Original review published on Steve Litchfield's 3-Lib.

The authors proclaim this rather large program as "The Universe in the palm of your hand" and they're not far wrong. I was reviewing version Procyon Light v1.17L for the 3a/3c and Procyon X v0.40p for the Series 5. As someone with only a passing interest in astronomy I still found the wealth of detail fascinating and had a happy half-hour browsing round all the different screen displays. The programs are basically freeware, though quite a few of the advanced features are held back for the 'professional' version. Making it 'shareware', I guess. It's not as confusing in reality, because the 'Light' versions are still very useable and if you need more then you pay more etc.

The program can be downloaded from John Sussenbach and Pedro van Can's web page.

Essentially, Procyon calculates for you where anything and everything in the sky actually is at any given moment in time (and space!). Thus, with a compass and telescope, you can find what you're looking for with a minimum of effort. And just to be sure that what you are looking at is roughly what you should be seeing, there are loads of photographs included to help out.

The authors have guessed the sort of things most people are going to make a bee-line for and have built these things directly into the menu structure. For example, the Mars Meridian, Jupiter's Red Spot, Saturn's rings plus a host of comets, planets, stars and other objects of interest are all directly accessible by name. Wherever you go in the program you're confronted with detail and information, it's all extremely impressive and obviously a labour of love. There are minor differences in the Series 5 version, where it has to catch up with the mature 3a/3c variant, but on the whole the two programs are fairly close.

So could I find fault with Procyon? Well, only minor points, like the documentation in the 3a/c version only being supplied in Psion word format, meaning that you can't read the installation instructions on your desk-top machine, which is a nuisance. Also, I disliked the fact that the menu and help keys didn't work within each program function, it was necessary to exit to the main screen to use either.

The Series 5 version is still changing and improving and the many small interface 'funnies' I spotted will I think be stamped on quickly by the authors. The on-line help is very comprehensive, including a handy astronomical dictionary. If you have even a slight interest in things astronomical you'll love this program!

See also my review of Polaris (for the 3a/3c).

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