Hack13.Watch the Stars


Hack 13. Watch the Stars

You are outside looking up at the stars, and you start to wonder what constellations you can see. Your Palm can help you identify the stars.

Your Palm has a couple of advantages over a traditional paper star guide. You are likely to have your Palm with you all the time. You probably won't have a star guide with you unless you are planning to observe the sky. A Palm device has a backlight, which makes it easier to see the constellations on the screen and read any associated text. Finally, a Palm device can help you manually aim your telescope or even aim it for you with the right accessories.

Because white light can cause you to lose your night vision, you should affix a red film over your Palm screen to filter out the troublesome wavelengths. For more information, see Astronomy Hacks (O'Reilly, 2005). Some of the astronomy programs have a night mode that converts all of the white text and graphics to red.


There are several astronomy programs available.

2.4.1. Astro Info

Astro Info (http://astroinfo.sourceforge.net), seen in Figure 2-12, is an open-source astronomy program. It displays information and a small picture for each of the planets and the moon. It also comes with several star catalogs that you can use to view different stars and galaxies. There is also a night mode, which changes to red text on a black background. Night mode only works on 256 color Palms, though. It doesn't work on recent Palms with 64K colors.

Figure 2-12. Astro Info screenshot showing Jupiter's details


2.4.2. Astromist

Astromist (http://www.astromist.com) is a full-featured astronomy tool. It includes star and planet charts (see Figure 2-13), high-resolution graphics, and support for controlling telescopes via hand controls or Bluetooth. You can look at sky views, including rotating and zooming views. Astromist includes a catalog of 2.5 million stars and 18,200 deep sky objects. Astromist also has special tools for Jupiter (red spot, satellites) and for the moon.

Figure 2-13. Astromist showing planets in night sky


2.4.3. Planetarium

Planetarium (http://www.aho.ch/pilotplanets/) can draw sky maps showing constellations, as seen in Figure 2-14. You can use Planetarium to locate stars or planets in the sky. Planetarium has a night mode that turns the text and graphics red to preserve your night vision. Also, Planetarium can control a telescope via the serial port, or you can read off the Az/Alt or RA/Dec coordinates to manually set up a telescope. For an in-depth look at Planetarium, see Astronomy Hacks (O'Reilly, 2005).

Figure 2-14. Planetarium sky map showing constellations


2.4.4. Astronomy Guide Pocket Directory Database

The Astronomy Guide (http://www.pocketdirectory.com) contains facts about celestial objects, including the planets. It also has some nice pictures. The Astronomy Guide is a database for the DataViewer program, which is included in the download. You can see an example of a picture of Jupiter in Figure 2-15.

2.4.5. Star Pilot Platinum

Star Pilot Platinum (http://www.star-pilot.com) is actually a collection of astronomy programs. Star Pilot is the main program. It can plot star and planet positions, as seen in Figure 2-16. It can also display the constellations on a star map. It supports high-resolution displays.

Hopefully these programs will help with your astronomy hobby or spark a new interest. Telescopes are good for hackersyou can even build your own or figure out how to control a commercial one with your Palm.

Figure 2-15. Jupiter displayed in the Astronomy Guide Pocket Directory Database


Figure 2-16. Star Pilot sky view





Palm and Treo Hacks
Palm and Treo Hacks: Tips & Tools for Mastering Your Handheld
ISBN: 059610054X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 115

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net