The program OBSERVE is designed to allow you to get a quick overview of the observability of a star through the year from the geographical location selected. You will be prompted for the Right Ascension and Declination of the star/object, the telescope employed, and the year. On the selected graphics device a plot will be drawn that tells you, for all dates of the year, the star rising and setting times and the times that it is 30 degrees above the horizon (air mass less than 2), the times of astronomical twilight, the phase and rising and setting times of the Moon as well as its distance from the star in question.
The algorithms used in calculating these times, positions and phases come
from the book `Practical Astronomy with your calculator' by
P. Duffett-Smith (3
ed. CUP 1988), and are used with permission.
These algorithms are not designed for very high precision calculations, a
fact which is to some extent conveyed by the program output. Nevertheless,
it has been verified that the routines are good for their purpose.
As mentioned above, all standard Starlink graphics devices are supported.
The data generated by OBSERVE can also be output to a text file.
The format of the text file is shown below:
Object selected was: NGC3184 Located at RA: 10h18m18. 0 Located at Dec: +41d24m58. 0 From: Mauna Kea 88 inch During: 1997 January Day Rise Set Above 30 Below 30 Twi. beg Twi end Moon ris Moon set Moon dist Moon % 01 06:42:10 21:08:09 09:27:53 18:22:26 15:35:46 05:11:31 10:43:52 22:08:22 15:07:03 60 02 06:38:14 21:04:13 09:23:57 18:18:30 15:36:08 05:12:05 11:34:52 22:47:07 15:42:22 51 03 06:34:18 21:00:17 09:20:01 18:14:34 15:36:29 05:12:38 11:35:28 23:28:06 16:21:27 41 04 06:30:22 20:56:21 09:16:05 18:10:38 15:36:50 05:13:12 12:28:57 00:12:20 17:03:24 31 05 06:26:26 20:52:25 09:12:09 18:06:42 15:37:10 05:13:46 13:24:50 01:00:45 17:47:37 22
Preparing to Observe
