PmAs Update
(The Astronomy program for OS/2)
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PmAs Update (The Astronomy program for OS/2) |
Cornelis Bockemuehl has
been updated to version 1.02 PmAs, a set of
astronomically oriented programs. It calculates positions of
celestial bodies, times, risings and settings etc. and displays the
results in table and/or graphic form, all nicely integrated in the
Presentation Manager. You can download the files at:
http://www.datacomm.ch/cobo
New in this release
The new version mainly updates the handling and data basis for Comets and Minor Planets (the first thanks to Andreas Kammerer from the Comets section of the "VdS", a german hobby astronomer society).
What is PmAs?
PmAs does astronomical
calculations and outputs the results as tables or graphics. It is
made up of a number of programs and modules which are responsible for
certain asks. Cooperation between the parts is based on the
capabilities of the OS/2 presentation manager. It may be run in
german and english and includes documentation and online help in both languages.
The program series is intended
for users with a certain basic knowledge of astronomy and
astronomical terms , i.e. these are not covered by the documentation.
Comparing PmAs
PmAs is not a planetarium like
e.g. NightVision, which displays a fixed or animated image of the
sky: PmAs also offers a lot of options for displaying the sky, but
animation is not among them.
Nor is PmAs a "astronomical
command center", like Xephem could possibly be called, but with
this program it is already more comparable in many respects. Anyway,
big differences exist in concept and technical realization. At the
moment Xephem is probably the more mature product, and PmAs will
probably not duplicate many of its functions, but it has a number of
strengths of its own
Some of them are the following:
The many formatting options for
tables and graphics once they are already ready calculated.
The strict modularity, which
allows extensions and changes to be made very easily.
The integration into the OS/2
Presentation Manager, which allows the transfer of data between
programs by "drag and drop" in many cases.
The modules
The showmasters
PmAsTab and PmAsGraf are
responsible for the display of the calculated results as tables
and/or graphics. They can either load, show and edit already stored
tables and graphics or serve as a output server for other programs,
receiving their data through a pipe mechanism.
The workhorses
PmAsBase is a DLL and contains
all functions needed for the astronomical calculations. Modules for
calculating positions may be added.
PmAsDlg is another DLL and adds
a user interface to the astronomy programs that is made up of a
notebook dialog. The user enters the necessary input there before the
calculations are started.
The astronomy programs
The actual astronomy programs
are relatively small compared to the modules described until here
(and it is rather simple to write more). Until now there are:
PmAsEph calculates an ephemeris,
i.e. positions of a moving celestial body at a number of times.
PmAsApl is in a way the opposite
of the ephemeris program: It calculates for one single moment the
positions of a whole list of celestial bodies.
PmAsRist determines times of
rise and set as well as culminations.
PmAsTime does calculations
between time systems.
Supplementary programs
There exists one supplemental
program at the moment:
PmAsGdat converts any positional
data so that they can be displayed with PmAsGraf, and on the other
hand makes the graphic data of PmAsGraf editable.
Examples of use
The following examples
illustrate the strengths of PmAs:
Sample: Evening visibility of Venus
With PmAsRist calculate a list
of times within a given timespan when the Sun is 6 degrees below the
horizon. Output as a table goes through PmAsTab.
With PmAsEph azimuth and
altitude of Venus can be calculated for all these times by dragging
the calculated times into the notebook page for entering times.
Sample: Several planet trails in
a sky map
With PmAsEph calculate the trail
of the first planet. Output occurs through PmAsGraf.
Calculate another planet trail
with PmAsEph. The output of the graphic goes into a second inscance
of PmAsGraf.
The second graphic can now
simply be dragged into the first one: The second planet trail will
appear in the first graphic, while the background (the sky) will not
be included a second time (duplicates are eliminated automatically).
The second and third step may be repeated.
Download
The PmAs programs are here for
free download and their use is free for private and scientific
purposes. The author (Cornelis Bockemühl) holds all rights and
doesn't take any responsibility nor guarantees anything.
The distribution of the programs
on other ways than the Homepage of the author is not supported,
because only that way the actuality of the files may be achieved with
not too much effort.
The programs are organized as
packages together with a date so that parts may be easily updated.
System requirements
This programs are running with
OS/2 Warp 4 and are "optimized for Pentium" (whatever that
means). Older versions of OS/2 are not tested, but with the notebook
dialogs there may be problems. (If it would be asked for there could
easily be other versions produced which run with all versions from 2.11).
CONTACT AUTHOR
Cornelis Bockemühl
cbockem@datacomm.ch
http://www.datacomm.ch/cobo
@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
Java Lobby Member
Java Site Accredited