README.TXT

CyberSky Shareware Version 1.0c
Thursday, July 27, 1995


Description of CyberSky
-----------------------

CyberSky is a colorful, easy-to-use program that
transforms your computer screen into a planetarium,
allowing you to learn about astronomy by exploring the
sky in the past, present, and future. CyberSky can truly
be thought of as a desktop planetarium, because it
duplicates the features of a traditional planetarium on
your computer screen. CyberSky provides a superb,
innovative, and motivating learning environment. It
places the sky under your control.

One of CyberSky's most powerful and educational features
is its ability to animate the display, allowing you to see
animations of the changing appearance of the sky over time.
Many of the most basic and interesting astronomical
phenomena can only be observed over days or months of time,
or by observing the sky in the distant past or future.
CyberSky compresses these time spans into minutes, thereby
allowing you to learn things about astronomy that
previously would have required days or weeks of stargazing
or a trip to a planetarium to learn.

CyberSky allows you to

o   View the positions of the sun, moon, and all planets
    of the solar system in the sky. Information about those
    objects, such as their distances from the earth, and 
    their rising and setting times are available by simply
    clicking on them with the right mouse button.
    
o   View 5080 stars. Information about those stars, such as
    their Bayer and Flamsteed designations, magnitudes,
    spectral types, and rising and setting times are
    available by simply clicking on them with the right
    mouse button. Proper names are available for 248 of the
    brightest stars.
    
o   View constellation lines for all 88 constellations.

o   Display reference lines such as the ecliptic, celestial
    equator, galactic equator, and equatorial coordinate
    system grid.
    
o   Display the north and south poles of the ecliptic,
    celestial equator, and galactic equator.
    
o   Choose to view the sky from any location on the earth
    between the years 4000 BC and 4000 AD.
    
o   Understand the dynamics of the sky by performing the
    steps in the Explorations section of the help file.
    You will be able to learn about such topics as
    precession of the equinoxes, proper motion, and
    retrograde motion of planets not by reading a 
    description but by watching CyberSky's simulated sky.

o   Learn astronomical terminology by reading through the
    help file's extensive glossary section.
    
o   Print the display in either black on white or in color
    to create your own star charts you can use to identify
    stars, constellations, and planets in the night sky.

If you have an interest in astronomy, CyberSky will provide
hours of fun and education for you and your family.


Hardware and Software Requirements
----------------------------------

CyberSky works with most personal computers available
today. If you are running Windows 3.1 on your computer
you should have no trouble running CyberSky.

CyberSky was designed to be installed and run on a
computer system that meets the following minimum hardware
and software requirements.

Hardware

o   Personal computer using an Intel i386, i486, Pentium,
    or compatible processor.
    
o   4 MB RAM.

o   Hard disk with about 1.5 MB free space. The registered
    version requires about 4.5 MB for a full installation.
    
o   One 3.5-inch high-density diskette drive.

o   Monitor and video adapter compatible with Windows 3.1
    or higher.
    
o   Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device. It is
    impossible to use all the features of CyberSky using
    the keyboard alone.

Software

o   Microsoft MS-DOS 3.1 or later.

o   Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later running in 386 Enhanced
    mode, or Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.1 or later,
    or Windows 95, or Windows NT.


Installing CyberSky
-------------------

The shareware version of CyberSky 1.0c is distributed as
a compressed file named CYBERSKY.ZIP or CYBSKY1C.ZIP. You
must first uncompress this file into an empty temporary
directory on your hard disk. You can use PKWARE's PKZIP
2.04g utility or any compatible utility such as WinZip to
do this.

The following installation instructions assume you are
using the Windows Program Manager. If you are using a
Program Manager replacement such as the Norton Desktop for
Windows or PC Tools for Windows, perform equivalent steps
to install CyberSky.

IMPORTANT: If a previous version of CyberSky is installed
on your system I recommend uninstalling the old version
before installing the new version.

To install CyberSky for use on your computer system

1   Start Windows if you are not already running Windows.

2   Choose Run... from the File menu.

3   Type C:\DIR\INSTALL.EXE where C is the drive letter of
    your hard drive and \DIR is the directory into which
    you unzipped the distribution file.
    
    If you are installing CyberSky on a networked Windows
    system, you must type C:\DIR\INSTALL.EXE /N instead.
    
4   Choose the OK button and follow the installation
    program's instructions.

After CyberSky has been successfully installed, be sure to
save the distribution file on your hard disk or on a
diskette. You will need this file if you want to reinstall
CyberSky or want to uninstall it.

If successful, the CyberSky installation program installed
the following files on your hard disk in the directory you
specified.

CYBERSKY.EXE    Executable file
CYBERSKY.HLP    Help file
HISTORY.HLP     Version history file
README.TXT      Text file containing installation
                instructions
VENDOR.TXT      Text file containing information for
                software vendors
FILE_ID.DIZ     Standard description file used by BBSs

INSTALL.LOG     Text file created during installation
                containing a record of the installation

BSC600B.DAT     Star data file
LOCATION.DAT    Location data file
ELEMENTS.DAT    Planets data file
ZODIAC.DAT      Zodiac constellation lines file
MAJOR.DAT       Major constellation lines file
MINOR.DAT       Minor constellation lines file

The installation program checked for the presence of the
following file in your Windows system directory. If this
file was present, or if your system contained an older
version of this file than the one supplied by CyberSky,
this file was copied to your Windows system directory.

CTL3D.DLL       Gives a 3D appearance to all CyberSky
                dialog boxes

If you choose the /N switch to install CyberSky on a
networked Windows system, the CTL3D.DLL file was copied
to your Windows directory instead.


Contacting the Author
---------------------

E-mail is the fastest way to contact me. I check my
CompuServe mail daily and my UCLA account every business
day.

    CompuServe    76763,1065
    Internet      76763.1065@compuserve.com
                  stephen@eggneb.astro.ucla.edu

You can also send postal mail to my business address.

    Mail          Stephen Michael Schimpf
                  2444 West 230th Street
                  Torrance, CA 90501-5242
                  United States of America

If you feel it is necessary to speak to me, you can call
me at the following number between the hours of 10:00 AM
and 1:00 PM Pacific time on business days only.

    Telephone     310-530-6766
