The Touring the Universe through Binoculars Atlas (commonly abbreviated as TUBA) is a specialized, freeware digital star atlas designed exclusively for amateur astronomers who observe the night sky using binoculars. Origin and Purpose
The Missing Piece: Renowned astronomy author Phil Harrington released his landmark book, Touring the Universe through Binoculars, in 1990. While the book was highly praised for cataloging over 1,100 deep-sky objects, reviewers noted it lacked comprehensive star maps.
The Collaboration: To fix this, software designer Dean Williams collaborated with Phil Harrington to create the TUBA interactive software application. Key Features
Tailored Mapping: Traditional star atlases include thousands of faint, deep-sky objects that are only visible through large telescopes. TUBA deliberately filters these out, displaying only what can actually be resolved with binoculars.
Complete Database Alignment: The software plots every single target listed in Harrington’s book, spanning the solar system, variable stars, open clusters, nebulae, and galaxies.
Magnitude Filtering: It maps stars down to the 11th magnitude, which is the practical limit for giant binoculars. Users can also adjust the settings to show fewer stars to match the capability of smaller, handheld binoculars.
Easier Navigation: Because the on-screen display perfectly matches the wide field of view of a real pair of binoculars, it makes star-hopping and object identification much less confusing for beginners. Compatibility and Limitations
Operating Systems: TUBA was developed primarily for Windows PCs. While the user interface looks quite dated by modern standards, it still functions properly on 64-bit systems up to Windows 10 and 11. There is no official Mac version available.
Availability: The application is hosted as a free resource directly on Phil Harrington’s official website.
If you are getting started with binocular stargazing, would you like recommendations on good entry-level binoculars, or
Touring the Universe through Binoculars Atlas – Phil Harrington
Leave a Reply