Space, The Final Frontier
A Review of Skyglobe
Jeffry Tank
Being both an astronomy buff and a computer enthusiast, it is only natural that I would be interested in finding an astronomy application to run on my home system. During the last few years I have tried out a number of different products ranging in price from $20 to $200, including a program called Skyglobe. This program is distributed as "shareware" and can be found on many computer bulletin boards and on various online communication services.
Skyglobe is an easy to use astronomy program that displays the heavens in a manner similar to a planetarium. It supports a mouse and display resolutions ranging from the old CGA standard to the newer SVGA displays, and even performs well on my old 286 AT. I find this a real bonus, as I was able to install it on the "game" computer I have set up for my kids, in the hope that they will learn something of the love that I have for star gazing.
The user interface is very easy to use, even for my five year old, and yet supports enough features that I find it of great value in quickly locating good viewing targets for my old 8 inch telescope. It can be set to show the heavens as they would appear from one of more than 200 cities, and once setup will retain the location setting each time it is run. The view can set to display the heavens looking in any compass direction and an elevation of 0 degrees (the horizon) through 90 degrees (looking directly overhead). There are settings to control the time, day, year, even century, of the display. Using this feature allows for viewing the heavens as they currently appear, or getting a preview of the night time sky for any coming date. If you ever wondered what the Romans or ancient Greeks saw when they looked into the night time sky, now you can see for yourself.
Most functions are controlled by a single keystroke, many of which
can be reversed by using the shift key in conjunction with the same
key; i.e. Z for zoom in,
Other features include showing the movement of the heavens in real time or speeding it up to watch the sky traverse an entire evening, month, year, or millennium, in the
matter of a few minutes, locating objects using a "find" command,
zooming in and out, even showing the solar system from a point
beyond our system, though this could use some improvement by
showing background stars or maybe orbital lines, and a host of
others too numerous to mention. The number of labels displayed can
be changed in stages from none to almost filling the entire
display, which can become quite confusing. For objects that are not
labeled on the main display area, an object's name or catalog
number can be retrieved and displayed by placing a set of
crosshairs over the object in question, and with a total of over
21,000 possible heavenly bodies to display, about 8000 of which are
cataloged in the database, it obviously would be impossible to
display all the names on the viewing area at one time!
Unlike some other programs that I have tried it will show what
direction you are looking in not only "right ascension" and
"declination", but also in degrees elevation and compass points,
the former being a more formal system used in astronomy and not as
easily understood by most people (including me!) or young children.
When using the find command if an object is not currently visible
for the location and time of day presently displayed, the date and
time will be advanced to the earliest possible viewing event, and
as with all find commands the object will be centered on the screen
and highlighted with the crosshairs. A nice touch of the find
command is that if the time or date is changed, or the object is
not visible from the currently set location, the program will
inform you with a short message at the bottom of the screen.
By changing the number of stars displayed (by their brightness levels
or "magnitude") you can approximate the number of possible objects
viewable from any location, be it in the middle of a light polluted
city, or the darkest night in the country. A call to your local
planetarium will tell you the greatest magnitude of visible stars
for your area, either naked eye viewing or with a good pair of
binoculars, the use of which can increase the number of stars
visible from any location by several magnitudes.
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Overall I found it to be a well written program that is easy to
use, very easy to install (just unpack it and go), fun to use, and
a good introduction for the kids, as well as adults, into the world of
astronomy. A few things that I do think could be improved upon are
the way some of the object labels overlay others, a better help
menu, and a way of changing the sorting method of the NGC and
messier objects database listing, but otherwise a very good and
well thought out program.
286 or better (386 DX recommended)
School House Scorecard
Product:
Skyglobe
Company:
KlassM Software Inc.
Cost:
Not Available
System Requirements:
CGA display (VESA or better recommended)
Mouse and math chip recommended
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 5
Learning Value 4
Entertainment Value 4
Graphics 4
Sound 3
Overall Score:
