What is Altair?

I was just on www.astronomynow.com and I was reading some of their archives
and couple of times I came across term "Altair" as being reference to
something. I checked my astronomy programs for it, but it just comes up as a
star or a binary star system. So I am wondering what does this Altair allow
astronomers to do and when did this term come into existence. Thank you.

Zarkovic wrote:

I was just on www.astronomynow.com and I was reading some of their archives
and couple of times I came across term "Altair" as being reference to
something. I checked my astronomy programs for it, but it just comes up as a
star or a binary star system. So I am wondering what does this Altair allow
astronomers to do and when did this term come into existence. Thank you.

You don't give the context in which you saw the term, so it's hard to
say what's being referred to. Beside the Arabic-derived name of the
bright star AKA Alpha Aquilae, perhaps it's a brand-name for some
piece of equipment or software. A quick Google search shows that
there's an astronomical calculator for Windows called Altair, for
example -- since the star is pretty famous, usually counted about
tenth or twelfth in brightness, the name seems to be used fairly
often by technical companies and the like.

--
Odysseus

Zarkovic wrote:

I was just on www.astronomynow.com and I was reading some of their archives
and couple of times I came across term "Altair" as being reference to
something. I checked my astronomy programs for it, but it just comes up as a
star or a binary star system. So I am wondering what does this Altair allow
astronomers to do and when did this term come into existence. Thank you.

You don't give the context in which you saw the term, so it's hard to
say what's being referred to. Beside the Arabic-derived name of the
bright star AKA Alpha Aquilae, perhaps it's a brand-name for some
piece of equipment or software. A quick Google search shows that
there's an astronomical calculator for Windows called Altair, for
example -- since the star is pretty famous, usually counted about
tenth or twelfth in brightness, the name seems to be used fairly
often by technical companies and the like.

--
Odysseus

On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 21:31:28 GMT, Odysseus
wrote:

Zarkovic wrote:

I was just on www.astronomynow.com and I was reading some of their archives
and couple of times I came across term "Altair" as being reference to
something. I checked my astronomy programs for it, but it just comes up as a
star or a binary star system. So I am wondering what does this Altair allow
astronomers to do and when did this term come into existence. Thank you.

You don't give the context in which you saw the term, so it's hard to
say what's being referred to. Beside the Arabic-derived name of the
bright star AKA Alpha Aquilae, perhaps it's a brand-name for some
piece of equipment or software. A quick Google search shows that
there's an astronomical calculator for Windows called Altair, for
example -- since the star is pretty famous, usually counted about
tenth or twelfth in brightness, the name seems to be used fairly
often by technical companies and the like.


Didn't Altair also be the name for a particular brand of 'puter as
well, back in the early days?

--

Find out about Australia's most dangerous Doomsday Cult:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/wanglese/pebble.htm

"You can't fool me, it's turtles all the way down."

On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 21:31:28 GMT, Odysseus
wrote:

Zarkovic wrote:

I was just on www.astronomynow.com and I was reading some of their archives
and couple of times I came across term "Altair" as being reference to
something. I checked my astronomy programs for it, but it just comes up as a
star or a binary star system. So I am wondering what does this Altair allow
astronomers to do and when did this term come into existence. Thank you.

You don't give the context in which you saw the term, so it's hard to
say what's being referred to. Beside the Arabic-derived name of the
bright star AKA Alpha Aquilae, perhaps it's a brand-name for some
piece of equipment or software. A quick Google search shows that
there's an astronomical calculator for Windows called Altair, for
example -- since the star is pretty famous, usually counted about
tenth or twelfth in brightness, the name seems to be used fairly
often by technical companies and the like.


Didn't Altair also be the name for a particular brand of 'puter as
well, back in the early days?

--

Find out about Australia's most dangerous Doomsday Cult:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/wanglese/pebble.htm

"You can't fool me, it's turtles all the way down."

"Wally Anglesea™" wrote:

Didn't Altair also be the name for a particular brand of 'puter as
well, back in the early days?

Sounds vaguely familiar, perhaps a kit that came out a little before
the first Apples, say mid-1970s?

--
Odysseus

"Wally Anglesea™" wrote:

Didn't Altair also be the name for a particular brand of 'puter as
well, back in the early days?

Sounds vaguely familiar, perhaps a kit that came out a little before
the first Apples, say mid-1970s?

--
Odysseus

there's an astronomical calculator for Windows called Altair, for
example -- since the star is pretty famous, usually counted about
tenth or twelfth in brightness, the name seems to be used fairly
often by technical companies and the like.

--
Odysseus

Hi again. I am assuming they mean the computer Altair, I did the search but
I keep getting some crappy museums and the names of the constellations.
Anyhow can u expand on what this calculator does and when was it made and so
on if u know. Thanks guys

there's an astronomical calculator for Windows called Altair, for
example -- since the star is pretty famous, usually counted about
tenth or twelfth in brightness, the name seems to be used fairly
often by technical companies and the like.

--
Odysseus

Hi again. I am assuming they mean the computer Altair, I did the search but
I keep getting some crappy museums and the names of the constellations.
Anyhow can u expand on what this calculator does and when was it made and so
on if u know. Thanks guys

Zarkovic wrote:

Hi again. I am assuming they mean the computer Altair, I did the search but
I keep getting some crappy museums and the names of the constellations.
Anyhow can u expand on what this calculator does and when was it made and so
on if u know. Thanks guys


Off the top of my head: made in mid '70's and didn't do much,
apparently. It was a kit you assembled, and every bit of information
had to be hand entered by flicking on-off switches. No monitor, only
little red lights to tell you if you'd done anything or not. A few years
back, a documentary called 'Triumph of the Nerds' chronicled the
evolution of the PC. You might want to see if your library has it. In
that they talked about the Altairs.

Here's some links I found quick-searching:

http://altair.ftldesign.com/
http://tinyurl.com/oxm4
http://tinyurl.com/oxm6

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Kent
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