"Planetarium" software request

I don't know of any that offer the degree of specificity you're seeking.
However, many planetarium programs (SkyMap Pro for instance) allow you to
set your limiting magnitude. Choosing to display only 1st or 2nd magnitude
stars would give a similar result.


"Paul Hurm" wrote in message
...
I looking for help in finding a "planetarium" type of software with a
"special" feature.

I am looking at the book "The Stargazer's Bible" by W.S. Kals. In it he
introduces people to the 21 brightest stars and makes up some
"superconstellations" to help them get oriented.

For instance he makes a winter (NH) superconstellaeion called "The
Hexagon"
comprised of the stars Capella, Aldebaran, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon and
Pollux.

The software feature I would like to be able to find is something that
would
allow me to enter a list of certain stars and show only the pattern that
they show. For instance, I would like to enter a list of the six stars
above
and have just them show up to illustrate "The Hexagon". I could then add
the
stars of Orion if I wanted, perhaps add Castor etc and still have just
those
stars displayed.

Anyone know of such a progrm?

TIA

Paul Hurm

The Starry Night set of products allows you to define asterisms in a text
file. It is
not for the faint-hearted, though. The syntax is not intuitive. You can,
however,
then turn on an option to display asterisms for the "constellation" setting.

This is what an entry for asterisms looks like in my version (SNB):

SN_VALUE name="1_AsterismCentreDec" value="-1.161483816519663037"
SN_VALUE name="1_AsterismCentreRA" value="84.074379373830709028"
SN_VALUE name="1_AsterismCommonName" value="The Belt of Orion"
SN_VALUE name="1_AsterismConstellationNum" value="100"
SN_VALUE name="1_AsterismLine_1"
value="Line,Star=0d4212f67f488009fd50a954e264a8b6c 030ff48fffe000300004d01
Alnilam,Star=0aba3fba7f79d1adfba93cb6e12924b7c04ff f390006000900004d22
Alnitak"
SN_VALUE name="1_AsterismLine_2"
value="Line,Star=0f98699c7f0b6cedff54f26ee26374c8c 047ff510001000400004cc7
Mintaka,Star=0d4212f67f488009fd50a954e264a8b6c030f f48fffe000300004d01
Alnilam"
SN_VALUE name="1_AsterismName" value="Orion's Belt"

Good luck.

--
Rob
Lat +37.5583333
Long -121.9688888
TZ -8
"Paul Hurm" wrote in message
...
I looking for help in finding a "planetarium" type of software with a
"special" feature.

I am looking at the book "The Stargazer's Bible" by W.S. Kals. In it he
introduces people to the 21 brightest stars and makes up some
"superconstellations" to help them get oriented.

For instance he makes a winter (NH) superconstellaeion called "The
Hexagon"
comprised of the stars Capella, Aldebaran, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon and
Pollux.

The software feature I would like to be able to find is something that
would
allow me to enter a list of certain stars and show only the pattern that
they show. For instance, I would like to enter a list of the six stars
above
and have just them show up to illustrate "The Hexagon". I could then add
the
stars of Orion if I wanted, perhaps add Castor etc and still have just
those
stars displayed.

Anyone know of such a progrm?

TIA

Paul Hurm

An easier way, would be to turn off all star labels and then pick each
star name from the FIND menu and check the boxes of only those you wish
to have displayed on the screen. No asterism gymnastics involved. grin


--
Astronut

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