Astronomicon

We are studying astronomy in science, and Mr. D is using this computer program called Astronomicon. A professor at UGA made it. Mr. D helped with testing so he got a free copy. Unfortunately, it is not for sale yet. Mr. D said he would like Bill Gates to buy it, perfect it, and publicize it and everything because it is a really great program. What you can do is create your own solar system (I think the milky way is preprogrammed on there) and see the effect things like sunlight, a planet's tilt, and different kind of orbits have. We were able see what causes seasons, why the moon has 8 stages, and manipulate the things. You can view your solar system from many different angles or even from the perspective of one of the planets or stars. There are also some other fun impossible things you can do, like see what it would be like if a planet was a cube or cylinder. You can also play around with the shape of an orbit or even the texture of a planet. In fact, you could put a picture of yourself on a planet (or star). There is tons more to do on this program. It was fun to mess around with and a great learning experience.