Hi,
As A2008 approaches, it is also a good period to contribute a little something to the local community here as well as the greater region. Through the years in astronomy, the astronomical community worldwide has seen a number of good astronomy software that is both marketed under a company and also available as freeware for some others. On a personal note, I have always been interested in how these software work, what basis does the calculation mechanism comes from (journals, literature, books, etc), and within the past few months (and almost a year), upon reading up various sources, I have pieced together a little almanac-based software that addresses some of the things that we would like to know about the sky in particular the solar system entities. I am not referring to the development of a full-fledged planetarium based system (it will be years of hard work and more programmers), but rather a simple and straight forward program that gives you solar system information for a given time and location on Earth. But this itself proves to be a non-trivial task as it involves knowledge in spherical trigonometry, astrophysics, and matrix operations (besides the programming platform itself), etc. There is also a need to verify this software against readily available ones in the market (or freeware). So far, I have tried verifying results given out by the software against commercial ones like The Sky, etc. It is quite interesting to note that the results given can never be exactly equal, since the methodologies involved in arriving at these results differ (and sometimes can be confidential in light of commercial based software), but it is also interesting to note that the results are quite close.
On another note, even for determining a particular sky-based property like the location of Jupiter's moons, there are various approaches that can be used depending on your level of accuracy required. It would be hence be expected that the commercial software may necessary adopt higher-accuracy approaches, as compared to the freeware equivalents. Thus for verification purposes, it would be challenging to test the software against commercial ones (The Sky, Starry Night Pro, etc).
Nevertheless, some of the preliminary features of the this almanac-based software includes:
1) Positional information of a planet such as the apparent RA and DEC at any given instance and location.
2) Moon phases
3) Jupiter's moon positions (4 major ones)
4) Saturn's moon positions (8 major ones)
5) Solar properties
6) Apogee and perigee properties
7) and more...
The aim of the software is basically to provide the user real-time knowledge of the current planets that are visible "up there", and their relevant information (see above). For example, this software would be useful if someone wanted to know during an observing session of Jupiter, you may like to know whether there is a moon transit on the Jovian surface, which moon is Io, etc. Or you would like to know when is the next new moon, or full moon period, especially when you would like to plan and embark on future expeditions. Or you just want to know if Saturn is up for observing, without the need to get out of your seat. Naturally, at the end of the day, it would also be good to port the software to the mobile platform to satisfy our PDA-mobile-based users, but it is still in the works (but under consideration).
All else being said, it is difficult to comprehensively make sure there are no bugs in the software, and whether the information produced by it is accurate or not. Hence, before we can release this software out to the public, I would urge and request anyone out there who is willing to spend a bit of time (no worries, not too much!) verifying and testing out this software. It would be beneficial if you already have some commercial software at hand, or you could try using the freeware versions. You may also verify against in real-time what you say up there...like checking the positions of the Jovian moons at a given time and location.
Right now, I have pre-included geographical locations of the following:
1) Turf City (Singapore)
2) East Coast Park (Singapore)
3) Eunos (Singapore)
4) Teluk Sari (Malaysia)
5) Batu Layar (Malaysia)
6) Punggai (Malaysia)
Of course, there is also an option for you to put in any lat/lon as well if you are in another location.
On a final note, just wanted to say this is purely something to contribute to the local community in terms of providing convenience of almanac-based information. I am no means a full-time programmer, so there will definitely be bugs here and there, but at the end of the day, with the help of some of you (for verification and testing), we can strive to produce a simple, no-frills astronomy software that can benefit the greater public, and hopefully launch it in time for A2008!
Remus
Note: Software is java-based, which means your computer should have java pre-installed first. I have tested it on both XP and Mac OSX. It works. But not verified comprehensively yet.
Astronomy Almanac Software for Singapore
Astronomy Almanac Software for Singapore
Last edited by rcj on Tue Jun 10, 2008 5:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ok. I'll be a beta-tester.
Currently I have the following software to verify your software with:
1. The Sky X (Windows)
2. Starry Night Pro Plus6.2
I can do my own standard checklist based on the objects you mentioned above.
Does the software do eclipses (lunar/solar)?
Currently I have the following software to verify your software with:
1. The Sky X (Windows)
2. Starry Night Pro Plus6.2
I can do my own standard checklist based on the objects you mentioned above.
Does the software do eclipses (lunar/solar)?
[80% Steve, 20% Alfred] ------- Probability of Clear Skies = (Age of newest equipment in days) / [(Number of observers) * (Total Aperture of all telescopes present in mm)]