310 E. 6th St.
Rolla, MO 65401

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  • Dr. Richard L. Elgin, LS, PE
  • Dr. David R. Knowles, LS, PE
  • Dr. Joeseph H. Senne, PE
• Previous Software Products
  • ASTRO*ROM
  • ASTRO*CARD
  • ASTRO*DISK27
  • ASTRO*DISK83
  • ASTRO*DISK34
  • UTM
  • SPC83*CARD
• The "2008 SOKKIA Celestial Observation Handbook and Ephemeris"
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This description/specification is reprinted from our product description made at the time the software was being sold. It is provided as a historical reference. This software is NO LONGER AVAILABLE FROM US.

GENERAL: ASTRO*DISK is a single diskette for the IBM and compatibles containing extremely accurate internal ephemeris generation for reduction of sun and Polaris observation data. The design period is through the year 2020 with no updates required. Astro-traverse allows carrying latitude/longitude position for subsequent astro-azimuth observations. Conversion of latitude and longitude to state plane coordinates and inverse. Data input is interactive. Comes with complete, explicit user instructions. Diskette developed by the coauthors of the Sokkia ephemeris.

INPUT/OUTPUT: Choice of input: manual interactive or read from a disk file. Choice of output: printer, screen or write to a disk file. Input data can be saved on disk. All files are in ASCII code and can be examined using the TYPE command or can be opened in wordpad.

COMPUTER CONFIGURATION: IBM PC, or compatible, using MS-DOS, 256K RAM, printer not required but desirable. Can be used with or without math coprocessor. Also can be run in the windows environment.

ACCURACY SPECIFICATIONS (design period 1965 through 2010 with no updates):

SUN:

Maximum GHA error: 1.5" (98% of time <1.0"). Maximum declination error: 0.5".

The above errors result in a maximum error in azimuth of 1.9 arc-seconds (98% of the time less than 1.4 arc-seconds) when the sun's altitude is at 40 degrees. Error decreases as altitude decreases.

POLARIS:

Maximum error in azimuth is 0.6 arc-seconds for observations made at 60dN latitude. Maximum error is 0.4 arc-seconds at 40dN latitude.

PROGRAM FEATURES:

• Sun/Polaris/other stars.
• Observe trailing edge, center, or leading edge of sun (computes semidiameter correction).
• Can calculate a single observation.
• Single foresight for each backsight.
• Multiple foresights for each backsight.
• Entry correction for data input mistakes.
• Averaging of selected azimuths, residuals and standard error computation.
• Conversion to state plane grid azimuth. (State zone constants not required.)
• Altitude and azimuth of sun or any star for any location, any time increment and period.
• Geodetic azimuth between points of known latitude and longitude.
• Generate ephemeris data for the years 1965 through 2010.
• Conversion of latitude and longitude to state plane coordinates and vice versa for any state.
• Astro-traverse allows carrying latitude/longitude postion for subsequent astro observations.
• Polaris and star coordinates are based on the new fundamental (FK5) reference system.
• The coordinates of 63 stars can be accessed and called by number.

ASTRO*DISK27 is for NAD 1927 and ASTRO*DISK83 is for NAD 1983 state plane coordinates.

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