Credits
This program was originally (last millenium) written in Fortran, using SuperMongo for the graphics (SM, by Robert Lupton and Patricia Monger). It has been re-written from scratch using Python and matplotlib, resulting in (even :) nicer graphics and much lighter code...
These astrolabes (the original version) were used during the
TOPS workshop (1995, Kamuela, HI) in an activity to get students and teachers more quickly familiar with the night sky and to easily give them the ability to plan observations. This has been included in the PSIgate Physical Sciences Information Gateway, http://www.psigate.ac.uk, a free online catalogue of high quality Internet resources in the physical sciences.
The observatory and city list comes mostly from that included in
XEphem, the great interactive astronomical ephemeris program for X-Windows by ecdowney@ClearSkyInstitute.com, with personal additions and deletions. Any errors in the current list is mine.
The stars are from the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars.. The constellation lines were compiled by Martin Krzywinski.
Several subroutines come from "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators" by Jean Meeus. Richmond, Va., U.S.A., Willmann-Bell, (c) 1982.
The image of the banner is of Jean Fusoris planispheric astrolabe in Putnam Gallery from wikimedia.
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