Fresh Fish 2

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Fresh Fish 2 / FFMCD02.bin / new / amigalibdisks / disk932 / dynamicskies / docs / manual.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-12-21 | 18.2 KB | 393 lines

'Dynamic Skies' Manual.doc What do you need a manual for ? Isn't this program intuitive ? What, No ? All right, let's have a complete description of the menus and functions. It's only because you insisted. MENUS ----- There are seven menus : Project, Modules, Time, Numerical, Visual, Libraries and Animations. Visual and Animations are activated only in LOCAL SKY or PLANETARIUM modes. Other menus may be deactivated, depending on the modes and the version ( Public Domain or Registered ). PROJECT menu ---------------------------------------------------------------- Local Time: Brings a request to set local time and date in our good old Gregorian calendar ( whatever the validity of this calendar, nothing forbids you to go to year 99999 or -99999 if you want ). U.T. ( Universal Time is set accordingly, depending on your position, a summer hour and politic time shifts ( Position menu sets this ). Universal Time : Local Time's mate. Sorry for the clumsy old string gadgets ; Version 1.1 will handle this better, with nice little buttons everywhere. Universal Time is the reference time based on the Greenwich meridian. Position : Here you set your coordinates in longitude, latitude, height and politic time shift. This last is expressed in hours, the shift from the meridian local time. It is often 0 hours, but sometimes countries adopt 1 more or less hour just to please them in their difference. Well, sorry, you'll probably have to throw yourself in an atlas for now.A later version of Dynamic Skies will let you choose your position on the globe or from a list. Latitude is between -90 and 90° while longitude is between -180° (East) and +180° (West). Your set may be saved ( file 'Position.txt' in the 'Configs' drawer ). It is a text format which can be altered from a text editor if you wish. Save configuration: As there are so many numerical and visual options,this enables you to save your favorite options set. Next time Dynamic Skies is loaded, you won't be sorry. The file is 'Config.data' in the 'Configs' drawer. If you delete it, a default set is loaded. Interlaced screen : ON/OFF switch to double the vertical resolution. This option is only activated for map modes. NTSC/PAL : This switch reorders screen and windows to make them squeeze totally in the chosen mode. This option of course doesn't affect the monitor scan rate. Languages : Brings a request that lets you choose your language for all texts printed on the screen. Menus are also handled. The program may pause a few seconds in order to recompute every text. About : Just for not being forgotten... Quit : Back to AmigaDos or WorkBench world. MODULES menu ----------------------------------------------------------------- Numerical Ephemeris: All kind of information on celestial objects. Planetarium : Celestial sphere maps in equatorial system. Local Sky : Same thing in local system. Events : Celestial events predictor. TIME menu -------------------------------------------------------------------- Advance : Advance time with current value of T. Go Back : Go back in time with current value of T. Update : Load the system time. T= XXXX: Brings a request that lets you fix the numerical value of a time variation. Units : Sub-menus precise the time variation unit. ( Centuries, hours, days, ... ) Follow target : This switch affects target positionning while maps are recomputed due to time variations. When active, maps stay centered on pointed object or sky direction. Otherwise, coordinates are conserved. NUMERICAL menu -------------------------------------------------------------- Precession : Switch for equinox precession correction. Nutation : Switch for nutation correction. Abberation : Switch for annual abberation correction. Apparent positions: Switch for planetary position correction due to the light's speed limitation. Parallaxe : Switch for parallaxe correction ( stars and planets ) Refraction/Depression : Switch for terrestrial atmosphere refraction and surface height corrections. Proper movement : Switch for proper movement correction for the stars. Current star library must contain proper movement data if you want to observe this correction. ( mu(alpha) and mu(delta) data ). Goto decimal/ : Angular data will be displayed with classical decimal sexagedecimal system or with standard arcminutes and arcsecondes. Decimals : Sub-menus let you choose the number of decimals after the floating point. ( for displaying purpose ) Planetary theory : Choose between precise planetary theory ( VSOP 87 with 1'' precision ) or a fast simplified planetary theory. The latter is the only one available for Public Domain users. Hour mode : This switch affects right ascension format for the display, that is between the hour format ( popular use ) or the common angular format ( for legal systems maniacs ). VISUAL Menu ------------------------------------------------------------------ Deep Sky : Switch for deep sky objects plotting. Planets : Switch for planets plotting. The program may pause to recompute planets positions if there is need. ( as after a time change ) Target : Switch for the display of a centered little cross. Measure mode : In this mode, left mouse button clicking drops an anchor point. While maintaining the button down, move to the desired position and release pressure to drop the second anchor point. The program will then compute and display the angular distance separating the two points. If you're not in this mode, left mouse button clicking centers the map at the mouse position; moving the mouse before releasing the button lets you zoom in exactly at desired field. Full Screen mode : In this mode, PLANETARIUM and LOCAL SKY maps are filling the entire display, discarding all command buttons. Units : Define the step unit ( degree, arcminute, arcsecond ) for the movement on the maps with the arrows. Definitions : Sub-menus will direct you for setting steps or options with many add-ons figures and names available for maps Figures : Sub-menus will let you choose for an immediate drawing of the ecliptic, the horizon, constellations patterns and limits or the exact field of view. Names : Switchs add or retrieve names for stars, objects, planets and constellations, according to formats set in the 'Definitions' menu. Magnitude Thresholds : Set low and high thresholds for magnitude of stars and objects. Star aspect : Choose between three display formats for stars : real, spectral or map. Inversion ; You may invert the maps horizontally or vertically for telescope simulation purposes. Oops! : Go back to last map position. LIBRARIES Menu --------------------------------------------------------------- Stars : Choose a new library of stars from the 'Starlibs' drawer. Objects : Choose a new library of deep-sky objects from the 'Objectlibs' drawer. ANIMATION Menu --------------------------------------------------------------- Load : Load a saved animation in memory. ( 'Anims' drawer ) Save : Save current animation from memory. Parameters : Set animations parameters and compute an animation. Control : Alter the way of animation playing. Some details about animations : For memory sake, animations are stored in form of points coordinates. You may replay animations with any star aspect this way. Anyway, the screen format for replay must reproduce the screen format under which the animation was computed ( NTSC/PAL, Interlace, full screen ). The program will warn and alter the format if incompatibility arises. To replay animations, many options are possible : - Speed setting - Start and end frames. - Perpetual cycle - Remanence ( no screen clearing after each frame ). - Frame stop. At any moment, animation may be stopped with a left mouse button clicking ( hold long sometimes ). Right mouse button clicking advances frames if frame stop option is active. For time step animations, all time parameters are defined in the TIME menu ; that is the delta ( T ) and the follow target option. For movement animation, time is hold but a camera sweeps across the sky in programmable sequences. For each sequence, you may define coordinates and zoom variations for spectacular effects. Any sequence can be repeated the number of frames you want. ( Ex : RA=RA+1°, D=D, Z=Z ( 3 times ) is a sequence which computes 3 frames with increase of the RA coordinate ( horizontally ) by 1° every step ) Lastly, for both of the animations types, 'Total images' sets the total number of frames not to outgrow. Please note that deep-sky objects are not recorded in animations. Some details about 'Dynamic Skies' handling : Attention : For PLANETARIUM and LOCAL SKY modules, left mouse button clicking in maps centers maps at mouse pointer location. If you keep the mouse button down, moving the mouse makes a virtual size box that let you zoom in the map. Right mouse button clicking brings immediate information on pointed object. Because of this last option, menus may appear only when you bring your mouse pointer above or below maps. In full screen mode, bring the pointer to the menu bar before clicking the right button. -If star aspect looks uniform or 'faded' on the screen, magnitude thresholds may be ill set. The best set ( with the more colors and shapes ) is achieved by a low threshold of -1.6 ( Sirius magnitude ) and a high threshold corresponding to the lowest magnitude of your star library. Sometimes, too, 'Map' star aspect has more diversity. -Whenever you switch an option or module, the 'target' object stays active. -Time is based on the julian millenium computed from the gregorian calendar ( you know, the one everybody uses ). Leap years are taken in account ( 1 day on February every 4 years, except years ending in hundreds and not in 4 hundreds )., and the 10 days update in october 1582 also ( try an ephemeris calendar at 1582 october ! ). For this first version of 'Dynamic Skies', you have the disagreement to enter manually the dates, with a DD.MM.YYYY format ( European style, you note ). The year doesn't need to be in 5 digits ( Ex of legal formats : 24.05.1993, 12.08.100, 21.01.