***************************************************** ** KStars 1.0: A Desktop Planetarium for KDE ** ***************************************************** Copyright (c) 2001,2002,2003 by The KStars Team: Jason Harris Heiko Evermann Thomas Kabelmann Pablo de Vicente Jasem Mutlaq Mark Hollomon Carsten Niehaus KStars is Free Software, released under the GNU Public License. See COPYING for GPL license information. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Important URLs and files. ----------------------------- The KStars homepage is: http://edu.kde.org/kstars/ You can obtain the latest version at: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=22914 There are instructions for obtaining the latest CVS build at: http://edu.kde.org/kstars/cvs.html Installation instructions are in the file INSTALL. This is the file README. 2. KStars documentation ----------------------- The KStars handbook can be found in your $(TDEDIR)/share/doc/tde/HTML//kstars/ directory. You can also easily access it from the Help menu, or by pressing the [F1] key, or by visiting http://edu.kde.org/kstars/handbook/ In addition, there are the following README files: README: This file; general information README.planetmath: Explanation of algorithms used to compute planet positions README.customize: Advanced customization options README.images: Copyright information for images used in KStars. README.i18n: Instructions for translators 3. Credits ---------- A. The KStars Team Main contributors: Jason Harris Heiko Evermann Thomas Kabelmann Pablo de Vicente Jasem Mutlaq Mark Hollomon Carsten Niehaus B. Data Sources: Most of the catalog data came from the Astronomical Data Center, run by NASA. The website is: http://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ KStars links to the excellent image collections and HTML pages put together by the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, at: http://www.seds.org KStars links to the online Digitized Sky Survey images, which you can query at: http://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_form KStars links to images from the HST Heritage project, and from HST press releases: http://heritage.stsci.edu http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr.html KStars links to images from the Advanced Observer Program at Kitt Peak National Observatory. If you are interested in astrophotography, you might consider checking out their program: http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/ Credits for each image used in the program are listed in README.images C. Acknowledgements KStars is a labor of love. It started as a personal hobby of mine, but very soon after I first posted the code on Sourceforge, it started to attract other developers. I am just completely impressed and gratified by my co-developers. I couldn't ask for a more talented, friendly crew. It goes without saying that KStars would be nowhere near what it is today without their efforts. Together, we've made something we can all be proud of. We used (primarily) two books as a guide in writing the algorithms used in KStars: + "Practical Astronomy With Your Calculator" by Peter Duffett-Smith + "Astronomical Algorithms" by Jean Meeus Thanks to the developers of Qt and KDE whose peerless API made KStars possible. Thanks also to the tireless efforts of the KDE translation teams, who bring KStars to a global audience. Thanks to everyone at the KDevelop message boards and on irc.kde.org, for answering my frequent questions. Thanks also to the many users who have submitted bug reports or other feedback. You're still reading this? :) Well, that's about it. I hope you enjoy KStars! Jason Harris kstars@30doradus.org KStars Development Mailing list kstars-devel@kde.org Send us ideas and feedback!