I am buying the N4PY software for my Icom 7000, which works on Kenwoods, 
Yaesu, Ten Tecs, and Icoms by the dozens which you can read about for your 
particular radio at

www.n4py.com

and Carl is great about answering email questions.  He told me a few weeks 
ago, when I discovered his website and software, that he's had some blind 
hams buy and use his software with great success and he gave me a list of 
hotkeys as an example of control features.  Anyhow, I was reading some new 
things he had posted on his website last night and I happened to see a link 
for his bio so I clicked on it and red about him personally.  It just so 
happens he is also an amateur astronomer.  Finding that out, I took a 
chance, and emailed him a question I have been seeking an answer for well 
over 50 years.

When I was 10 years old, I borrowed my Uncle's binoculars.  I still have 
them in my office desk drawer.  Why, for keepsake, I guess, because my uncle 
has been gone now for over 20 years.  Anyhow, I'd turn off the porch light, 
we lived on a very dark side street with no city street likes and neighbors 
several hundred feet away, and the darkness made for great star gazing.  On 
my back in the fresh grass, I laid on the ground and balanced the binoculars 
with either elbow on the ground.  It sort of created a tripod for the 
binoculars to do their thing.  I'll never forget the first time.  The stars 
twinkled white in the darkness until I raised the binoculars to my eyes. 
Suddenly, all the twinkling was gone and so was the white color of the 
stars.  All I saw was blue, red, and green colors for stars.  I quickly 
pulled the binoculars back and stared straight up at the stars.  Yep, there 
they were and twinkling as white as ever.  I focused the binoculars again in 
front of my eyes and sure enough, now they were red, blue, and green in 
color.  I was puzzled until years later I read an astronomy book from the 
library for the blind.  I've read several books on astronomy but everyone 
I've asked about the colors could only tell me that red and blue tells you 
which stars are close and which are further away.  When I even asked amateur 
astronomers about the green stars, I was told there is no such color.  None 
of the books I read mention the green color either.  So I asked another ham, 
N4PY, since I red he was an amateur astronomer.  Besides, I had a couple of 
questions about his software program anyway so I killed two birds with one 
stone.  He explained that all stars put out red, blue, and green colors and 
the better made the magnification lens, the less colors you saw.  I 
explained my binoculars were probably World War II, if not older, so that 
would explain it but at least now I know.  It took a ham to answer my 50 
year old question.  I'm picking up my macmini tomorrow or over the weekend 
so I'll decide then which computer to use in controlling the N4PY software 
for my Icom.  I have a netbook which already has jaws and Windows 7 on it so 
I'll probably end up using that since it's on the same shelves as my rig.

Phil.
K0NX