Sample Animations
This section contains a few animations which have been generated
with The Digital Universe software package. We expect to
make more available in the near future, so feel free to check
back from time to time!
All the animations provided here are in IFF ANIM5 format (the standard animation
format for the Amiga computer), so to view them you need to do
one of the following two things:
- Configure your WWW browser properly to deal with IFF ANIM5 animations.
- Download and save the animation to disk, then use a software package
capable of displaying them.
The Digital Universe includes animation playback software to
allow you to display any animations that you might generate.
- mars.anim (136K)
- This animation shows the rotation of Mars about its axis, as well
as part of the revolution of its moons Phobos and Deimos in their orbit
around the planet.
- moonphases.anim (1040K)
- This shows the Moon going through its phases over the course of a month.
In addition, you can see it getting slightly larger and smaller as it moves
closer and further from the Earth in its elliptical orbit. You can also see
it appear to "wobble" back and forth due to an effect known as "libration".
IMPORTANT - notice that this file is more than 1 megabyte in size!
- sunset.anim (110K)
- In this animation, The Digital Universe was told to track the Sun
as it set, while considering the effects of refraction. You can see the
apparent disk of the Sun "squash" when near to the horizon due to the lensing
effect of the Earth's atmosphere. The sky appears blue since the
software was told to consider the altitude of the Sun in coloring the background.
User animations
If you are a registered owner of The Digital Universe and have used it
to generate an animation of which you are particularly proud, feel free to send
it to us (uuencoded email to support@syz.com works best)!
If we like it, or feel that it illustrates an interesting concept about astronomy, we
might make it available for everyone here on our Web site!
- jupiter.lha (136K)
- This archive contains an animation done by Bill Eaves, and shows the rotation of
Jupiter while its moons revolve around the planet.
- moon.lha (504K)
- This archive, again by Bill Eaves, portrays the total lunar eclipse of
April 3/4, 1996.
- polaris.anim (825K)
- This animation was created by Bryan Ewert, and shows a view looking towards the
North Celestial Pole, showing star trails over the course of an hour. To create the
effect, he first generated an animation showing the stars with trails. He then
generated another animation over the same time period, getting The Digital Universe to
generate the star names and constellation figures without star trails. The two animations
were then merged together using ADPro, and a title across the top anim-painted
using Brilliance 2.0.
Go back to The Digital Universe Page.