Starry Night Pro 4.5

Rating:
Summary: Great Program For The Telescope Owner!
Review: I upgraded to Pro 4.5 from Backyard 4.0 and I am glad I did! The graphics of this program are better and this program adds the ability to control a telescope (most Meade/Celestron models). You can also add your equipment lists to the program to get apparent Fields Of View (FOV) for your telescope and assorted eyepieces. You can plan your nightly observations by checking the program before you go out so you know what time Jupiter's Great Red Spot will be rotated into view.

This program also tracks satellites, The International Space Station (ISS), and Hubble Space Telescope so you know when will be a good time to go out and watch them pass over head.

It is a great learning tool to begin to understand the constellations, and deep sky objects like nebulas and galaxies.

you have to be sure to load the ENTIRE Quicktime program that comes included on the disk or the program will not operate properly.

also, it comes with a great DVD called Atlas of the Sky which includes over 2 hours of original learning programs about the cosmos.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: armchair astronomy as its best
Review: If you are fascinated by the sky, get this software now. I was
amazed by the photo realisitic rendition of the sky map
on the PC. Both the Backyard Edition and Pro Edition are
well worth the price. Many a times I do star watching
on my desk, watch the librations of the moon at high speed
(see the moon wobbling on its axis by zooming and
locking on the moon and running time at higher speed).

Many a day, this is my screen saver, locking on the sun
as it cuts thru the zodiac. Yesterday I watched the transit
of venus across sun ahead of time on my PC.

On my linux, I use xephem (it comes with source code in c),
and on dos I use alw.exe (astromony lab) to generate the almanac.
And finally pscal.sh to generate the moon phases in my
printable calendar (see google for pscal,xephem,alw.zip).

Of course, you can use to identify stars, by using on your
laptop, when you do star watching.

- Mosh http://www.cs.albany.edu/~mosh

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Value
Review: Starry Night Pro (SNP)is an incredible software package. I had used used TheSky version IV for a few years (which was 2 1/2 times the cost), and SNP is MUCH easier to use, and offers features that TheSky simply does not have.

It does help to have a pretty good background in Astronomy though, so I could see where someone with virtually NO knowledge on the subject would have a difficult time knowing where to start. Since they do offer more basic versions of Starry Night, I'd imagine that they might be more appropriate for a true beginner.

Some of the highlights: Each time you run the program, you have the option of having the database updated via the Internet, so that all of your satellite, comet and asteroid information is current. This function is very easy... you don't have to go looking for it... it'll ask you at start up.

You can "center" on any object, and zoom in (up to) a high-powered telescopic view. With the object centered in the field, the object will remain frozen in the center of your screen as time elapses, rather than moving across the screen. You can then set the time-step to anywhere from "normal" to 30,000x normal. One of the coolest things to do, is to center Saturn, zoom in until it fills about a quarter of the screen, and then speed the time up... You'll watch in amazement as the planet and it's splendid ring system rotate before you, and the moons dance around the planet.

You can change your viewing location to anywhere on Earth... or for that matter, anywhere in the Solar System --and beyond. Try looking back at the Earth during a Solar eclipse! You'll see the Moon's shadow skirting across the surface. Or, if you set your viewing location on the Moon during a lunar eclipse, you'll see a Solar eclipse FROM the moon. Again, pretty neat.

You can zoom completely out of the galaxy, and look back at the Milky Way so it is no longer a band across the sky, but rather a pinwheel of stars (depending, of course, on which direction you are looking from.) You can also zoom out to the edge of the known universe until all of the galaxies are a faint blob in the middle of the screen.... Zooming IN quickly from this point is also a cool effect.

If all of what SNP did was for "effect" only (in other words, it didn't actually reflect the REAL sky, it'd be worth the money.) But of course, it DOES reflect what you CAN see. What you WILL see. And what you DID see. (Up to several thousand years in the past, and about ten thousand years into the future... just for planning purposes!)

Starry Night Pro is worth every dollar... and more!

Rating:
Summary: Customer Service Went Home And Stayed There
Review: The program is absolutly super. It has so many great features and is VERY user frendly, so anybody can use it. The manual is done well and is easy to follow.

I have two computers, one with WindowsXP and the other with WindowsMe. The program says you need Quicktime 6.3 or better, and you do. The problem comes when you download the Quicktime 6.3 that comes with the program into a computer with WindowsMe. No matter what, you don't get the full graphics. Where as with WindowsXP you do get full graphics. And they are super.

Also after installing the 4.5.2 upgrade you loose the Contextual Help when you put the cursor over each button.

Full graphics intails all the buttons and different landscapes. If you don't get the full graphics you miss some of the buttons and several features that you wiil want to operate the program. Don't get me wrong, the features and buttons are there, you just can't see them so you have to punch around too find them. Partial graphics only seems to happen with the WindowsMe platform.

Last but certainly not least is the customer support. THERE IS NONE!. Let me repeat, THERE IS NONE! I've tried several times to get questions answered, like the problem with running the program in WindowsME. And also after installing the 4.5.2 upgrade you loose the Contextual Help when holding the cursor over the different buttons. Apparently the company made the program then went home and stayed there.

Soooooo buy the program and enjoy it. It really is super, weather your new to astronomy or a pro. Just don't load it into WindowsMe. And don't bother with Customer Support. And one more thing, the Starry Night Newsgroup is useless.

You will be on your own after buying Starry Night Pro 4.5

I must appoligize to the Starry Night people. After 2 weeks I got a reply from Starry Night Customer Support and they wanted to find out all the specs for both of my computers. So it is a start to fixing the minor problems I'm having. Sorry Customer Support for the bad rap.

Rating:
Summary: Verstile intuitive astro program you won't get tired of.
Review: This is an astronomy program that really takes advantage of the high powered graphics and speed of todays PC. There are also many features in the program that are highly useful. Probably the greatest aspect of the program is that it is so practical but yet doesn't limit your imagination. In other words, if you want a session to set up your telescope for astrophotography or to print up star maps, you won't have to change programs later if you want to take a visual ride to some distant star or galazy.

Another excellent feature is the realism. Earlier astro programs would have M31 and an oval in the sky to depict the Andromeda galazy. The earlier program might also have the name or NGC number available. With Starry Night when you zoom in, you get an image that is truly representative of a telescopic view. As you continue to zoom in, it's like changing from your 6 or 8 inch scope to a 25 or 30 inch scope. Go further and you have a view that rivals the best that anyone has ever had the privilage of seeing. Another nice touch is that as you increase the "power" more stars become visible just as they would through a real telescope.

The amount of data in the program is staggering. Point at any star or object and you get multitudes of information. This is also user changeable and the combinations available are practically limitless. If you're not happy with all the known stars down to the 9th magnitude, you can download more to your heart's content. You can even set the program to automatically add new stars in whatever field you choose to explore.

Perhaps one of the most fantastic features of Starry Night is the galactic travel mode. Go to Andromeda and see what galaxies are visible from there. Go to the Virgo Cluster and be surrounded by galaxies of virtually every type, size and brightness. The program does use some generic images in this mode, but all of the messier objects and well known galaxies are shown with realistic representations. In other words, if you go to M81, you will see M82 and if you know what that looks like, you will recognize it.

As I mentioned earlier this program has so much to offer that I really don't have time to mention it all here. Suffice it to say that I was so happy with the program, I wrote emails to the company to praise their work. I got a reply saying thank you and it's nice to know the work is appreciated. It's not only appreciated, I love this program and haven't begun to explore it's limits completely. If you love astronomy and the feeling of awe it can inspire, get this program and you will have that feeling even if the night sky is cloudy.