Tom's Databases for
Planetarium for Palm
External links will open in a new window.
Overview
The following databases are for Planetarium
for the Palm Computing Platform from AHo Software.
If you have a Palm computer, and are into astronomy, you MUST get this program.
It is by far the best shareware app I've seen, and is well worth the few dollars
it costs to register. It can even control an LX200 telescope (yes, I use it
for mine) and can sync your location from GPS input (yes, I'm a geek so I've
done it). The databases with the program are wonderful, and the list of LX200
alignment stars (as well as some additional databases) can be found on the
Planetarium website. However, I love to customize my astronomical data, so
I've uploaded my files to this site so others may share them if they wish.
You may note that the distances to many of the objects are missing; distance
data was not available in the sources I used to prepare the lists, and I have
not bothered to hunt further for this one trivial bit of information. If you
have it handy, send it along and I'll update my data, but I'm too lazy to
search for it myself right now.
Loading the Object Databases
Load the text from the file desired into the Palm Notepad as a single memo. You can click on the link and copy the text, or right-click (option-click on Mac) and save it as a file and copy from that file later.
In Planetarium, select the menu item "Options / Objects" to go to the Objects database.
Tap the category selector at the upper right and choose "Edit Categories..." to create a new category.
The files are all named "Planetarium Objects xxx" where xxx is the name for the new category.
Make sure the new category is selected; no objects should be showing yet.
Now, use the menu item "Import from Memo" to import the memo containing the data for your new category.
Generally, these new objects are not initially set to display; from inside the Objects database, with the desired category selected, simply select "Show All" from the Database menu to view them (likewise, "Hide All" to make them disappear).
The Databases
The Astronomical
League provides a number of observing clubs that reward astronomers
that successfully observe objects in each club with a certificate. The
Deep Sky Binocular Club is one of these; it presents 60 non-Messier
objects that people can enjoy in binoculars. This is a list of those
60 objects. James Mullaney has observed for over 50 years and picked his 10 favorite
objects for an article in the December 2000 issue of Sky
& Telescope. I recommend reading the article for his descriptions
of these objects and reasons he picked them. This list contains 9 of
the 10 picks; the tenth is the Milky Way (and if you need your Palm
computer to find that, you have bigger issues, shall we say, astronomically
speaking). These are a few of my favorite things, as it were. These objects
are interesting little tidbits, like carbon stars that really look
cool and anything else I think to add that don't fit well into other
categories.
Deep
Sky Binocular
Mullaney's
Picks
TW's
Personal (rev. 08/27/01)
Please report any additions, corrections, or problems with
this page
to me at tom@wideman.org. Thanks!
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