** STARDATE ** ** USER'S GUIDE ** For STARDATE, version 1.2 Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, 1986 All Materials Copyright (c) 1986, Ted A. Campbell .pn 1 CONTENTS Part A: What is STARDATE? .................................... 2 Part B: Getting Started with STARDATE ........................ 3 Part C: Getting to Know STARDATE ............................. 5 Part D: STARDATE Reference Information ....................... 11 Part E: Reference Bibliography ............................... 12 Part F: Copyright and Correspondence Information ............. 13 .he Part A: What is STARDATE? Page # Part A: WHAT IS STARDATE? STARDATE is a program for small computers which provides accurate calendar and almanac information. Nearly everyone needs current almanac information. For writers, historians, journalists, and others, there is need for more than current information. We often need to know about dates in the distant, or not so distant, past, or about future dates. STARDATE has been designed as aid to historical research, and to all fields of inquiry which rely on historical information. Using STARDATE, you can find calendars, astronomical data, and historical information about particular dates that will help you "locate" events in their his torical contexts. STARDATE provides calendar and almanac information for the forty- five centuries between 2000 BCE (or BC) and 2500 CE (or AD). For any date in this period, it will provide a calendar, information on the rising and setting of the sun, and information on the phase of the moon. For dates on which both Julian and Gregorian calendars were in effect, it will provide a comparative calendar. .he Part A: Getting Started Page # Part B: Getting Started With STARDATE 1. Installing STARDATE on Your Computer Here is the procedure you should follow to get STARDATE working on your own computer: 1. Format a diskette according to the instructions in your com puter's manual. Place a copy of your computer's operating system on this diskette according to the instructions in your computer's manual. [For PCs and compatible computers, this operation is part of the FORMAT command; for CP/M computers you must perform a SYSGEN or COPYSYS to accomplish this.] 2. Copy the necessary STARDATE files to your newly formatted diskette. [For PCs and compatible computers, this is accomplished with the COPY command; for CP/M computers, this is accomplished with the PIP command.] You should copy at least the following files: SD.COM or SD.EXE (The main program: COM for CP/M, EXE for MSDOS/PCDOS) SD.PAR (A file of changeable parameters) SD-MAN.DOC (This document) You may need other files in order to install STARDATE on your computer. 3. If you have a CP/M computer, copy the file SD-PATCH.DOC to learn how to patch STARDATE for your computer or terminal. Patches already exist for some CP/M computers, including KayPros and Osbornes. 4. If you have an IBM PC (tm) or compatible computer, copy the file ANSI.SYS from your master DOS diskette to the new disk you have created. Edit or create a file named CONFIG.SYS and include the following line in it: device=ansi.sys Your computer has to know this in order to configure the screen properly for using STARDATE. 5. Label this diskette (we'll call it your "working copy" of STARDATE) as your STARDATE program disk, so you'll know which one it is. 2. A Trial Run of STARDATE Entering the Program. In order to run STARDATE, place your working copy in drive "A" of your computer. [For CP/M computers, you'll need to hit a ^C to let the machine know you've put a new diskette in.] At the "A>" prompt, type the following: A>SD Welcome Screen. After some whirring around, you'll see the STARDATE Welcome Screen. The program will ask you for the current date. Enter the year, a number for the month (1 for January, 12 for December, etc.), and the day, as you are prompted. Follow each entry with a . Today Screen. If you have entered the date correctly, you'll have to wait a little while, then you'll see the STARDATE Today Screen. Notice the information on this screen: a current calendar, the day of the week and date, times for dawn, sunrise, sunset, and dusk, and the phase of the moon. Entering a New Date. Want to explore just a little farther? Hit the "E" key, then the "A" key (the meaning of all the prompts will be explained in due time), then enter a date as you are prompted. You might want to enter the date when you were born. If you enter the date correctly, you'll see the STARDATE Quick Date Screen, with a calendar for the date you entered. Exiting from STARDATE. To exit from STARDATE, hit the "X" key, and there you are back in your operating system (CP/M or MSDOS). .he Getting to Know STARDATE Page # Part C: Getting to Know STARDATE 1. The Today Screen General Description. The Today Screen appears after you have entered the current date, and can be called from any screen by using the "T" option. It provides information about the current date, and is a sort of "base for the rest of the program. The Calendar. The upper left hand corner of the Today Screen displays a calendar for the current month, with today's date highlighted. Current Date Information The middle top of the Today Screen displays the current date written out, and the day of the week. Solar Phenomena. Given a particular day of the year, and a parti cular position on the earth, it is possible to calculate the times of the sun's rising and setting, and of the first and last light of the day. Just after you entered the current date on the Welcome Screen, STARDATE calculated these phenomena for the current date, and stored them in memory. Times given for early dawn, sunrise, sunset, and late dusk are in a twenty-four hour format, and are corrected for Daylight Savings Time in the United States. Lunar Phenomena. It is also possible to calculate the phase of the moon for any particular date. It takes the moon about 29.5 days to complete its cycle of waxing to full and then waning to new again. The number given for "Phase" of the moon by STARDATE is the number of days the moon has progressed in its current cycle up until the beginning of the day at midnight. The expression in parentheses below explaining the current phase in rather more proper (though less accurate) English. Local Time. The Today Screen shows, in the upper right hand corner, the current time system in effect if it is within one of the four U.S. time zones (thus, it will show EST, EDT, CST, CDT, MST, MDT, PST, or PDT). 