Cassio Casseopeia PDA / MySky Astronomy Software

	Casio Casseopeia PDA Running MySky Astronomy Software

I had a Casseopeia PDA for some time but didn't use it at all since I didn't find any of the standard applications very compelling. When I found out about MySky astronomy software from Software Bisque (www.bisque.com), I was intrigued. An interactive star map that you could hold in the palm of your hand!

This seemed like a possible answer to many of the problems associated with using paper maps in the dark. No more fumbling around with flashlights and trying to find the right page in a set of maps without getting them all mangled. In addition, the software is reasonably priced ($50) and these old PDAs are available cheaply used from sources like eBay. So, I figured I didn't have much to lose and should check it out.

	Specifications Resolution: 240x320 pixels Memory: 32 MB Battery Life: 3 to 6 hours Manufacturer: Casio Computer Cost: $25 - $100, used Date: introduced in 1999 Software: MySky Pocket Edition by Software Bisque
	Advantages Interactive Displays current information for moons and planets and visibility information for other celestial objects Compact and portable Illuminated display easier to deal with than paper maps
	Disadvantages Hardware: Display resolution is low Computer processor speed is slow resulting in an update speed of about 2 frames per second maximum. Software: Unintuitive pan controls Crude depiction of astronomical objects

Link:     MySky Software Screen Shots

First of all, the MySky software is really fun. It's great to use the interactive features to move through the sky and query the computer all about the objects that you can see (and can't see) in the sky. I can't help but to be completely amazed at the fact that humankind has struggled for centuries to understand the changing skies and with this little box, you can easily predict the exact locations of planets, their moons, the distance to the moon to great accuracy, the exact illumination of the moon, the apparent size of all sorts of astronomical objects through different types of telescopes and many, many other interesting things.

The software is mosty intuitive and easy to use. I particularly enjoy browsing the catalog of objects and then looking up their location and magnitude using the star map. There are just a few minor quibbles that have with the software. Probably the most common operation that you will perform with this type of software is to manipulate the view using zoom and pan controls. While the zoom control is intuitive and easy to use, then pan control can be problematic. Rather than having icons for the pan motion (like the magnifying glass icons for zooming), you pan by tapping on the perimeter of the view. Since you can't see the active region of the screen that responds to these taps, your tapping will sometimes be registered as a query about a location in the sky rather than as a pan command. I understand that with the limited screen area of a handheld PDA, there is limited room for displaying buttons and other controls. Still, panning the view this is something that you do so frequently, I could see the rationale for placing little arrow icons on the screen, rather than using the invisible perimeter region control. A second minor quibble has to do with the graphical depiction of astronomical objects.. The depiction of stars and other astronomical objects is somewhat crude. no antialiasing or photographic images are used. instead, objects are represented mostly as scaled circles and ellipses. I understand that the reasons for the stylistic represetation probably have a lot to do with the hardware limitations. For example, providing bitmapped photographic images of the prominant objects would most likely consume far more than the allotted memory and the feeble processing power would probably be unable to scale these images in a reasonable time. Still, I can imagine a day when a handheld device can not only let you know where objects are, but also a rough approximation of what you could expect to see through the eyepiece. That would be truly amazing!

While I'm not yet convinced that current PDA technology is up to the task of completely replacing paper maps, from what I've seen so far, a PDA running astronomy software is definitely a great compliment to paper maps. I think that in the next five to ten years, this technology is likely supercede paper maps almost completely. The main factors currently holding back the technology are the (1) screen resolution (2) processing speed and (3) battery life. Luckily, these continue to improve. I can't wait for PDAs to get just a little better so this type of software can really shine. Until then, I'll enjoy using the little Casseopeia.