Gourt > Science > Astronomy > Software > Toolkits and Observing Utilities
A public utility is a company that maintains the infrastructure for a public service. Public utilities often involve natural monopolies, and as a result are often government monopolies, or if privately owned, treated as specially regulated sectors. Public utilities can be privately owned or publicly owned. Publicly owned utilities include cooperative and municipal utilities. Municipal utilities may actually include territories outside of city limits or may not even serve the entire city. Cooperative utilities are owned by the customers they serve. They are usually found in rural areas. Private utilities, also called investor owned utilities, are owned by investors. Unlike public companies, private utilities may be listed on the stock exchange. Private, in this context, means not owned by the public or the government.
In poorer developing countries, public utilities are often limited to wealthier parts of major cities, as used to be the case in developed countries in the nineteenth century.
Examples of utilities are:
- Electric Utility, which in some instances can be Electric power transmission or electricity distribution
- Drinking water purification and distribution
- Sewage treatment and disposal
- Other waste disposal
- Natural gas distribution
- District heat generation and distribution
- Public transport by bus, train, etc.
- Cable television and telephone lines
Young Galaxy's Magnetic Field Is Surprisingly Strong
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:53:00 -0400
Current models indicate that the magnetic fields that enclose galaxies grow slowly over billions of years. But scientists have used a telescope to peer back millions of years in time and discovered a distant galaxy with a magnetic field at least 10 times the average strength.
SpaceX Celebrates First Successful Rocket Launch
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:53:00 -0400
SpaceX's flagship Falcon1 rocket has successfully launched from an island in the central Pacific, becoming the first privately-developed rocket to orbit the planet. NASA has already contracted SpaceX to begin private space flight missions to the International Space Station beginning in 2010.
Computer Malfunction Delays Hubble Mission
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:31:00 -0400
NASA has postponed a planned repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope after a new problem developed with the orbiting observatory. Ed Weiler, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, explains why repairs won't take place until Feb. 2009 — at the earliest.
For Young Chinese, Spacewalk An Indicator Of Might
Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:05:00 -0400
China on Saturday will become only the third nation — after Russia and the United States — to carry out a spacewalk. The event will be broadcast live nationwide. This milestone underscores China's technological achievements and is boosting national pride.
Solar Winds, Crucial To Life On Earth, Decreasing
Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:45:00 -0400
Solar winds — invisible gas plasma emitted by the Sun — protect the solar system from cosmic rays that are hostile to terrestrial life. But new data from the Ulysses NASA probe indicate solar wind output is lower than has ever been previously documented.
Chinese Astronauts Prepare To Walk In Space
Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:57:00 -0400
China is getting ready to launch its third human spaceflight mission Thursday. It will feature China's first spacewalk. China seems determined to expand its capabilities in space, and a NASA official says that when American astronauts return to the moon, they may find that the Chinese have been there.
AstroNotes - [commercial - Windows] A tool for recording observations and planning future observing sessions. Allows tracking of progress on common amateur observing programs (Messier, Herschel).
AstroPy - [open source - multiplatform] Development and integration of tools and numerical algorithms into the Python scripting language.
Automated Variable Star Observing - [freeware - Linux] Command-line program to automate reduction of variable star CCD images.
Meta Description: [ AVSOMAT home page--software package
to automate variable star observing ]
C88 - an informational tool for amateur astronomers - C88 provides detailed informations about the celestial sphere objects, visible with naked eyes and for the use of an eyepiece of a modest amateur telescope to observe deep sky objects.
Meta Description: [ Provides detailed information about stars: positions, proper motion, radial velocity, magnitudes, spectral class, color index, catalogue references, data about multiple star systems (i.e. orbital elements), data about variability (min./max. brightness, period, type of variability) and more. ]
Calendar software - Windows program which creates sundials and calendars, see the dates and names of the year's moons, and calculate Easter.
Deepsky 99 - Software for Observers - [shareware - Win95/98/NT] Deepsky 99 solves an important need for amateur and professional observers. The software allows the user to plan a productive observing session and record what was observed quickly and easily.
Meta Description: [ Deepsky Astronomy Software. Star charts, observing log, planning, database, telescope control, imaging, spreadsheet and incredible DVD space images. Control your meade telescope with Deepsky! ]
Epoch_2000 Temporal Epoch Calculator - Excel spreadsheet calculates temporal variation in astronomic constants, obliquity of the ecliptic, and illumination angles at any specified latitude. You need only input a date or the latitude.
Meta Description: [ Download an Excel spreadsheet to calculate temporal variation in astronomic ]
GeoAstro Applet Collection - [commercial freeware - multiplatform] Interactive Java applets display the position, daily and annual path of the sun and the moon, for any time and location.
Meta Description: [ Interactive Java applets (JARS Top Rated!) display the position of the sun and the moon on the horizon for any date, time and location, and on a world map with day and night regions. The times of rise and setting, the declination, the Greenwich hour angle and the equation of time are computed ]
JPL Planetary and Lunar Ephemerides - [commercial - multiplatform] This CD contains three Jet Propulsion Laboratory Planetary and Lunar Ephemerides along with a toolbox of FORTRAN subroutines that allow the user to obtain the coordinates of the Sun, Moon, and nine major planets.
Meta Description: [ Willmann-Bell, Inc. publishers and booksellers serving the Astronomy Community since 1973. ]
LunarPhase - [commercial, demo available - Win95/98/NT] A comprehensive tool for displaying a variety of information on the Moon and aspects of its behaviour.
Moon Tool - [Windows] A desktop application that displays the times of the various phases of the moon and a picture of the current phase of the moon.
Meta Description: [ Moontool for Windows ]
Moonclock - [shareware - MacOS] Real-time graphical representation of the lunar visual aspect for any time/date/location. Elongation, PA bright limb, RA, DEC, percent illuminated, alt/az, heliocentric lat/long, distance, and radius.
Multiyear Interactive Computer Almanac - [commercial - DOS, Macintosh] A software system that provides high-precision astronomical data in tabular form for a wide variety of objects; it calculates much of the information tabulated in the benchmark annual publication, The Astronomical Almanac, but it goes beyond traditional almanacs by enabling you to calculate data for specified locations at specified times within a fifteen year interval (1990-2005).
Meta Description: [ Willmann-Bell, Inc. publishers and booksellers serving the Astronomy Community since 1973. ]
NGCView - [commercial, demo available - Win95/98/NT] Astronomical Observation Suite - Astronomical observation and logging software.
Meta Description: [ NGCView - Astronomical Observation Suite - Astronomical Planning, Charting and Logging Software for Windows 95,98,NT and 2000 ]
PyEphem - [open source - multiplatform] A module for performing astronomical computations using the Python scripting language.
SBIG Linux Kernel/Library Module - This page contains Linux Kernel/Library Module for SBIG CCD Cameras
Meta Description: [ This page contains Linux kernel driver for SBIG LPT CCD cameras,
including accompanying object oriented libraries and test application. ]
SkySight - [commercial, Win/Mac] CCD camera control and image processing, includes SkyChart III.
Starchart - Star mapping software - [opensource - POSIX] There is a sky. There are things in the sky. This program draws maps of things in the sky.
Meta Description: [ There is a sky. There are things in the sky. This program draws maps of things in the sky. ]
StarTrak - Freeware for handheld computers to help find and track objects of the night sky.
Meta Description: [ Freeware for Psion handhelds to help you find
and track objects of the night sky. Well suited to Dobsonians. ]
STD Aurora Monitor Software - [commercial - Win95/98/NT/2000] Advanced auroral activity monitoring software.
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