![skyglobe astronomy skyglobe astronomy](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DYu0Duhu_1s/maxresdefault.jpg)
The field of view window, which showed a magnified portion of the main chart was a cool idea, just before its time computer software and hardware-wise.
#Skyglobe astronomy windows#
Oh, you had a mouse cursor and could overlay windows on windows, but it was kinda slow, kinda unstable, and never worked quite right. It had the clunky feel of the DOS programs of the day that chose to masquerade as Windows apps. Stargaze was OK, but after I got over the thrill of loading an INCREDIBLE amount of data, four whole 3.5-inch floppies worth, I found my bud had been right in his criticism of the program’s performance. In retrospect, Unk was penny wise and pound foolish I would probably have been better off with TheSky. Especially when he told me I could get Stargaze for a little more than half what TheSky would have cost me. He handed me a print-out that showed Mars as it sailed across the Pleiades, and I was sold.
![skyglobe astronomy skyglobe astronomy](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/810NdOpfr4S._AC_SL1500_.jpg)
He went on to allow that while Stargaze was not perfect, suffering from performance issues, this DOS program did a fairly good job of printing, had all the NGC objects onboard (!), displayed stars down to 10th magnitude for the whole sky and 16th mag via the Hubble Guide Star Catalog for “selected areas,” and did a fair job of printing. I asked the only person I knew at the time who was into astronomical computing, the President of my club, the good, old Possum Swamp Astronomical Society (as always, the name of which has been changed to protect the innocent and guilty alike), what he was using.
![skyglobe astronomy skyglobe astronomy](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/4f/92/4c/4f924c8a2b44dcd6d83b0db8150be1ab--constellation-craft-star-constellations.jpg)
#Skyglobe astronomy plus#
Plus, I didn’t know anybody who had TheSky and I was loath to pony up a C-note plus without being able to try-before-you-buy. Then as now, your ol’ Unk was a cheapskate, and TheSky’s pricetag of $129.00 seemed a lot to pay for an astronomy program-or indeed for any sort of computer program-in those more innocent days. It was reasonably mature, having been around since the 80s, had a lot of features, and was available for DOS or in an honest to god Windows version. Foremost of which was probably Software Bisque’s TheSky. But what? The early 1990s was when commercial Astro-ware got on its feet, and there were several choices. So, in typical amateur astronomy fashion, I soon wanted More Better Gooder. On its printouts, stars bright and dim were all about the same size, which made the maps hard to decipher under a red light. It would print charts, and it had the whole Messier and a few NGCs, but, while I tried to use its charts to locate stuff at the 1993 Deep South Regional Star Gaze, they really were not up to that task. Yes, it was useful for quick “what’s up” checks, but how about for locating objects? Not So Much. Which is why I continued to use the last and greatest Skyglobe, version 3.6, till my old Windows XP Toshiba laptop died a few weeks back. Need to know what was up? Click on its icon in the Windows 3.1 window where I had it permanently stationed on my desktop, and I had the sky on my screen in the wink of an eye.
![skyglobe astronomy skyglobe astronomy](https://i.etsystatic.com/10014352/r/il/74ba93/3248780436/il_340x270.3248780436_12do.jpg)
Running on my 486, this little DOS application (what came before Winders, younguns) was blazingly fast. It was so purty I just had to turn off the lights and admire all them stars (the whole Yale Bright Star catalog for god’s sake!) and the shimmering blue band of the Milky Way. It was a long, long way from the blocky graphics (if you could even call them that) of Sky Travel. Astronomy software for this wonder-machine? A little program I’d stumbled across at Books-a-Million, Skyglobe.Īs I’ve said before, I was gobsmacked by Skyglobe, which impressed me as none of the (few) astronomy programs I’d used before had. I had finally abandoned my beloved Commodore 64 Home Computer and my very first astro-ware, Sky Travel, for the greener pastures of a genu-wine IBM 486 with a VGA video card and Windows 3.1. Hokay, where was we? When we last left astronomy-software-crazy old Uncle Rod (not so old, then) it was 1993.