Here are some impressive samples of what can be done with the Gliese data with a little work. These images were generated by a program written by Mark Smith.

Here is the IBM demo version of the program (about 970K). The demo is in PKZip format, and needs PKUnzip to expand it.

Mark says:

I just thought you might like to see a sample output of my star mapping program. I converted the Gliese database into dBase format and then let my program do the plotting. The filtering parametres I used limited the display somewhat but you get the general idea.

Here are two screen captures of my star map program. They all use the Gliese catalogue data. The first shows stars within five parsecs of Sol, shown in different attitudes. The second is an enlarged section of stars within ten parsecs of Pollux. The program itself can show stars based on any criteria derivable from the catalogue data. It is "eye candy" for the moment, but I am incorporating it into a much more complicated gaming system.

If anyone is interested in the program or how it was written, etc., I would encourage them to contact me. I'm happy to discuss this sort of thing.

Mark Smith

Mark can be reached at vladbath@cris.com.

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