ASTROPHYS

SPREADSHEET ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

1-2-3 Template Library
For Solving Astronomy Problems
Menu- and Macro-Driven

ASTROPHYS is a very complete and sophisticated computational package that should interest professional physicists, physics and astronomy students as well as astronomers and astrophysicists. It can be likened to a handbook that permits interactive computations. You can create your own unique sets of tables and graphs of mathematical functions or of physical quantities and perform complex physics and mathematical calculations. If you want to go beyond the basic templates, you have at your disposal all the tools and utilities of the spreadsheet program to customize output, import data for analysis, format the entries, and modify the templates to incorporate additional functions.

ASTROPHYS includes general astronomy calculations, plus attenuation of UV, X-ray, and gamma-ray radiation, passage of charged particles through matter, Fresnel reflectivity of X-rays, synchrotron radiation, plasma parameters, Planck functions, vacuum physics, X-ray detector efficiency, advanced transcendental functions, numerical differentiation and integration, roots of equations, linear least squares and polynomial curve fitting, statistics of data, statistical distributions, and more.

Since a given template comes on screen with an example problem already solved, the entry of data for a new problem is very clear. The spreadsheet format also facilitates "what if" calculations where you wish to change only a few among many parameters before reinitiating a calculation.

A comprehensive user's manual provides a complete description of the formulae and algorithms used along with literature citations. A complete worked out example and examples of hard-copy output are presented in the manual. The programs are based on the algorithms and formulae in Meeus' "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators", Zombeck's "Handbook of Space Astronomy and Astrophysics" and the Nautical Almanac. In some cases, a scientific journal article has been consulted for the computational algorithm.

The templates are called by a main menu and a series of submenus. The templates are:

GENERAL

  • Unit Conversions
  • Fundamental Physical Constants
  • Astronomical Constants
  • Periodic Table
ASTRONOMY
  • Julian Date and Heliocentric Julian Date conversion
  • Conversion between ephemeris and universal time
  • Mean and apparent sidereal time
  • Conversion between equatorial and horizon coordinates
  • Conversion between equatorial and ecliptic coordinates
  • Conversion between equatorial and galactic coordinates
  • Precession of coordinates from one epoch to another
  • Reduction to apparent place
  • Reduction to topocentric place
  • Angular separation
  • Time of Moon phases
  • Coordinates of the Sun for any instant
  • Planetary elements and positions for any instant
  • Ephemeris for a visual binary star system
  • Heliocentric radial velocity of an object
  • Relative air mass between an observer and an object
  • Times of sunrise, sunset, and twilight
  • Time of rising and setting of an object
  • Visibility of a celestial object
  • Positions of Jupiter's satellites for any instant
  • Absolute spectral and photon irradiance of an object
  • Astrometric plate reductions
  • Tabulation and display of mean star density
  • Tabulation of bright stars
  • FK-4, FK-5 Conversions
  • Interstellar absorption in the X-ray band
  • X-ray model spectra
COSMOLOGY
  • Relativistic look-back time
RADIATION
  • Planck radiation functions
PLASMA PHYSICS
  • Plasma parameters
EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS
  • UV and XUV absorption
  • X-ray absorption
  • X-ray photoelectric cross-sections
  • X-ray and gamma-ray absorption
  • X-ray reflectivity
  • X-ray detection efficiency
  • Electron ionization loss
  • Particle ionization loss
  • Electron ranges
  • Heavy particle ranges
  • Synchrotron radiation
  • Vacuum physics
MATHEMATICS
  • Advanced transcendental functions
  • Numerical integration
  • Gauss-Legendre quadrature
  • Graphics utility (including parametric plane curves)
  • Linear least squares
  • Polynomial fitting
  • Simultaneous linear equations
  • Lagrangian interpolation
STATISTICS
  • Normal distribution
  • Poisson distribution
  • Summary statistics
System Requirements:

If you can run Lotus 1-2-3 (DOS or 1-2-3 Classic Window), you can run ASTROPHYS.

PRICE: $105.00

This price includes the user's manual and shipping to all U.S. cities. All foreign orders add $10.00.

Send check, P.O., or money order to:

SCIENCE.wks
42 Fletcher Street
Winchester, MA 01890
e-mail: mvz@tiac.net

Back to Science.wks home page