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Matthias BuschAs computer scientist and enthusiastic amateur astronomer, I have always been interested in the relationship between computers and astronomy. There are many things to calculate in the sky, and today's superfast computers can offer valuable assistance. The graphic representations available today offer numerous possibilities.

I began in about 1990 - back then still in DOS - to simply plot stars on the screen by their celestial coordinates. The next experiment was to show star magnitudes (brightness) with different grey levels; in a darkened room the image of Orion (this was the first constellation I tried) seemed unbelievably realistic.

When time went by I added more functions, till I determined that the program had progressed to a level where it could realistically be offered for sale. So Version 1.0 of "PC Sternhimmel" (as it was called back then) came into being in March 1992. With the addition of further functions "PC Sternhimmel 2.0" was released in March 1994.

In 1994 I started concentrating on the Windows version, this was ready in April 2000. I upgraded from Turbo Pascal (Borland) to Visual C++ (Microsoft), to produce a fully Windows-compatible program.

Time also changed the name of my software: I already had plans to translate the program into English, thus "EasySky" was born.

I am an active member of the Starkenburg Observatory in the Southhessen town of Heppenheim, from 2001 to 2004 I was the president of the astronomy club. Feel free to have a look at the observatory internet site: http://www.starkenburg-sternwarte.de

At the moment my main astronomical interest is the positional measurement (astrometry) of minor planets and comets. We send our observations via email to the Minor Planet Center. which apart from being fun, contributes valuable scientific data to the field of minor planet research. For this reason it is also a central theme of EasySky (for example in the solar system depictions).


    Matthias Busch


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