Cornelis Bockemuehl has been updated to version 1.10 PmAs, a set of astronomically oriented programs. It calculates positions of celestial bodies, times, risings and settings etc. and displays the results in table and/or graphic form, all nicely integrated in the Presentation Manager. You can download the files at:
http://www.datacomm.ch/cobo

New in this release

Version 1.10 is a starting point for the planned eclipse and
occultation modules. However, compared to the many good ideas and
plans the present version is more like a preview&colon. An example:

- Use PmAsSef to find all solar eclipses in a given time interval.
The eclipses are shown in a table using PmAsTab.

- Without closing the tabular output, start the program PmAsEog. Drag
one of the eclipses from the table into the entry field on the first
notebook page. (Of course the table may also be saved and reloaded
later.)

- After starting the calculation the visibility area is displayed,
graphically in a world map (using PmAsGraf with all it's features)
and/or as a table (again using PmAsTab).

For a number of reasons I didn't want to wait with a new release
anyway:

- The upcoming Solar Eclipse of August 11th 1999 which will be 98%
here in Basel seems to be a good dead line - even if there will not
be much new to calculate about this very eclipse...

- I will not be able to do a lot of programming work during the next
weeks, because some time in August or beginning of September we are
awaiting a child!

- The users must not get the impression that there is nothing
happening any more.

Another update are given with PmAsElp.DLL and PmAsVsop.DLL. These
DLLs contain alternative algorithms for the calculation of lunar and
planetary positions:

- Lunar positions after "The Lunar Ephemeris ELP 2000" by M.
Chapront-Touze and J. Chapront.

- Planets after "Planetary theory VSOP87A" by P. Bretagnon and G.
Francou.

Until now, the calculation with PmAsD118.DLL is very fast and precise,
because it uses precalculated data (from PmAsD118.DAT), which are
numerically integrated after the theory DE118. But these data are only
available for a limited time span and outside this interval PmAs tries
to find another method and finally uses a default algorithm which is
simple elliptic orbits.

The environment variable PMASPLA_DLL tells PmAs where to look for other
methods. In order to use the new DLLs the definition in CONFIG.SYS has
to be changed as follows:

SET PMASPLA_DLLÿASD118;PMASVSOP;PMASELP

This improves e.g. eclipse calculations for historical times a lot!

What is PmAs?

PmAs does astronomical calculations and outputs the results as tables or graphics. It is made up of a number of programs and modules which are responsible for certain asks. Cooperation between the parts is based on the capabilities of the OS/2 presentation manager. It may be run in german and english and includes documentation and online help in both languages.

The program series is intended for users with a certain basic knowledge of astronomy and astronomical terms , i.e. these are not covered by the documentation.

Comparing PmAs

PmAs is not a planetarium like e.g. NightVision, which displays a fixed or animated image of the sky: PmAs also offers a lot of options for displaying the sky, but animation is not among them.

Nor is PmAs a "astronomical command center", like Xephem could possibly be called, but with this program it is already more comparable in many respects. Anyway, big differences exist in concept and technical realization. At the moment Xephem is probably the more mature product, and PmAs will probably not duplicate many of its functions, but it has a number of strengths of its own

Some of them are the following:

The many formatting options for tables and graphics once they are already ready calculated.

The strict modularity, which allows extensions and changes to be made very easily.

The integration into the OS/2 Presentation Manager, which allows the transfer of data between programs by "drag and drop" in many cases.

The modules

The showmasters

PmAsTab and PmAsGraf are responsible for the display of the calculated results as tables and/or graphics. They can either load, show and edit already stored tables and graphics or serve as a output server for other programs, receiving their data through a pipe mechanism.

The workhorses

PmAsBase is a DLL and contains all functions needed for the astronomical calculations. Modules for calculating positions may be added.

PmAsDlg is another DLL and adds a user interface to the astronomy programs that is made up of a notebook dialog. The user enters the necessary input there before the calculations are started.

The astronomy programs

The actual astronomy programs are relatively small compared to the modules described until here (and it is rather simple to write more). Until now there are:

PmAsEph calculates an ephemeris, i.e. positions of a moving celestial body at a number of times.

PmAsApl is in a way the opposite of the ephemeris program: It calculates for one single moment the positions of a whole list of celestial bodies.

PmAsRist determines times of rise and set as well as culminations.

PmAsTime does calculations between time systems.

Supplementary programs

There exists one supplemental program at the moment:

PmAsGdat converts any positional data so that they can be displayed with PmAsGraf, and on the other hand makes the graphic data of PmAsGraf editable.

Examples of use

The following examples illustrate the strengths of PmAs:

Sample: Evening visibility of Venus

With PmAsRist calculate a list of times within a given timespan when the Sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. Output as a table goes through PmAsTab.

With PmAsEph azimuth and altitude of Venus can be calculated for all these times by dragging the calculated times into the notebook page for entering times.

Sample: Several planet trails in a sky map

With PmAsEph calculate the trail of the first planet. Output occurs through PmAsGraf.

Calculate another planet trail with PmAsEph. The output of the graphic goes into a second inscance of PmAsGraf.

The second graphic can now simply be dragged into the first one: The second planet trail will appear in the first graphic, while the background (the sky) will not be included a second time (duplicates are eliminated automatically).

The second and third step may be repeated.

Download

The PmAs programs are here for free download and their use is free for private and scientific purposes. The author (Cornelis Bockemühl) holds all rights and doesn't take any responsibility nor guarantees anything.

The distribution of the programs on other ways than the Homepage of the author is not supported, because only that way the actuality of the files may be achieved with not too much effort.

The programs are organized as packages together with a date so that parts may be easily updated.

System requirements

This programs are running with OS/2 Warp 4 and are "optimized for Pentium" (whatever that means). Older versions of OS/2 are not tested, but with the notebook dialogs there may be problems. (If it would be asked for there could easily be other versions produced which run with all versions from 2.11).




CONTACT AUTHOR

Cornelis Bockemühl
cbockem@datacomm.ch
http://www.datacomm.ch/cobo

@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
Java Lobby Member
Java Site Accredited

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