EDITORIAL INFORMATION

Take a trip through the infinite world of space. Visit the mysterious moons of Saturn - ride Halley's Comet as it zooms towards Earth - track the planetary systems as they orbit the Sun. Redshift's scientifically accurate 3D simulation of the Solar System takes you on a voyage of unparalleled realism. Unlock astronomy's secrets - from black holes to the Big Bang. Breathtaking narrated 3D animated tours let you watch the birth of a star or stand by as our Solar System is formed - over 30 minutes of original movie-quality animation reveals the wonders of our Universe. Travel through time - over 15,000 years. Real time celestial mechanics software plots the positions of 250,000 stars - travel back in time to view the night sky seen by the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt - or simulate eclipses recorded in Ancient Chinese manuscripts. View incredible images of space. Browse more than 700 stunning astrophotographs - watch video of man'sfirst journeys into space as they actually happened - follow hypertext links to more than 2,000 entries in Penguin's richly illustrated Dictionary of Astronomy.

(Extracted from the back cover).

OUR REVIEW

Certainly, astronomical simulators have experienced a great technical leap forward in the last few years. Thanks to the development of the CD-ROM, this kind of programs can now mix speed of execution, video, sound, a great amount of data, etc., and all this spiced with an outstanding graphic quality. Redshift 2 is the new version of a planetarium program which happens to be noteworthy in itself. In this occasion, its designers have looped the loop by offering us a product that turns out to be highly recommendable and aimed at all sorts of users. It is a program that will allow us both to learn and to enjoy ourselves for sure. Redshift 2 lets us explore faraway worlds with a photo-realistic aspect, thanks to the information and maps supplied by the space agencies, yet what may be even more interesting is the possibility it allows us to attend previously defined guided tours, which will give us a good idea about what it can show and offer us. 20 tutorials are also included, as well as a section devoted to space flights.

The handling of the different options is very simple, since it is done via several menus, or through graphic displays of what we could call "remote controls", whose buttons allow us to do almost anything. Anyhow, its printed manual, being both a wonderful and very simple one, will dispel any doubts we may have. Among the most noteworthy characteristics (besides those that any desk planetarium must have) are the inclusion of the animations of some concepts and astronomical phenomena, the possibility of placing ourselves onto a comet, asteroid or spaceship and travel with them through the entire solar system (thus obtaining new, spectacular perspectives), a complete control of the presentation of stars, the presence of numerous photos as well as the maps of the surface of the Earth, the Moon, Mars and Venus. In addition to all that, the sky can be seen through a great variety of geometric perspectives, and a status bar gets us informed at all times about where we are looking at, where we are, our field of vision, etc. One of the most useful aspects are the filters (of objects, stars, deep sky, asteroids and comets, as well as constellations), which allows for a great flexibility about what we want and what we don't want to see on screen. The time period the program can span through ranges from the year 4712 B.C. till the year 11000 A.D. Many handling tools of all kinds are likewise provided - for information and situation, for searching, etc. It also is possible to get reports about ephemerides and visibility, to find interesting events (conjunctions, eclipses...) and look up a comprehensive, very complete dictionary of astronomy. Certainly, we also have the useful option to print our own sky charts.

To work, the program needs a compatible PC 386-486 or better, with at least 8 MB of RAM memory, a CD-ROM player of double speed, Windows 3.1 or better, and a VGA graphic screen (256 colors). This same CD-ROM can work with a Mac.