Astronomy Software - 1986 style

[John Murrell]

One of the Blogs I follow had a reference to this film https://youtu.be/H7K20wm5GA8 – it shows the state of both professional and amateur astronomy software. It is interesting to see how the software has changed – in particular the graphics from those on early IBM PCs.

 

Some early CCD images are shown as well as simulations

 

It reminds me of the piece of software that I used which was SkyGlobe - same blocky graphics but somewhat faster.

 

Regards

 

John

 

[John Murrell]

I forgot to say the piece about simulation of Galaxies using I think a Cray Supercomputer briefly mentions ‘invisible matter’ in the galaxy simulations which we now call dark matter.

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[J R]

Interesting John.  The mouse might have been an optional extra in 1986, a couple of years before I got my first desktop computer at work, but the software was nevertheless impressive.

James

Sent from my iPad

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[John Mills]

John,

An interesting video. When I first came to La Palma in 1986, there were
hardly any PC's. Just a few BBC computers in some of the offices for
personal computing and word processing. We did have plenty of VT220
terminals which were connected via RS232 cables to a 'DecServer' in the
INT building. That was connected via a fibre optic cable to the WHT
where a Micro Vax II was installed.

At that time we had a crude system of email, but only could connect back
to the RGO or other computers on the JANET network. This is what an
email header looking like in 1992:

From: LPCLUS::DXC 5-MAY-1992 17:08:37.68
To: PSI%GXVE::SAD
CC: PAC
Subj: Management

LPCLUS was the name to access the MicroVax cluster (we had 2) on La
Palma. GXVE was the Vax (it may have still been a Vax 11/780) back at
the RGO, but I guess at that time in Cambridge. The rest are usernames.
All since long gone !!!

The first time I saw THE WEB was a demonstration using MOSAIC which was
installed on one of the observing SUN workstations circa 1994.

In the early 1990's, the RS232 cables were replaced by a 'thin Ethernet
coax' cable (10BASE2) which daisy chained through the building. A few
years later, that was replaced using UTP (10BASE-T) and is what I
presume is currently still in use. Probably now running as 100BASE-T or
a greater speed.

The big changes in computing were in the telescope control, instrument
control and data acquisition systems. Originally this was handled by
Perkin Elmer 3210 and 3220 mini frame computers. The TCS hasn't really
changed much over 30 years. Only the PE 3210 computer (in which the
memory was a 'core store' using ferrite rings!) which was replaced with
a DEC Alpha running VMS. The control software is written in Fortran.

All the instrument control system (ICS) was transferred to SUN UNIX
workstations in the mid 1990's and the code rewritten in the 'C'
language. However, all the low level software in the instrument
controllers (and for data acquisition) was written in FORTH! A terrible
language which I had to know a bit about for running hardware tests.
Around 2000, the SUN computers were replaced with powerful Dell PC's
running LINUX and what is still in use.

I certainly saw some changes in computing during the years I worked
there. In the 1980's, the astronomers took their data back home on large
tape reels. A few years later on EXABYTE and then on DAT tape cassettes.
After that on CD's and then DVD's. I guess these days on high storage
memory sticks or solid state USB hard drives.

As that video showed, amateur astronomy software also made a big impact,
even back in 1986! However, I never thought that 30 years later, I could
sit indoors and control my telescope, focus it, move filters and take
images just like was done in the 1980's up at ING ;-)

John Mills

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[John Murrell]

John et al,

My earliest memory of a computer was my father stopping when we were driving through one of the main roads in London - possibly Regents Street to look at a computer that was in a glass fronted office open to the street. I can just about remember a number of people dressed in white coats attending to it.

My first involvement with a computer was around 1974 when I worked for Pye-TMC in Dulwich, we had a teletype with a modem connection to the Philips Computer centre in Croydon. You could of course type programmes into the keyboard but the teletype also had a paper tape punch and reader. The modem worked at 110 Baud - I remember the big advance when we got a 300 baud modem ! The mainframe ran IBM Basic - very slowly.

We also had the first two 1200 baud modems in the country - all analogue tuned circuits. The idea was to multiplex several phone calls over one phone line but it never worked.

We also had a mini-computer used to run the chip tests - I am not sure if it was a Philips mini-computer or another make.

At the main office in Wiltshire they had a Philips midi computer that was used for digitising the chip designs that were drawn on large polyester sheets by hand. It also ran design checks to ensure the design complied with various rules. Overnight it ran chip logic simulations for the mostly telephone chips the company was designing. The output was on reams of fanfold paper and took ages to check. I remember finding a couple of faults in the design of the push button phones I was testing and that required some modifications to the design - very painful to do. One had to draw an overlay showing the changed layout so the CAD person could edit the design without inputting it all again.

In terms of the Forth language I nearly brought a micro-computer running forth but it would have cost several weeks wages and seemed too expensive. Forth was (is ?) an interesting language as most of it was written in Forth. It was also a reverse Polish language which made a lot of sense before displays that showed nested brackets appeared. I still have some RPN calculators which I still use despite one of them being in the HP computer museum and in the Computer Museum at Bletchley Park.

I wonder what the next 50 years of computing will bring ?

Regards

John Murrell

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