The good old Tricorder! How's this for folk etymology? You cord some event; then you record it; then you tri-cord it. --- On Sun, 2/27/11, Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] End of the Planisphere? To: "Utah Astronomy List Serv" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Sunday, February 27, 2011, 3:17 PM Planispheres are still useful, especially as teaching devices for children between the ages of 5 to 9. I still use and carry one in the car in preference to a digital option. (But, I also own an astrolabe and have not purchased a computing device class cell phone.) For adult users in light-polluted environments, IPods and handheld-computing device cell phones (like the IPhone) are a better option but the lighted screens of those devices are inherently incompatible with use at a true dark sky site. The lighted displays destroy night-vision.
The more significant change that handheld-computing device cell phones (as they evolve towards a communicator Star Trek-like tricorder device) is your communicator will deprecate the traditional GOTO scope handbox controller. Future GOTO scopes will no longer include a handbox. Rather the purchaser will be told that there is ``an app for that too,'' and the scope box will only contain a software disk and a connection cable. Considering how much power can go into a modern primitive tri-corders (I mean cell phones), that is probably a good change. The bulky, power-hungry laptop can be left at home, but you will still have an on-site, convenient digital sky chart coupled to a telescope GOTO driver.
Clear Skies - Kurt
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