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HyperSky 32 is distributed on two (2) 3.5-inch 1.4 Meg diskettes, with online users manual. It is an astronomical data display engine for IBM-compatible personal computers running 32 bit Windows system software (95, 98, NT,ME, and 2000). HyperSky gives the user full control over what objects are displayed with "hypertext-like" information about those displayed objects. The HyperSky package comes with a basic set of catalog data files for a variety of deep-sky objects (see below). Additional catalog data files are available on a CD-ROM, and allow you to further enhance and customize your HyperSky fields.
A computerized star atlas linked to a set of reference works that,
in a nutshell, is HyperSky. It displays a portion of the sky and then
identifies the objects within a movable window . . . Many programs will do this
but few as well as HyperSky. It is both easy to use and comprehensive, a
powerful combination. The commands take only a few minutes to master. The
program operates without surprises, doing elegantly what it sets out to do . .
. it is a powerful engine for examining the sky that crosses the boundary
between amateurs and professionals.
. . . this package can only be described as a bargain, since there
is no real competition that offers such sophistication at any price. During the
two months that I had to review this package, I only explored a fraction of
what it has to offer. As a method of planning observing sessions it is
first-rate and it is even more fascinating just to browse through a star field
and discover `new' objects . . . . I cannot recommend this software package
highly enough, not only to the computer enthusiast but also to any serious
deep-sky observer with access to a PC. It is a genuine observational tool that
deserves its place alongside the traditional star atlas and shelf of catalogs.
Observers of galaxies and star clusters take note: HyperSky
produces sky charts and observing lists that make those late-night sessions
looking for faint fuzzies easier no need to plot the coordinates of an object
by hand on a field atlas, puzzle out the orientation of an inverted telescopic
view versus the one in the atlas, or wonder how you're going to get the
coordinates of an object from a catalog you can't afford. . . . If (the
included) catalogs aren't enough for your observing needs, optional catalogs
are available at a nominal cost. . . . . HyperSky's ability to produce useful
sky charts for deep-sky observers is superb. The extensive set of catalogs
available to HyperSky users make this one of the premier programs in amateur
astronomy. And you can't beat the price.
. .the program offers a wealth of information for the serious
amateur or professional astronomer . . .
Hypersky runs on a IBM-PC with Windows 3.1, 95/98, and NT 3.5/4.0.
The basic program and data files need about 2.4 Megabytes of disk space, if you
install every option.
Major Feature 1:
With HyperSky you decide what your computer displays. You do this by selecting from HyperSky’s huge database the specific catalogues that interest you. You can then go on to completely customize your display field properties to suit your taste. For example, you can vary field scale, coordinate systems, colors, star shapes, coordinate grids, and many other properties to suite your purposes. Once you have the program configured to your own particular tastes you can save it as a configuration file so you can quickly reload when ever you want. You can create as many different configuration files as you like, each customized to use catalogs and field properties appropriate for a specific project.
Major Feature 2:
With HyperSky you have quick access to textual catalog information about every object in your display field. To do this, HyperSky uses an approach similar to hypertext. Access is implemented by a movable, resizable circular field cursor, which is your primary tool for navigating through your HyperSky fields. If you wish, you can think of the cursor circle as the field of a binocular or a telescope eyepiece. When you want information about an object or object group in your field, simply move your cursor circle over them and press the Enter key. When you do, all catalog information about these objects will be displayed in a scrollable text window. The amount of information may be a little or a lot, depending on which and how many catalogs you use. But it always includes each object’s coordinates, type code, and catalog identification.
Other Useful Features in Support of Major Features 1 and 2:
• Position-Lists: Position-lists let you select a new location for your display field from a list of identified positions. HyperSky is distributed with several pre-built position-lists, but more importantly it provides the tools for you to build your own. A position list provides a quick way to move to new locations, allowing you to remember names instead of coordinates.
• Search Dialog: The search dialog provides a flexible way to help you find objects in the astronomical catalogs you use with HyperSky. You can search for object names or name fragments, descriptions, object types, and magnitude and position ranges. Your search results are put into a special position-list, which you can use to locate any object found during the search.
• Text Recording: The HyperSky recording facility lets you save text information displayed during a session. Typically, this text consists of object positions, identifications and notes which you may want to keep for use later. The output goes into a text file of your choice, which you can review or print at any time.
• Field Printing: Using the Print Field dialog, you can print your display field, and additionally customize the printed field to suit your taste. Customization options include field size and page position, object label sizes, field comments, a color printing option, and more.
• Utility programs: Three DOS-based utility programs are provided with HyperSky. These include HSCREEN (HyperSky screen capture and display), HED (HyperSky data file editor), and XCOORD (celestial coordinate conversion).