-1200 ). Time is set in the classical HH:MM:SS format. -One important point with the difference between local time and U.T. ( Universal Time ) : the shift in hours is automatically computed from the REAL time zone ( that is, 1 hour every 15° of longitude from Greenwich time zone ). But, due to political or boundaries reasons, your local time may differ from the one generated by this simple calcul. You may for this reason add or substract hours in the Position setting, at the command 'Meridian Shift'. You can only enter an integer here. Ex : France, although in the same real time zone as Greenwich (England), has one more hour in local time, the difference computed being 0 hours. Adjustement is then made by entering (+)1 at Meridian Shift command. True local time is now U.T. + 1 and not U.T. + 0. -Here are the accepted formats for star or object searching : Stars : -Usual name ( as Sirius, Capella, Rigel, ... ) It may be incomplete ( Sir for Sirius, Alph for Alpheratz, ... ) -HD XXXX : this is a popular catalog reference. -SAO XXXX : this is another popular catalog reference. -Alpha Great Bear ( or Alpha Ursa Major ), Zeta orion ,... -21 Andromeda , 45 leo minor, ... ( Flamsteed number ) Objects : -Usual name ( like Crab Nebula ). May be incomplete. -NGC XXXX : New General Catalog. -M XXXX : Messier catalog. If the program doesn't understand you, try another name or designation. But you can also search any object or star with formatted listings. ( 'Constellation' option ). They are classified by constellations with any format your desire ( HD, SAO, NGC, M, names ). If certain stars or objects lack identification ( it may happen ), RA coordinate is only given. -If you want to observe LUNAR eclipses, you probably know that this event has one new guest : Earth's shadow. Dynamic Skies materializes this object ( named 'Earth's shadow' ) while eclipses are in progress. This shadow only includes the umbra, not the penumbra ( you can't really see the latter after all, so it isn't important ). -If you have a PAL screen and the normal Dynamic Skies screen mode ( not the full screen mode ), Local Time, Universal Time and Position settings may be run just by clicking on their corresponding display surfaces. In normal screen mode with PLANETARIUM and LOCAL SKY modules, 3 boxes of command fill the right of the screen : - The first one, titled 'Direction', contains 4 directional arrows and a center button. If you click one of these arrows, the map shifts of X units. X value is one of the 2 boxes right to these arrows, + or -, that may be set. If the center button is '+', the unit is the value of the '+' box. Same thing for the '-' set. So with just one click on the center button, you can switch from large steps to small steps for example. The moving unit ( degree, arcminute, arcsecond ) may be changed in the 'units' command of the 'visual' menu. In the small box below the arrows are displayed the coordinates of the center of the map. Clicking in this region brings a requester which lets you set exact coordinates and features preset coordinates like S, N, W, Zenith, ... - Second box, titled 'Field-Zoom', contains 2 buttons '+' and '-' for zooming purposes. The multiplying factor is set with the 'x' gadget at the right of these buttons. Just below are displayed the current values of zoom and field, which are linked together. You may alter one of these, but the important one is the field ( of view ). Zoom is in fact an indication linked with the apparent field of the current optical instrument ( Eyes, Binoculars or Telescope ). The latter can be set by the menu ( Visual ) or by the binoculars shaped button just here .Left to this button is an 'Oops' button which brings the map at last location. - The third box, titled 'Extras', contains tiny buttons switching many visual options already existant in the 'Visual' menu. The first set of six buttons is : -Stars : pass to a new star aspect. -Objects : switch for deep-sky objects. -Planets : switch for planets. -Invert map horizontally. -Invert map vertically. -Target : switch for target cross. The next set includes : -Grid : draws a user formatted grid in RA and D coordinates. -Ecliptic : draws the ecliptic in blue. -Horizon : draws the horizon in yellow. -Constellation limits ( red ) -Constellation patterns ( yellow ) -True field of view : draws the exact disc of the field because maps are not square and always have more view laterally. If you set the full screen mode, the boxes of commands disappear. Use then menus and keys : +,- keypad : Zoom ESC : Switch to Normal/Full screen. Arrows : move the map. 0-9 Keypad : 0 Sun 1 Mercury 2 Venus 3 Mars 4 Jupiter 5 Saturn 6 Uranus 7 Neptune 8 Pluto 9 Moon C : Constellation S : Star O : Object G : Grid H : Horizon I : Ecliptic P : Constellations Patterns L : Constellations Limits F : True Field of view Space Bar : Play animation TAB : Coordinates request DEL : Oops!