README.TXT CyberSky Shareware Version 1.0d Thursday, August 24, 1995 Description of CyberSky ----------------------- CyberSky is a colorful, easy-to-use program that transforms your computer screen into a planetarium, allowing you to learn about astronomy by exploring the sky in the past, present, and future. CyberSky can truly be thought of as a desktop planetarium, because it duplicates the features of a traditional planetarium on your computer screen. CyberSky provides a superb, innovative, and motivating learning environment. It places the sky under your control. One of CyberSky's most powerful and educational features is its ability to animate the display, allowing you to see animations of the changing appearance of the sky over time. Many of the most basic and interesting astronomical phenomena can only be observed over days or months of time, or by observing the sky in the distant past or future. CyberSky compresses these time spans into minutes, thereby allowing you to learn things about astronomy that previously would have required days or weeks of stargazing or a trip to a planetarium to learn. CyberSky allows you to o View the positions of the sun, moon, and all planets of the solar system in the sky. Information about those objects, such as their distances from the earth, and their rising and setting times are available by simply clicking on them with the right mouse button. o View 5080 stars. Information about those stars, such as their Bayer and Flamsteed designations, magnitudes, spectral types, and rising and setting times are available by simply clicking on them with the right mouse button. Proper names are available for 248 of the brightest stars. o View constellation lines for all 88 constellations. o Display reference lines such as the ecliptic, celestial equator, galactic equator, and equatorial coordinate system grid. o Display the north and south poles of the ecliptic, celestial equator, and galactic equator. o Choose to view the sky from any location on the earth between the years 4000 BC and 4000 AD. o Understand the dynamics of the sky by performing the steps in the Explorations section of the help file. You will be able to learn about such topics as precession of the equinoxes, proper motion, and retrograde motion of planets not by reading a description but by watching CyberSky's simulated sky. o Learn astronomical terminology by reading through the help file's extensive glossary section. o Print the display in either black on white or in color to create your own star charts you can use to identify stars, constellations, and planets in the night sky. If you have an interest in astronomy, CyberSky will provide hours of fun and education for you and your family. Hardware and Software Requirements ---------------------------------- CyberSky works with most personal computers available today. If you are running Windows 3.1 on your computer you should have no trouble running CyberSky. CyberSky was designed to be installed and run on a computer system that meets the following minimum hardware and software requirements. Hardware o Personal computer using an Intel i386, i486, Pentium, or compatible processor. o 4 MB RAM. o Hard disk with about 1.5 MB free space. The registered version requires about 4.5 MB for a full installation. o One 3.5-inch high-density diskette drive. o Monitor and video adapter compatible with Windows 3.1 or higher. o Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device. It is impossible to use all the features of CyberSky using the keyboard alone. Software o Microsoft MS-DOS 3.1 or later. o Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later running in 386 Enhanced mode, or Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.1 or later, or Windows 95, or Windows NT. Installing CyberSky ------------------- The shareware version of CyberSky 1.0d is distributed as a compressed file named CYBERSKY.ZIP or CYBSKY1D.ZIP. You must first uncompress this file into an empty temporary directory on your hard disk. You can use PKWARE's PKZIP 2.04g utility or any compatible utility such as WinZip to do this. The following installation instructions assume you are using the Windows Program Manager. If you are using a Program Manager replacement such as the Norton Desktop for Windows or PC Tools for Windows, perform equivalent steps to install CyberSky. IMPORTANT: If a previous version of CyberSky is installed on your system I recommend uninstalling the old version before installing the new version. To install CyberSky for use on your computer system 1 Start Windows if you are not already running Windows. 2 Choose Run... from the File menu. 3 Type C:\DIR\INSTALL.EXE where C is the drive letter of your hard drive and \DIR is the directory into which you unzipped the distribution file. If you are installing CyberSky on a networked Windows system, you must type C:\DIR\INSTALL.EXE /N instead. 4 Choose the OK button and follow the installation program's instructions. After CyberSky has been successfully installed, be sure to save the distribution file on your hard disk or on a diskette. You will need this file if you want to reinstall CyberSky or want to uninstall it. If successful, the CyberSky installation program installed the following files on your hard disk in the directory you specified. CYBERSKY.EXE Executable file CYBERSKY.HLP Help file HISTORY.HLP Version history file README.TXT Text file containing installation instructions VENDOR.TXT Text file containing information for software vendors FILE_ID.DIZ Standard description file used by BBSs INSTALL.LOG Text file created during installation containing a record of the installation BSC600B.DAT Star data file LOCATION.DAT Location data file ELEMENTS.DAT Planets data file ZODIAC.DAT Zodiac constellation lines file MAJOR.DAT Major constellation lines file MINOR.DAT Minor constellation lines file The installation program checked for the presence of the following file in your Windows system directory. If this file was present, or if your system contained an older version of this file than the one supplied by CyberSky, this file was copied to your Windows system directory. CTL3D.DLL Gives a 3D appearance to all CyberSky dialog boxes If you choose the /N switch to install CyberSky on a networked Windows system, the CTL3D.DLL file was copied to your Windows directory instead. Contacting the Author --------------------- E-mail is the fastest way to contact me. I check my CompuServe mail daily and my UCLA account every business day. CompuServe 76763,1065 Internet 76763.1065@compuserve.com stephen@eggneb.astro.ucla.edu You can also send postal mail to my business address. Mail Stephen Michael Schimpf 2444 West 230th Street Torrance, CA 90501-5242 United States of America If you feel it is necessary to speak to me, you can call me at the following number between the hours of 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM Pacific time on business days only. Telephone 310-530-6766