About VISDAT

       VISDAT is a system for recording and evaluating of visual meteor
       observations. The first version was developed in 1991 by Thomas Rattei
       and later by Janko F. Richter (both Astroclub Radebeul e.V. Germany) 

       The current version is 4.2 and for free. 

       For VISDAT you need a 386 IBM-compatible PC or better and at least
       3 MB of memory, VGA and as operating system DOS. 

       Optional : Scanner and/or graphical tablet GENIUS 1812 HR. 

       Hint: We notice some troubles with WINDOWS 95. Please use
       MS-DOS-Mode, if you have any kind of problems ! 
           



What you can achieve with VISDAT

         - Recording of plottings,reportings, countings 
         - Measurement of meteor positions by ruler, scanner, 
            graphical tablet 
         - Import of X-Y-Coordinates from external ASCII-File 
         - Reporting of visual observations as suggested by IMO 
         - Shower association by IMO standard 
         - Changing the shower association criteria for special analyses 
            (for instance determination of background noise) 
         - Converting reported observations into other formats 
            like POSDAT/VMDB 
         - Archive observations 
         - Browse and edit databases incl. radiant, observer 
            and site databases 
         - Some evaluations like average ZHRs 
         - Direct access to databases via dBase commands 
         - Support of program RADIANT by Rainer Arlt 
           


Distribution

         You can get the system from the author: 
           
         Astroclub Radebeul e.V.
         public observatory "Adolph Diesterweg"
         Auf den Ebenbergen
         D 01445 Radebeul (GERMANY)
         Tel. +49 351 8305905

         or better for INTERNET-users: 
           
         English version 
             ftp://ftp.imo.net/pub/software/visdat/english 
             http://home.t-online.de/home/visdat/english 

         German version 
             ftp://ftp.imo.net/pub/software/visdat/german 
             http://home.t-online.de/home/visdat/german 

         homepage: http://www.imo.net/software/visdat
           

How to install VISDAT

        Please follow this steps consecutively: 

         1.Create a directory for VISDAT program files, e.g. C:\ASTRO\VISDAT 

         2.Create a directory for VISDAT data files, e.g. C:\DATA\VISDAT 

         3.Create a temporary directory, e.g. C:\VTEMP 

         4.Copy the files INSTALL.BAT, VISDAT.LIB and VISDAT42.ENG 
           (or VISDAT42.DEU for German version) into the temporary directory 

         5.Run: INSTALL.BAT and follow the instructions 

         6.Run: VISDAT (program will start) 

         7.Choose menu path /DATABASES/SITES and check, 
           whether your observational site is included in site database 

         8.Choose menu path /DATABASES/OBSERVERS and check, 
           whether you or other observers are included in observer database 
          

        For additional help, please consult the VISDAT help system. 


Support

        We offer support for your questions for instance about installation,
        using or evaluation. 
        A registration is possible too. That means you will get the latest
        news about VISDAT via e-mail. Send me a brief e-mail after which i will 
	regularly inform you about the latest news. 

        And here the address for support or registration: 

                               Janko F. Richter 
                               richte-j@t-online.de