Software Game Helps Pinpoint Halley’s Comet

In the great scheme of things, Halley’s Comet likely would merit little more than a passing glance if it were not for the fact that earthbound observers with just one crack at eyeballing the interplanetary visitor can’t afford to blink and miss the once-in-a-lifetime fly-by.

Even with all the hoopla, however, earthlings who barely give the skyline a glance during the 85 years when Halley’s Comet is absent don’t know where in the heavens to start looking.

Not to worry. If you can tell where the sun sets, Professor Halley’s Comet Pursuit game will point you in the right direction.

Edward F. Myers, chairman and founder of San Diego-based Olympus Educational Software, has developed Professor Halley’s Comet Pursuit, a computer software package which blends astronomy with a touch of Trivial Pursuit.

“Lots of people are tailing on Halley’s Comet,” said Myers--with the pun obviously intended. “But no one is doing just like we are.” Although Myers has seen at least three competing computer software packages which point comet gazers in the right direction, he maintained that Professor Halley’s Comet Pursuit “is probably more useful or more scientific.”

Myers found out just how scientific his company’s creation was when San Diego State University’s astronomers recently popped the program into a computer and used it to focus the department telescope at Mount Laguna on Halley’s Comet.

“We were real pleased that they were using it,” Myers said. “But I was sweating a bit.” The program pointed directely to the comet, which wasn’t really surprising to Myers, because his company relied on professors at San Diego State University and Southwestern College to supply astronomical information needed to make the program work.

To produce a local sky chart, would-be astronomers need only enter their latitude, or failing that, the name of the closest large city. The program, which also runs a trivia contest that focuses on Halley and astronomy, culminates in a simulated rocket launch which carries a space probe to the comet as it flies past earth on its journey through the universe.

Although Myers said the program has generated as much as $10,000 in monthly revenues, sales have slowed at the B. Dalton bookstore in Mission Valley Center. “They had a promotional deal earlier where people could register for a telescope, a real nice telescope,” said a B. Dalton spokesman. “Although the promotion went well, the programs have been moving slowly.”

“We know that sales are not going to last past April,” Myers said, “and the program will obviously outlive this (comet) visit.”

Closer to earth, Myers’ Olympus Educational Software, which made its initial public offering in October, on Monday announced that it had purchased Microteacher, a 2-year-old, Utah-based software company. Both Microteacher and Olympus Educational Software concentrate on the design, development and production of educational software that is compatible with Apple, IBM PC and Commodore computer systems.

The combined companies will produce educational software to be marketed to school districts for use in conjunction with existing textbooks, Myers said. Olympus Educational Software already has developed mathematics, reading and geography programs, he said.

He called the Microteacher purchase the first of several to be announced by Olympus Educational Software. “We intend to aggressively seek numerous such acquisitions in accordance with the corporation’s overall growth and rapid expansion plan.”