         EZCosmos (c) copyright 1984-1992 by Future Trends Software, Inc.
                        All rights reserved worldwide

             README file for EZCosmos for Windows version 4.01

    The technical support number for EZCosmos for Windows is 214.224.3279

                             OUR FAX NUMBER

                    You can FAX us at 214.224.3328
 
This file contains information on features in EZCosmos for Windows
software that do not appear in the manual or help documentation.


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PRECESSION

  Spherical Projections

The spherical projections can now be precessed by selecting
the Precess command in the Tools menu.  This feature has
been added for those who wish to exactly duplicate astromonical
events that occured in the distant past or future or for those
who are interested in exact coordinates of stars and planets.  
Precession is not computed automatically in the spherical projections.
This means if you change your date to a time far in the past 
or future you must use the precess command to adjust the stars 
correctly relative to the planets.  The planets are automatically
precessed.  The epoch at which the stars are precessed is 
displayed in the caption of the main window.

Please note that if your currently selected date is significantly 
different than your epoch date, centering on stars will not
function correctly.  The star you wish to center upon will
not be centered upon.  THIS IS A INDICATION THAT YOU NEED
TO EXCUTE THE PRECESS COMMAND.

  Mercator/Polar Projections

The Mercator/Polar projections are automatically precessed, however
the grid displayed is always an epoch 2000 grid.

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ZENITH COMMAND

Use this command to center the Sky Display on your current zenith.

To center on your current zenith
   1. Choose the Find command from the Tools menu or press the F key
      to display the Object Find dialog box.
   2. Type ZENITH into the Find text box.
   3. Choose the Find button or press ENTER.

The Sky Display is centered on your zenith.

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ZOOM COMMAND

Use this command to change the field width of the Sky Display to any radius
in the Mercator or Polar projections.

To zoom to any field width
   1. Choose the Find command from the Tools menu or press the F key
      to display the Object Find dialog box.
   2. Type Z followed by a number between 1 and 180.  For example, 
      Z100.
   3. Choose the Find button. 

The Sky Display is adjusted to the new field width.  Note: You may also
press the Z key from the Sky Display to display the Object Find dialog box.
This automatically places the letter Z into the Find text box.  Simply 
enter the new field width and press ENTER.

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The Object Identification dialog box can be closed by pressing the right 
mouse button. 

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FINDING OBJECTS BY THEIR GREEK DESIGNATION

You can search for an object by its Greek designation using the Find 
command.  For example, to find the star Alpha Orionis (Betelguese),
type the Greek letter followed by the constellation abbreviation.

Find: ALPHA ORI

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PRINTING GREEK SYMBOLS

Use the Print Greek Symbols option in the Page Setup command in the File
menu to print the star's Greek designation on output star charts.  This
option significantly increases the time required to print star charts.

Note: The Greek Symbols are not supported in Windows 3.0 and print out as
      normal characters (a,b,c...).  

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NARRATION OF OBJECTS

While listening to an object's narration, pressing the Sound button on the
Object Identification dialog box ends the narration.

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COMMON QUESTIONS/PROBLEMS 

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Q.  Does EZCosmos for Windows support higher resolution video boards and 
    monitors? (i.e. 1024x768 256 colors, etc.)
A.  YES.

You must install a video driver (the software that communicates with the 
hardware) from Windows Setup (or use the DOS-based Setup application) 
that allows your system to take advantage of the higher resolutions.  
The type of video resolutions that can be displayed in any Windows 
application depend ENTIRELY upon your video board and monitor and the 
device driver currently installed and have absolutely nothing to do 
with any application running under Windows.

In short, Windows takes care of all the communication between the hardware
and software, and applications running under Windows (such as EZCosmos) 
communicate with Windows to determine screen resolutions,
printer resolutions, etc.

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MESSIER OBJECTS

EZCosmos indexes the Messier Catalog as a subset of the New Guide Catalog.
M102 was erroneously cataloged as a unique object and is believed to be a 
duplicate observation of M101.  Therefore, M102 is not listed in the 
Messier Objects list.

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HORSEHEAD NEBULA

The region of Zeta Orionis contains The Horsehead Nebula (IC434) 
and NGC2024.  When the Objects with Pictures command is selected from
the Label menu, NGC2024 is labeled as having a picture.  This is actually
a picture of IC434-The Horsehead Nebula.  

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USING THE RANDOM SOUND FILE OPTION

The default sound filename is CRICKET.WAV and is played between 2 and 20
seconds (default values) at random intervals when the sound button on the
Control Panel is depressed and you have a sound board installed.  You will
occasionally hear the short chirp of a cricket.  

Selecting a longer narration file for the random sound filename 
(i.e. NGC1976.WAV) using the Sound command from the Options menu causes
problems.  This narration file is played at program start-up by default, 
and continues playing until it is finished or until the time at which 
the random sound file is to be played again, usually the latter.  The 
result is that a narration file plays continuously while the program 
is running.

TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM:
   1. Toggle off the random sound playing by clicking the Sound Button
      on the Control Panel. 
   2. Choose the Sound command from the Options menu to display the 
      Sound dialog box.
   3. Select a sound file that is shorter in time (such as CRICKET.WAV).
   4. Toggle on the random sound playing option by clicking the Sound
      button on the Control Panel.

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PRINTING HIGH RESOLUTION STAR CHARTS

Your laser printer may require extra memory to print star charts at 300
dots per inch.

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SKYW.INI

[PRINTER]
scalefactor=90

You can add the above command to the SKYW.INI file to scale the size of the 
output star chart.  Some printer drivers return the incorrect page size.  
Type in a scalefactor between 100 and 50 to scale down the output star 
chart so that it fits on the page.

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OBJECT IDENTIFICATION

Additional textual information is now included with many NGC objects.  
If an NGC object has additional information stored on disk, the "More Info"
button is enabled on the Object Identification dialog box.  To view this 
information, choose the More Info button.

The Notepad application displays a text file containing interesting facts 
about the object.  

You can create your own text files with any text editor, then place these 
text files in the \TXT directory in your EZCosmos directory.  The file name
must have the following format:

                NGCxxxx.txt

where xxxx is a FOUR digit number representing the NGC catalog number.  
For example, a text file with information about NGC224's would have 
the name NGC0224.TXT.

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