2. The Quick Date Screen General Description. The STARDATE Quick Date screen gives you minimal information on a particular date; namely, the calendar, and the day of the week. The Quick Date Screen is entered by the "Q" command. It is called the "Quick Date Screen" because, unlike the Full Date Screen and other screens, it does not display astronomical information or com parative calendar information that might take longer to calculate. 3. Next and Previous Dates General Description. STARDATE allows you to move rapidly to the next or previous date at any point by using the "N" and "P" commands. Either of these commands will redraw the screen to show the appropriate date information. Currently Selected Screen. Whenever you use the "N," "P," or "E" commands ("E" enters a new date), the screen is redrawn using the pre sently selected screen format. That is, if you are presently looking at the Quick Date Screen of a particular date, and you press "N," you will be shown the Quick Date Screen for the next date. If you are currently looking at the Full Date Screen and press "N," you'll be shown the Full Date Screen for the next date. The only exception to this rule is the Today Screen, which cannot be a currently selected screen. Thus, if you view a Quick Date Screen, then the Today Screen, then request the next date (using "N"), you will see the Quick Date Screen for the next date after the date you had seen on the previous Quick Date Screen. The Today Screen, then, can be called up at any point, without breaking the sequence of screens and dates you had been looking at previously. Initial Date and Screen Setting. When you enter STARDATE, the Quick Date Screen is selected as the current screen, and the current date is selected as the working date. Thus if, immediately after entering the program, you press "N," you will see the Quick Date Screen for the day after the present date. 4. Entering a New Date General Description. Here's where STARDATE starts working hard. If you press the "E" key, you'll see a window on the right hand side of your screen that will allow you to enter a new working date. From this point, you can select any date between 2000 BCE and 2499 CE, and STARDATE will provide you with calendar and almanac information for that date. Entry Selection: Gregorian or Julian Calendar Dates, Julian Day Numbers. Before you enter a date, however, you'll have to tell STARDATE what sort of date you wish to enter. European calendar systems have changed between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, and STARDATE will not know exactly which date you are entering unless you first specify the date entry type at this point. Gregorian Calendar Entry. The "A" option at this point selects a Gregorian Calendar entry. The Gregorian calendar was instituted (under Pope Gregory XIII) in 1582, and was adopted by most Roman Catholic countries in October of that year. It was not adopted in all places until later. In England (and in England's American Colonies), it was not adopted until September of 1752. This is the option to select if you want to enter a date in the current calendar we use today; but it will be inappropriate before 1582 in all cases. [For dates between 1582 and 1752, you'll have to set the Default Calendar transition to "1" -- see below under "Setting Defaults" -- if you want to enter a Gregorian Calendar Date.] Julian Calendar Entry. The "B" option at this point selects a Julian Calendar entry. The Julian Calendar was originally instituted by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE, but has been extended by scholars to dates prior to that time. It was the calendar in effect in Europe until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar (which was based on it). For any date prior to 1582, you'll have to enter a Julian date. Julian Day Number Entry. A third entry option at this point is Julian Day Number entry -- option "C" in the date entry window. The "Julian Day Number" (not to be confused with the Julian Calendar -- there were two different Juliuses!) is an absolute count of days since January 1, 4613 BCE (Julian calendar reckoning). It is sometimes used by astro nomers for precisely calculating events. Julian Day Numbers in the twen tieth century, for example, are in the two-million range. Entry of Gregorian or Julian Calendar Dates. If you have selected the "A" or "B" entry options (which you will normally use), you will be prompted for a year, month, and day for the date you want. Note that the month should be entered as a number between 1 and 12. Be carefull: STARDATE will check your entries (after you have entered all three numbers), and will start over again if it detects an inappropriate date. STARDATE checks to be sure that the year is in range (it will reject a Gregorian date entry prior to 1582), that the month is between 1 and 12, and that the day of the month is below 31, 30, 29 or 28 (yes, it knows what years are leap years). Once you have successfully entered a date by the date entry window, you'll be shown the currently selected screen for the date you have entered. 