From mike@rahul.net Thu Feb  4 18:42:09 1993
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Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1993 18:42:05 -0800
From: Mike Smithwick <mike@rahul.net>
Message-Id: <199302050242.AA06803@bolero.rahul.net>
To: announce@cs.ucdavis.edu
Subject: How's this Dan...
Status: RO


DISTANT SUNS 4.2 (tm)

Virtual Reality Labs. Inc. is pleased to announce that Distant Suns 4.2 is now 
available. 

Distant Suns turns your Amiga into a planetarium. It will show you the
sky from before 4000 BC up to 10000 AD. With Distant Suns you can
see where the planets are tonight, or when you were born. Animate
solar and lunar eclipses and even follow Halley's comet around on
its orbit.

By using the anim feature, you may create time lapse movies of 
astronomical events. Or use the AREXX support for controlling a telescope.

Distant Suns was created not for the scientist, but for anyone who has
even a passing interest in astronomy. Recommended ages are from 7 years
on up.

Version 4.2  adds in a number of new features designed to make life easier:

   * New clock-control menus items will let you change the time in 1 day  
     increments or set the time to either sunrise or sunset, saving 
     considerable effort over previous methods.

   * You may now set your location via a user-modifiable list of cities, 
     accessible via the environment window.

   * There are 3 default state files, permitting you  to specify 
     which options are desired for startup, reset and the quickview 
     functions.

   * The system will now permit you to load in a state file to set 
     your options, without changing the system time if desired.

   * A new center option will let you center individual stars by 
     their Greek identifier, or various catalog id numbers.

   * Previous versions of Distant Suns would demonstrate the motions of the 
     planets, but not the stars. Now you may view this "proper motion" and see 
     the movement of the stars for a 50,000 year period of time.

   * Scrolling lists now recognize double-clicks.

   * A lunar-phase chart has been added to let you quickly see the moon's 
     phases at a glance for the entire year. 

   * Angular distances between objects may now be measured using the "reticle" 
     function.

   * In order to help you see visually what planets are currently up, a simple 
     "Planet guide"  window was added. This shows at a glance the entire sky   
     from your location, rendering just the planets, sun and moon.

   * The What's Up window was reworked to be more useful, giving much more   
     data in a single view.

   * Several new AREXX commands have been added to support the new 
     features.

   * Keyboard shortcuts have been changed around to conform to new user-
     interface guidelines.

   * The constellation outline data has been improved so as to align 
     more closely with the stars.

***************************

Distant Suns 4.2 is available for AmigaDos 1.3 and above, and requires a 
minimum of 1 Meg. A separate version which utilizes an FPU may be special 
ordered. 

Registered owners will notified by newsletter. If you have not registered,
you may receive upgrade information by calling VRLI at 805-
545-8515 or by logging onto the BBS at 805-781-2257



Mike Smithwick