Palm Pilot
A mobile planetarium and much more.
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Palm Vx
I used to use on old pilot 5000 as basically a diary, but recently upgraded to the Palm Vx. It was like upgrading from an Mini to a Jaguar. There is so much more I can do with it including using many astronomical orientated programs, from clocks to full planetariums. Below I have reviewed some of the more useful programs. The Palm Vx is not designed for complex calculations used for many astronomical programs and it will perform very slowly when asked to do these calculation, But I believe the disadvantages of this is outweighed by the portability and availability of the palm Vx. When all said and done it's a great device because it's always there when you need it. It also has a back light which although it's a little bright it is very useful. More Information can be found about the Palm Vx on their home page at www.palm.com
PocketSat v1.5a
This is a useful little program for spotting man made satellites that are visible from your current location. It is available from http://emmgraphics.com/pilot/pocketsatinfo.html You can download a limited version on trial but the full version does cost a few pounds. This site also offers current downloadable satellite information which you need to download quite regular as many satellites change their orbit often. After setting every thing up, which is quite easy, and deciding the times you will
be observing you simply press
the calc button and after a few minuets it shows a list of satellites that are
visible with times and the quality of the seeing. It can sometimes take several
minuets to calculate the orbits as the Palm Vx is not really designed for this
type of memory hungry calculation. Once you have selected a satellite just
press the plot button and it will plot the pass on a small map which makes
spotting them very easy indeed. I was very surprised at how many satellites are
visible from earth and it becomes quite addictive trying to spot each one as it
appears every few minuets or so. They have recently brought out a new version
of this software. PockSat V 2.00. The major difference is the ability to
display colour. I do not know how this works as I do not have a colour Palm.
Moon Phase v2.0
I used this little feeware program on my Pilot 5000 and liked it so much I moved it to the Palm Vx. It is small and very fast. All it does is tell you what phase the moon is on a particular day with a little picture of the moon to make thing even plainer. Have you ever been in a position where you want to know the moon phase and have not got any way of finding out. I have often and this little program is ideal and designed for just this case. Can not find it on the web any more so click here to download from my sight
Star Pilot
This is a planetarium program that shows the sky from a given location & a specific time. It is quite basic compared to the more advanced programs I run on my PC. But can be very useful in the field as it includes many deep sky objects. That is the advantage of the Palm Vx, it is small enough to fit in your pocket & is always available. A limited version can be downloaded at http://www.star-pilot.com/ but to get the full program does cost a few pounds. The Pilot Vx picture at the top of this page shows a picture of this program with the main screen showing. One of the limitations of this program is that it is very slow although I have the latest version now and it seems to work twice as fast as it did, but still a little slow. I am told this is a problem with the code. There are many versions of this program, but the full version includes:-
Sol! II
A program predicting rise and setting times for the sun, twilight Sun compass and much more.
J-Moons
A program predicting where the 4 major moon of Jupiter are and plotting them on a simple diagram.
Messier!
A program giving information on all the messier object including their co-ordinates.This also has a log facility for recording observations. MoonInfo
A program giving information on the moon.
Planets!
A program giving information on the planets. This also has a log facility for recording observations.
Planetarum-2.00
I first tried this program out when it was version 1.9 and did not think it was as good as StarPilot. I have now got Planetarum-2.00 and think it is now much better than StarPilot. (StarPilol are releasing a new version soon and promise big things. So we will have to see.) Planetarum-2 is very fast. Most screens will appear with in about 5 seconds or so. I personally found the interface a little strange at first but it has now become second nature. At the minuet planetarum-2.00 is probably the best planetarium program around for the Palm, but things change quickly with computers so keep your eyes open.
You can download a demo at: - http://www.aho.ch/pilotplanets/
Its features include -
Can connect to telescopes via a serial port.
Accuracy of 0.1 degree is typical.
All planets, Sun and moon are plotted.
A database of 1600 or 9000 stars can be plotted.
88 Constellations.
Deep sky object data base can be expanded. (Some of the data sets available are: - Messier objects, Caldwell objects, 280 double stars and Herschel objects.)
Comet and asteroid databases are also expandable.
It can calculate, RA/ Dec, Az/Alt of any object plotted.
Julian date and sidereal time.
Rise and set times of any object plotted
Twilight times.
Moon phases
Solstices.
Jupiter's moons.
Angular size of Saturn's rings.
Phase and elongation of the planets.
Distance and Magnitude of the planets.
Angular size of the planets.
And more.
It runs on Palm 2.0 and above.
It also uses colour on those new fangled colour palms.
Data Base
I have also loaded a data base of the most useful LX-200 alignement stars as I never seem to know the number of the star that I need to set up the LX-200 when I turn on the power. Their are maney Database programs avalible on the net so just try them and choose the one that suites you.
Sundries
I also have the option of downloading astronomical based News papers, News groups and web pages to the Palm Vx and I find this very handy as I am not tied to my PC to read them. I find I can keep track with them more conveniently as I can read them when I have a few spare minuets.
This document maintained by
pete.cox@zetnet.co.uk.
Material
Copyright © 2000 Pete