• Complete Online Help: A full set of tools is available to help you find detailed information on how to use HyperSky and its catalogs. The buttons at the top of the help window are a good place to start: The Search facility contains a large selection of key words, phrases and abbreviations that point to relevant help documentation. The Glossary contains definitions of various HyperSky-related terms, plus concise descriptions of many of the astronomical objects in your HyperSky field and catalog notes. The Index contains descriptive pointer references to various topics of interest.
Basic Catalog Set Sold with the $49.95 Program. The basic catalog set that comes with HyperSky and is installed on your hard disk at the time of program installation provides detailed information on many deepsky objects. This data set approximates that found on intermediate printed atlases like Sky Atlas 2000.0 with the exception that about 10 times more galaxies are provided as are the majority of the known open and globular clusters and planetary nebulae:
• Named Stars
• Bayer Star Catalog: 1565 stars identified by Greek letters.
• Flamsteed Star Catalog : 2553 stars identified by Arabic numerals.
• SAO Star Catalog: 46178 stars to 8th magnitude. SAO stars fainter than 8th magnitude are available on the HyperSky CDROM.
• Lynga open clusters: information on 1180 open star clusters in our Milky Way galaxy.
• Moscow globular clusters: 129 Milky Way globular star clusters.
• Strasbourg planetary nebulae: contains 1455 planetaries.
• RC3 galaxy catalog: 23012 galaxies.
• Sky & Telescope cross reference files: these files cross-reference articles, charts and photographs about various interesting, obscure, and occasionally bizarre objects that have appeared in the pages of Sky & Tel over the past 5 years. Even if you don’t read Sky & Telescope, the abbreviated descriptions in these files provide a wealth of information.
• Constellation boundary files
• Star chart boundary files: Special boundary files are provided to display chart identifications and boundaries for several current and older star atlases. Included are Uranometria 2000.0, AAVSO Star Atlas, Borealis, Coeli and Sky Atlas 2000.
Optional HyperSky CDROM: If you have purchased the optional HyperSky CDROM ($49.95, 8 ozs. ship wt.), you have access to many more catalogs than those in the basic installation set. Below is a list of the catalogs contained on the CD-ROM:
Stars (33)
• Alksnis Spectral Survey Catalog (southern Cepheus)
• Bayer Star Catalog
• Bonner Durchmusterung (BD)
• Boss General Catalog of Stars (GC)
• Cape Photographic Durchmusterung (CPD)
• Catalog of Probable Members of the SMC
• Cordoba Durchmusterung (CD or CoD)
• Emission Stars and Nebulae in LMC/SMC
• Fifth Catalog of Cataclysmic Binary Stars
• Flamsteed Star Catalog
• Henry Draper Star Catalog, 1985 Edition (HD)
• Hipparcos Star Catalog
• Landolt Standard Star Position Catalog
• Luyten Two-Tenths Catalog of Proper Motions (NLTT)
• M33 Catalog of Selected Star Fields
• Named Stars
• New and Suspected Variable Stars (NSV)
• Positions and Proper Motions Star Catalog (PPM)
• Preliminary Third Catalog of Nearby Stars (Gliese & Jahreiss)
• Ramberg Spectral Survey Catalog (northern Lacerta)
• Reference Catalog of Galactic Novae
• Sixth Catalog of Galactic Wolf-Rayet Stars
• Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) Star Catalog
• Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory J2000 Catalog (SAOJ)
• Southern Durchmusterung (SD)
• The 90,000 Stars Supplement to the PPM Catalog
• The General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS)
• Tycho Star Catalog
• Villanova Catalog of Spectroscopically Identified White Dwarfs
• Washington Catalog of Visual Double Stars
• Wilson Catalog of Stellar Radial Velocities
• Yale Bright Star Catalog, 4th Edition
• Yale Bright Star Catalog, 5th EditionStar Clusters (7)
• Archinal Catalog of Nonexistent RNGC Clusters
• Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cluster Catalog
• Lynga Open Cluster Catalog
• M33 Catalog of Clusters and Nebulae
• Monella Catalog of Galactic Globular Clusters
• Moscow Globular Cluster Catalog
• Shapley/Lindsay Catalog of LMC ClustersSupernovae and Pulsars (7)
• Extragalactic Supernovae, 1885A-1995G
• Galaxies Producing Multiple Supernovae
• Green 1994 Catalog of Galactic Supernova Remnants
• Photographic Supernova Search Atlas I,II
