RedShift is a great multimedia astronomy/planetarium product. It is a product of Maris Multimedia Ltd. (London, England), distributed in the U.S. by Maxis, and comes on a CD-ROM for Windows.
Although RedShift can be run directly from the CD-ROM, performance is improved if the application is loaded onto a hard disc (takes approximately 2 Megabytes). RedShift is installed and run through Windows. I found installation a snap, using the "install" program. Upon installation, a new icon ("RedShift") is created in Program Manager. Clicking on the "RedShift" icon starts the program. The package states "Runs even better with a Pentium!"; however, it runs fine on my 486-DX2.

RedShift comes with a nice spiral-bound manual. A readme.txt file on the CD provides installation instructions and recommendations. Once RedShift is running, extensive on-line help is available and the Windows interface is familiar. Operation of RedShift is through a combination of menus, dialog boxes, and control panels. The control panels are designed to remain open while using the program, but may be closed to let you see more of the sky.

RedShift begins with a view of the sky above the local horizon (location is easily changed). Time is the current time from your computer. The Filter panel allows you to switch on and off objects to be displayed (Planets, Stars, Deep Sky, Asteroids, Comets, Constellations, Grids, Horizon, and Markers). The perspective of the view (i.e., angle) is also easy to change, and Zoom will magnify the view.

RedShift is a program which is useful both for veteran astronomers and folks like me with a casual interest in astronomy. The wealth of information in RedShift is extensive, containing approximately 250,000 stars, 40,000 deep sky objects (e.g., galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters -- things outside our own Milky Way galaxy), 5,011 asteroids, about 100 comets, and models of the nine planetary systems (planets and moons) for our own solar system. Stars with magnitude between -1.6 to 12 may be displayed. The default display is between -1.6 and 6.2, which are the stars that can be seen with the naked eye (the lower the number, the brighter the star). Generation and printing of star maps is easy. Views can be created from anyplace on Earth, or (for that matter) from anyplace in the universe (a feature not found on many other similar packages). You can set the date and time anywhere between 4712 BC and 11,000 AD, and time can be speeded up to simulate astronomical events which could take long periods of time to occur. RedShift has a conjunction finder that predicts the conjunction of two or more planets, and an eclipse finder that predicts the occurrence of Solar and Lunar eclipses. Object visibility reports tied to any specified location on Earth may be generated for any object for a period of up to thirty days; planetary reports provide information on any planet's visibility during the course of a year.

Detailed surface maps are provided for the Earth, Moon, and Mars. Since these maps are held as three dimensional spheres which can be rotated, surface features are easy to view from any angle or magnification using the Direction and Zoom features (Note: This is neat stuff!). Named locations for towns, cities, and observatories on Earth, and craters or landing sites on Moon or Mars are provided. RedShift contains twenty Guided Tours, which let you explore a series of astronomical phenomena and events. You can even create your own movies of simulated astronomical events using the Movie Recorder (watch out...saving movies takes up a lot of hard disk space!).

RedShift contains a library over 700 photographs and images, ranging from views of the Earth from space to deep sky objects such as galaxies and nebula. Some of these are better than others, but the overall quality of the images is excellent. I especially enjoyed the images of the Earth's surface from space. RedShift uses QuickTime for Windows (provided on the CD) to display images and videos.

I have nothing but positive things to say about RedShift. I could get really picky and say that it helps to know some astronomy to really get into the program, but there is no reason to be intimidated if you're not astronomy literate. RedShift contains an online version of the "Penguin Dictionary of Astronomy" by Dr. Jacqueline Mitton which includes hypertext linking and additional animations and graphics. This dictionary is accessible from anywhere in the program. There is a lot of stuff here, and it's easy to immerse yourself in the program for hours. Whether you are a seasoned sky-gazer or just have a casual interest in astronomy, I highly recommend RedShift.

System Tested On:  IBM compatible PC (Gateway 2000) with a 80486 at 66 Mhz; DOS 6.2 & Windows for Workgroups 3.11; 8 Megabytes (MB) of RAM & 420 MB hard drive

Minimum System:  IBM compatible 386SX processor or better (486 recommended); Microsoft? Windows 3.1 or equivalent and MS-DOS 3.3 or higher; 4 MB of RAM (8 MB recommended); CD-ROM drive (double-speed recommended) and MSCDEX 2.0 or later; 256 color VGA display; Mouse