5. The Full Date Screen General Description Although the Quick date screen is helpful for rapidly finding dates (especially for using the "N" and "P" options), you may wish to see fuller almanac information. The Full Date Screen pro vides such information. In addition to the calendar information given by the Quick date screen, the Full Date screen provides times for early dawn, sunrise, sunset, and late dusk, and indicates the phase of the moon. Although the phase of the moon is not place-dependent, the times for solar phenomena are. In order to change the place selected, you'll need to use the "Change Defaults ("D") option described below. In the Full Date Screen, times for solar phenomena are not corrected for Day light Savings Time. 6. The Comparative Date Screen General Description. Sometimes you may wish to see a comparison of Julian and Gregorian calendars for a particular date after 1582. The comparative date screen simply prints the calendars (for the same date) side by side. 7. Changing the Defaults General Description. In order to obtain correct solar information, STARDATE has to know the precise place for which you want information. The Change Defaults Window ("D" option) allows you to change these para meters either temporarily or permanently. When you first call up the "D" option, STARDATE will draw a window on the right hand side of your screen. In this window, you will see the current default parameters shown in square brackets ( <...> ). You will be asked whether you want to change the parameters. Enter a "Y" or "N" (by the way, it doesn't matter whether you use upper or lower case for this and other single- entry commands). If you enter "N" you will return to the currently selected date and screen. Entry of Place Parameters. If you selected the "Y" option to change the parameters, you'll be prompted for three bits of information about the place you wish to select. First you need to know the Latitude of the place. Enter a number between -65 and 65. Southern Latitudes are nega tive, northern latitudes are positive. You can add decimal points for accuracy in entering latitude and longitude. Then you'll be prompted for the Longitude. Enter a number between -180 and 180. Longitudes west of Greenwich (that includes all of North America) are negative, longitudes east of Greenwich are positive. Then you'll be prompted for the zone. Here you should enter an integer (no decimal points) between -12 and 12 indicating the time difference between the place you are selecting and Greenwich. Again, places west of Greenwich, including North America, will have negative zone numbers. For your reference, the major U.S. time zone numbers are as follows: Eastern -5 Central -6 Mountain -7 Pacific -8 Place Name Entry. After the place parameters, you'll be asked for a place name. Enter up to forty characters, but do not use whitespace (blanks, commas, or other punctuation). You can use hyphens or asterisks here if you need to separate words. Calendar Transition Entry. After the place name, you'll be prompted for the calendar transition, and you must enter 0, 1 or 2. These arbi trary numbers signify the following: 0 English/American Calendar Transition 1 Continental Calendar Transition 2 Continuous Julian calendar The calendar transition indicates the date on which the transition from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar occurred, and is important when the Quick, Full, and Comparative Date Screens move to the next or previous days ("N" or "P"). The default setting is 0 (transition from 2 September to 14 September 1752). Setting 1 selects transition from 4 October to 15 October 1582, which was the correct date for Roman Catholic countries. Setting 2 simply curtails calculation of transitions, meaning all dates will be represented as Julian. Temporary or Permanent Save. Finally, the Change Defaults Window will prompt you for a "T" or "P" to indicate whether you wish to make the default parameter changes temporary or permanent. If you enter "T," the settings will remain in effect until you exit the program or change them again. If you enter "P," the file "SD.PAR" (StarDate PARameters) will be erased and replaced by a new file (on the default drive) containing the parameters you have entered. Next time you enter STARDATE, these para meters will be in effect. .he Part D: STARDATE Reference Information Page # Part D: STARDATE Reference Information Valid Dates: Calendar Entry: Beginning: Ending: Julian 1 Jan 2000 BCE 31 Dec 2499 CE Gregorian 15 Oct 1582 CE 31 Dec 2499 CE Julian Day Number 990558 2634166 Accuracy of Astronomical Data: Solar: Within three minutes of time for Gregorian calendar; less accurate for Julian dates; Lunar: Phase, within 6 hours accuracy; thus the day indicated could be as much as one day off, with greater accuracy in more recent dates. .he Part E: STARDATE Bibliography Page # Part E: Reference Bibliography Almanac for Computers. Washington, D.C.: United States Naval Observa tory Nautical Almanac Office, 1986. The Astronomical Almanac for the Year 1986. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, and London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1986. Burgess, Eric, Celestial Basic: Astronomy on Your Computer. Berkeley, CA: Sybex Inc., 1982. Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Ephemeris and the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1961. Finegan, Jack, Handbook of Biblical Chronology: Principles of Time Reckoning in the Ancient World and Problems of Chronology in the Bible. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1964. Goldstine, Hermon H., New and Full Moons 1001 B.C. to A.D. 1651. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1973. Scaliger, Joseph Justus, Thesaurus Temporum. 2 vols. Reprint edition: Osnabrueck: Otto Zeller, 1968. .he Part F: Copyright, Correspondence Page # PART F: Copyright and Correspondence Information STARDATE is copyright (c) 1986 by Ted A. Campbell. Version 1.2 of the program has been released into the public domain for general use and enjoyment. You are free to copy the program, and the files related to it, as you will as long as no copyright notices are removed or altered. I'm not inclined to release the source code. It was written in C, the CP/M version was compiled with the Eco-C compiler, and the MSDOS version was compiled with the Microsoft C compiler. If you have further questions, I may be able to respond. Please write (don't call): Ted A. Campbell 7 Winchester Ct. Durham, NC 27707