• Princeton / Jodrell Bank / ATNF Pulsar Catalog
• Supernova Search Cards, Sets 1 and 2
• Supernova Search Charts & HandbookNebulae (8)
• Emission Stars and Nebulae in LMC/SMC
• Lynds’ Catalog of Bright Nebulae
• Lynds’ Catalog of Dark Nebulae
• M33 Catalog of Clusters and Nebulae
• Russian 6-meter Survey Catalog of M33 HII Regions
• Sharpless Catalog of HII Regions
• Strasbourg Galactic Planetary Nebulae
• van den Bergh Reflection NebulaeGalaxies (29)
• APM Bright Galaxy Catalog
• Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies
• Catalog of Extragalactic Radio Source Identifications
• Catalog of Galaxies Behind the Milky Way (CGMW)
• Catalog of Isolated Pairs of Galaxies
• Catalog of Southern Ringed Galaxies (CGRG)
• Center for Astrophysics (CfA) Redshift Catalog
• ESO-Uppsala Galaxy Surface Photometry Catalog (ESO-LV)
• Flat Galaxy Catalog
• Galaxies Producing Extragalactic Supernovae, 1885A-1995G
• Galaxies Producing Multiple Supernovae
• Hubble Atlas of Galaxies
• IRAS Extragalactic Catalog (infrared galaxies and quasars)
• KISO Ultraviolet-excess Galaxies
• Lick Northern Proper Motion Survey Reference Galaxies (NPM1)
• M33 Catalog of Clusters and Nebulae
• M33 Catalog of Selected Star Fields
• Markarian Galaxy Catalog (active galaxies)
• Morphological Catalog of Galaxies (MCG)
• POSS Image Database Catalog
• Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei, 3rd Edition
• Russian 6-meter Survey Catalog of M33 HII Regions
• Second Reference Catalog of Bright Galaxies
• South Equatorial Galaxy Catalog (ESGC)
• Southern Galaxy Catalog (SGC)
• Third Reference Catalog of Bright Galaxies (RC3)
• UCAS Galaxy Catalog
• Uppsala Galaxy Catalog (UGC)
• Zwicky Catalog of Galaxies (CGCG)Galaxy Groups and Clusters (7)
• 1993 Hewitt & Burbidge Catalog of Quasi-Stellar Objects
• Catalog of Extragalactic Radio Source Identifications
• Center for Astrophysics (CfA) Redshift Catalog
• Einstein X-Ray Observatory Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey
• IRAS Extragalactic Catalog (infrared galaxies and quasars)
• New Optical Catalog of Quasi-Stellar Objects
• Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei, 3rd EditionRadio Sources (12)
• 1400 MHz Abell Galaxy Cluster Survey
• 1400 MHz Northern Sky Catalog
• 1987 Green Bank 300-foot 4.85 GHz Radio Survey
• 4850 MHz Northern Sky Survey
• Catalog of 5 GHz Galactic Plane Sources
• Catalog of Extragalactic Radio Source Identifications
• Fourth Cambridge Radio Survey Catalog (4C)
• Molonglo 408 MHz Radio Source Reference Catalog
• NRAO Faint Images of the Radio Sky at 20 cm (FIRST) Preliminary Survey
• Parkes 1990 Southern Radio Source Catalog
• Parkes-MIT-NRAO 4850 MHz Radio Surveys (PMN)
• Sixth Cambridge Catalog of Selected Areas (6C)Infrared Sources (2)
• IRAS Extragalactic Catalog (infrared galaxies and quasars)
• IRAS Point Source CatalogUltraviolet Sources (2)
• Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) Bright Source List
• KISO Ultraviolet-excess GalaxiesX-Ray Sources (4)
• Einstein X-Ray Observatory Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey
• Fourth UHURU X-Ray Catalog
• HEAO A-1 X-Ray Source Catalog
• Rosat WGACAT X-Ray Point Source CatalogGamma-Ray Sources (1)
• BATSE 2B Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog
Miscellaneous (11)
• Archinal Catalog of Nonexistent RNGC Clusters
• Burnham’s Celestial Handbook
• Dreyer’s Original NGC and IC Catalogs
• ESO/Uppsala Survey: ESO(B) Atlas
• Handbook and Catalog of Deep-Sky Objects, by Luginbuhl and Skiff
• HyperSky Composite NGC and IC Catalogs
• Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cluster Catalog
• M33 Catalog of Clusters and Nebulae
• M33 Catalog of Selected Star Fields
• Russian 6-meter Survey Catalog of M33 HII Regions
• Sky & Telescope Magazine Selected Object Cross-Reference, 1985-1994Boundary Files (12)
• AAVSO Variable Star Atlas
• Atlas Coeli
• Atlases Borealis, Eclipticalis, Australis
• ESO/SERC Southern Survey Fields
• Hubble Guide Star Catalog Region Boundaries
• IAU Equinox 1875 Constellation Boundaries (boundaries drawn)
• IAU Equinox 1875 Constellation Boundaries (figures drawn)
• MicroSky (POSS1) Field Identifications
• Palomar Sky Survey (POSS1) Fields, plus MCG & CGCG fields
• Second Palomar Sky Survey (POSS2) Fields
• Sky Atlas 2000
• Uranometria 2000
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