Introduction
Orrery displays
the orbital positions of the nine planets around The Sun. Animate the
display to easily visualise elongations of Mercury and Venus, and oppositions
of the outer planets. In the information window you call up detailed
information for each planet and get its current distance from the Sun.
The Sun Rise Set screen shows you the rise, set and transit times of
the sun and the end and start times of the twilights. The Planet Rise
Set window let's you easily plan your observing sessions showing you
the planets' rise, set and transit times and the sun rise and set times
and twilights in one graphical display.
Orrery works on
all b/w, grey scale and colour Palm OS devices with Palm OS 2.0 or greater.
In the orbital
screen you can choose between displaying the Inner ( I button)
and Outer (O button) planets. On the outer planets view Earth
is indicated by a small dot orbiting the Sun.
D-Pad:
Press LEFT or RIGHT to switch between the inner and outer planets
views. Keep LEFT or RIGHT held down to access the menus. Press
SELECT to reset the time to the current system time.
The Planets
Rise/Set view shows a graphical representation of the Sun rise
and set times, the twilight times and the planets' rise, transit
and set times. Use it to easily plan your observing sessions.
D-Pad:
LEFT
or RIGHT changes the dates by one day, UP or DOWN by the time
increment selected in the menu. SELECT exits the screen.
The Sun Rise/Set
screen shows the rise, transit and set times of the Sun and the
end and start times of the twilights.
D-Pad:
LEFT or RIGHT changes the dates by one day, UP or DOWN by the
time increment selected in the menu. SELECT exits the screen.
In the Planets
info screen you can choose between the Ephemeris display and an
informational text with statistics of the planets.
D-Pad:
Press LEFT or RIGHT to switch between the Ephemeris and Text views.
SELECT exits the screen.
back
to top
System
Requirements
Orrery requires
a Palm OS device with Palm OS 2.0 or later and MathLib (included in
the download archives) to run.
back
to top
Installation
Install the following
files on your Palm OS device:
Required:
- Orrery.prc (application
file)
- MathLib.prc (if
not already installed on your Palm OS device)
Optional:
- locmgr.prc and
llmgr.prc (Location Manager)
- locdbus.pdb is
a pre-compiled database of US cities.
back
to top
Version
History
- 2.4
Code optimization and OS5 compatibility.
Support for Tungsten 5 way D-Pad.
Updated info texts.
- 2.2.1
Compatibility with the astro-metrics DA.
- 2.2
Leaving the stylus on the planet icons calls up the info window of the
selected planet.
Support for English units in the info texts.
Rearranged the order of the planets' moons by orbital period.
- 2.1
Bug fix and code optimization.
- 2.0.2
Fixed a bug in the calculation of Alt/Az.
- 2.0.1
Fixed previous day length bug which found its way back into 2.0.
- 2.0
Improved grey scale and colour support.
Planets Rise/Set view now has an indicator showing the current time.
The information view has been divided into separate ephemeris and info
text screens.
The ephemeris now include light travel time, Alt/Az, transit time, angular
size, magnitude and phase.
Direct link from the Planets Rise/Set screen to the ephemeris screen.
Updated info and statistic texts for the planets.
- 1.6.2
Fixed bug in the calculation of the day length in the Sun Rise/Set screen
for longitudes greater than E100º and W100º.
- 1.6.1
Fixed small display glitch in Planets Rise/Set window.
- 1.6
New screen which shows the sun rise, set and twilight times and the
planets' rise, set and transit times all
represented in one graphical interface.
The Sun now also has a name pop up in the main orbit screens.
General code optimisation.
- 1.3
General code optimisation and optimisation for Palm OS 3.5.
Support for colour and grey scale.
Sun rise, transit and set times and times of twilights.
Planet info includes Right Ascension and Declination and the rise and
set times of the planets.
Revised planet info texts.
Preference option to invert the graphics display.
Various small UI improvements.
- 1.0.1
Small bug fix for I/O button display
- 1.0
Initial public release
back
to top
Shareware
Notice
Orrery is shareware
with a 14 day trial period. If you keep using Orrery then you need to
register it to be able to continue using it legally. If you decide not
to register it after 14 days, you should stop using Orrery and delete
it from your Palm OS device.
The current registration
price is US$11.99
You can register
Orrery securely at the
astro-metrics.com
Web Store
You may give unregistered
copies to others under the same terms - they may try it and then either
register or remove it.
Orrery (together
with this document) may be included on any disk or CD-ROM of shareware
sold by non-profit organisations. If you wish to include it in a commercial
software collection, please contact me at
info@astro-metrics.com
back
to top
Disclaimer
Orrery is provided
"as-is" and without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied.
I can accept no liability for data loss or any other problems caused
directly or indirectly by the use of Orrery.
If you encounter
errors or have any suggestions or comments please mail me at:
info@astro-metrics.com
back
to top
Copyright
Notice
© 2000-2002
Hans Anger.
Orrery is protected by copyright laws, and international copyright treaties,
as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties. All title
and copyrights in and to Orrery are owned by Hans Anger. Palm OS is
a trademark of Palm Computing®.
back
to top
|