I have been busy since Tuesday. Today in my email I received the OK from
Salford in the U.K. that will enable me to distribute my new MartianSats astronomy
freeware software. I had to get permission to include a component (a dll file)
from their Fortran77 package. Because it is freeware and they are being listed in
the credits along with JPL, some astronomers and BDL in France, they are happy.
This is perfect timing for the astronomers worldwide. Mars is going to be very close to Earth and telescopes will be aimed at the red planet. Amateurs will use the software to pick out Phobos and Deimos (the two Martian moons) from the background starfield. This is why the software was written. Many have used my other software (UranianSats) to prove that the "dots" in the image are indeed the moons they were looking for. Also MartianSats may make the November issue of Sky and Telescope magazine.
My cartoons will likely make the astronomy people look at me in a different light...
My search for data on the other planets has turned up nothing new in nearly two years.
Anyway, that's it from this end ,and no, I haven't gone back to my cartoons or given any thought as to when I will go back to them.
They are shelved for now, but that's the way it goes.
Take care gang, and I will check in periodically.
