PRESS RELEASE
November 26, 2000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“THE DIGITAL UNIVERSE” MACINTOSH ASTRONOMY SIMULATION SOFTWARE NOW SHIPPING
URL: http://www.syz.com/DU/mac/
Just in time for Christmas, Syzygy Research & Technology Ltd. is pleased to
announce that after more than four years of development, our revolutionary
astronomy simulation software package, “The Digital Universe”, is now
shipping. We now have copies of the product in stock and in most cases are
able to ship orders within 24 hours.
Some of the key features of “The Digital Universe” include:
– The user has the ability to view and retrieve extensive information on
any of the approximately 20 million objects provided with the software,
including stars, galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, the planets and their
moons, comets, asteroids, and Earth-orbiting spacecraft and satellites.
– The software can generate views of the night sky for any date from
100,000 BC to 100,000 AD for any location on Earth, with a professional
level of accuracy considering the complete theoretical models for effects
such as precession, proper motion, nutation, aberration, refraction, light
travel time, and general relativity. “The Digital Universe” is the most
accurate astronomical simulator commercially available, even including an
enhancement to the current theory of lunar motion (ELP2000-85) developed
specifically for the software, enabling the position of the Moon to be
determined to an accuracy of better than 100 metres. This makes the program
ideal for lunar occultation predictions.
– A companion software package provided with “The Digital Universe”,
entitled “3DStars”, allows you to fly a “virtual spaceship” throughout the
nearby universe, enabling travel thousands of light years from the Sun
using the most precise three dimensional stellar position information
currently available.
– A multimedia encyclopedia of astronomy several thousand pages long is
integrated into the package, providing an introduction to astronomy,
dictionary of terms, biographies of famous people, celestial object
descriptions, and detailed information on over 5000 spacecraft and
satellites. This enables the user to learn more about astronomy as they use
the software to simulate the sky.
– Images of hundreds of deep sky objects (galaxies, nebulae, and star
clusters) can be rendered directly to the screen, in their proper position
and orientation with respect to the background stars, enabling extremely
realistic views for any region of the sky. Similarly, maps of many solar
system objects are used to represent their current appearance as viewed
from the Earth.
– Detailed, high quality star charts can be printed with “The Digital
Universe”.
– QuickTime animations of any event or effect can be easily generated.
– An advanced report generation feature allows you to choose between
numerous categories of data to customize tabular reports.
For a full description of the capabilities of the Macintosh version of “The
Digital Universe”, we invite you to our web site at
http://www.syz.com/DU/mac/ There you will find a complete list of the
powerful features that set the software apart from other programs in its
class, as well as screen snapshots and sample animations generated by the
package. The entire user manual is also available to download, to provide
an in-depth look at the software’s capabilities.
“The Digital Universe” has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP)
of $149.95 in Canadian funds (approximately $97.41 US according to the
exchange rate on November 24, 2000).
We hope to release a demonstration copy of “The Digital Universe” on the
web site in the coming weeks.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write to
support@syz.com, or phone us at 780-961-2213.
Syzygy Research & Technology Ltd.
Box 83, Legal, AB T0G 1L0, Canada
Phone: 780-961-2213
support@syz.com, sales@syz.com