Atari Planetarium. New sealed for XL/XE on Disk 

NEW OLD STOCK(NOS) Some buckling in box.

See Review

ANTIC VOL. 5, NO. 5 / SEPTEMBER 1986 / PAGE 36

"http://www.atarimagazines.com/v5n5/productreviews.html"

ATARI PLANETARIUM
Atari Corp.
$24.85, XL/XE and disk

Reviewed by Gregg Pearlman

Atari Planetarium puts the galaxy on your monitor. You can recreate past celestial events, or plot future ones. Set it for any hour and date between 9999 B.C. and A.D. 9999, and the Planetarium will show where the heavenly bodies were or will be then. The program even accounts for the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian in 1582, when 10 days in October magically disappeared to accommodate the new way of reckoning.

The Planetarium plots the movement of these bodies with a time clock that can go backward or forward at up to 64 times faster than real time. If you move the cross-hair cursor off the screen, the picture scrolls in that direction. You can even make printouts, but unfortunately the cursor appears on them.

The Earth is "transparent," so that celestial objects are visible through the planet. For example, if the computer's vantage point is set at San Francisco in the late morning, you can still see the moon on the screen.

SKY is the normal display mode. MAP lets you select a location on Earth from which to view the heavens. SET selects the time and date. CHART, used chiefly for printouts, , allows you to view sections of the celestial sphere without obstruction by the horizon, and with north always directed upwards for easy orientation.

Planetarium is also full of interesting options. LINES draws line diagrams between stars to help define constellations. NAMES displays three letter abbreviations next to constellations. SYMBOLS marks planets with their respective astronomical symbols. DEEP SKY displays very distant galaxies. TRACK records the orbits of two celestial objects, such as a planet and a moon, to determine their closest approach. SOUND turns the cursor into a space shuttle, complete with noise.

The 115-page instruction booklet contains latitude and longitude tables for almost 200 locations on the Earth, lists of stars and constellations, a few future astronomical events and mathematical conversions. An example in the manual shows Halley's comet over Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, on April 5, 1986.

If you know the date of a solar eclipse, just enter that date, plus the time and location from which it was seen, and it will be reproduced on the screen. Other events covered include planetary transits (where Mercury or Venus lines up between the Earth and the sun), planetary occultations (eclipses of a planet by another planet, or by the moon) and planetary aiignments.

Planetarium, though fun, has a somewhat limited appeal. It is probably most useful for amateur astronomers. Its best feature is making printouts which will help users find heavenly bodies with telescopes.

When making printouts, the printer's dip switches must be adjusted manually to disengage the automatic line feed. And don't forget to turn the automatic line feed back on after using Planetarium.

Setting the longitude and latitude of your location is tricky. On the program's world map, San Francisco's coordinates appear to be in Washington. Therefore, if your coordinates are not listed in the manual, consult an almanac. Don't guess, because you'll be way off.

However, Atari Planetarium is informative and has interesting graphics. You might learn a lot from it while you're enjoying yourself.

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