ANNOUNCING DISTANT SUNS FOR THE MACINTOSH (tm), Version 1.0

August 21, 1992 : Virtual Reality Laboratories announces the release of the
Macintosh version of Distant Suns, the international award-winning desktop
planetarium.  This now makes Distant Suns the only Planetarium program
available on all 3 major PC platforms : Windows (tm), Amiga(tm) and now
the Macintosh.

Distant Suns will allow the user to set up a "virtual reality  observatory"
anywhere on Earth, from a 4713 BC to 10,000 AD. It  displays up to 10,000
stars (expandable to 250,000), 2,000 galaxies,  nebulae and star clusters.
The viewpoint can be moved from the Earth  to other points in the
solar-system. Program settings may be saved and  recalled at any time.

Click on an object and you get a detailed summary of information such  as
name, spectral type, magnitude, rise-set time, etc. In the case of 
planets and deep-sky objects user-definable pictures may also be 
supplied.

The user can create smoothly animated sequences to aid in greater 
understanding of celestial phenomena such as eclipses, cometary motion 
and the analemma. Distant Suns can create high quality star charts in  a
device independent way so as to take advantage of the highest  resolutions
possible.

The user may add new objects such as recently discovered comets or 
interplanetary spacecraft. And all of this is done in full color.

Besides the above, Distant Suns has many other functions to aid both  the
amateur astronomer or the casual armchair observer :

   * Lunar phase graph
   * User definable toolbox, letting you display as many or as 
     few options as desired in a button panel format
   * Custom search panel which will permit the user to add
     desired objects or regions of the sky not covered in the
     normal search options
   * The ability to search for a star based on Greek identifier,
     HD or SAO numbers
   * Demonstrate the proper motion of stars over a 50,000 year 
     period of time
   * Display individual star-data fields such as distances, 
     magnitude, radial velocity or B-V
     next to all of the stars in the current display
   * Support for monochrome or color displays depending on the 
     system you have
   * Math chip support
   * Print out an ephemeris
   * Follow the Galileo probe as it heads out towards Jupiter and 
     flys by the asteroid Ida next year
   * Use the Flashcard option to help constellation 
     identification
   * Observer's planning guide to aid in setting up observing
     sessions
   * User customizable on-line tables
   * Quick-look guides to see what is going on any evening at 
     a glance
   * Turn on constellation outlines and names
   * System 7 compatible

Distant Suns requires 2MB RAM, 2.5 MB harddrive space and will work on  any
known Macintosh. 68020 machines with math chips are recommended.

The program is available for a "Suggested retail price" of $99.95, and  may
be found at Fry's Electronics, Egghead and other software dealers.

Virtual Reality Laboratories
2341 Ganador Court, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
805-545-8515 voice,   805-781-2257 BBS

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