text and cross-references have been introduced.

      The Identify function has been fully integrated with the IPF help
      facility of OS/2.

      Personal notes can be added in a number of different ways.
      You can add notes to objects, either Solar system, star or deep-sky
      object or for a specific Constellation, and thus create a fully
      integrated "private" object notes database.
      The objectname.TXT files are now used for this purpose.
      Processing of these has been enhanced as follows:
      - TXT commentary files can now contain imbeds using the .im tag.
      - TXT commentary files can now contain editorial remarks
        (to be ignored) using the .* tag.

      In addition you can add your personal notes and comments to the
      on-line documentation and help, using the integrated simple editor
      or one of preference.

      From within the help, the system editor can be invoked to edit e.g.
      Orbital elements files and coordinate display files.

      - A new dialog is available to specify the preferred editor to edit
        your object notes.
        An "Edit Notes" button has been added to the Identify dialog window
        and "Plot Constellation Region" dialog.

    - A substantial number of stars and deep-sky objects now have
      additional information under the "Text" button.

      All of the bright stars upto the second magnitude now have
      explanatory text included.

    - Explanatory text has been added for all 110 (well 109) Messier
      objects.

    - Explanatory text has been added for all 88 Constellations.

    - The above stated also applies to text and notes regarding the
      Constellations. The "Select Constallation region" for plot has
      been changed accordingly.

    - Include Bayer designation will now also show the Flamsteed number.

    - Most of the important (44) meteor showers can now be plotted by
      means of Positional coordinate files (DTA). Select all showers
      for the whole year, for a specific month or by name.

    - The Bitmap display window will now be sized to the bitmap dimensions
      i.e. accept all mitmap sizes. Bitmaps included are 256 color.

    - Full coordinate lines now has three grid scales
      (Added 0.5 Hours RA and 7.5 deg Declination lines).

    - The sky-color can now be set to white, stars will be black if
      required, (background color white was added).

    - The planet colors can now be inverted thus allowing for obscured
      objects to become visible as though looking through the planet,
      Sun or Moon.

    - The illuminated part of the Moon will now become filled with yellow.
      In case of a solar-eclipse the moon will be colored black while any
      part of it obscures the Sun.

    - The print function has been enhanced to support print-queue
      selection and the number of copies to be specified.

    - Printing will no longer issue a page-feed.

    - The COSMOS main window Menu options have been restructured to
      better serve the new functions and features.

    ORDER TODAY IN THE USA: CALL INDELIBLE BLUE 800 776 8284 or FAX [phone]
    or E-Mail, Internet: [e-mail], CompuServe: 76256,3334

    OUTSIDE THE USA: CALL MENSYS [phone] or FAX [phone]
    or E-Mail, Internet: [e-mail], CompuServe: 100272,3130