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"I believe in limited government, and the 20th century has been the century of government. The data is uniform. The government has failed at every single task it has set out to do, with the exception of waging war."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Lens Image | ||
| A presentation of the night sky, calculated for any planet or point in space. |
The key point about this is that it is not simply a planetarium, which has a fixed viewpoint - namely, the earth. The Lens Image is calculated anew for every presentation.
| The Lens was perhaps the newest feature of the interstellar cruisers of the day. Actually, it was a complicated calculating machine which could throw on a screen a reproduction of the night sky as seen from any given point of the Galaxy.
Channis adjusted the co-ordinate points and the wall lights of the pilot room were extinguished... Slowly, as the induction period passed, the points of light brightened on the screen... "This," explained Channis, "is the winter night-sky as seen from Trantor..." |
| From Second Foundation,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Doubleday in 1953 Additional resources -
|
You cannot yet (as far as I know!) buy a program or device that will let you calculate the night sky for anywhere in the Galaxy.
However, you can get software programs like Starry Night that will calculate the night sky view from the major planets of the solar system.
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Great, an autonomous slamhound. It is cute, though.
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'The electric cook was stirring empty nothing in a pan, with a zeal worthy a dozen eggs.'
