By Dale Farris, Reviews Coordinator
Golden Triangle PC Club
March 2006

General Overview

Telescopes and binoculars are wonderful tools for viewing the sky, but when the weather turns foul and there is not "good sky" to view, Starry Night Pro Plus is one of the best computer software programs that will help guide you around the heavens. The best thing about Starry Night is that it will also help your telescope along when the heavens permit. While there may be many astronomy programs now on the market, Starry Night Pro Plus continues to amaze with its many powerful features and its well rounded group of various editions at various prices that will provide a version of Starry Night for any level of astronomy interest.

Starry Night Pro Plus 5 is the newest version of this flagship astronomy program that belongs in the homes of any computer owner interested in astronomy. This version 5 has also been updated to version 5.8.2, and you can complete this update via the www.starrynight.com web site.

Full-Color CCD Photograph of the Entire Night Sky Visible from Earth!

Starry Night Pro Plus version 5 enhances your observation experiences with the first-ever, full-color photograph of the entire night sky, to a limiting magnitude of 14-15. Quickly and easily navigate the full-color CCD image mosaic comprised of about 20,000 individual images taken with a 6 mega-pixel CCD camera and custom-built optical system.

Make the most of the enhanced telescope controls to find your target and capture it using the new plug-in to MaxIm DL imaging software. This innovative integration lets you find your target, take and process pictures with MaxIm DL and then import these pictures back into Starry Night.

Add exciting, new dimensions to your passion for the night sky with the ability to create your own stunning astrophotography.

What's New in v. 5.8.2?

Location Markers can now be assigned to any predefined location on Earth or any other planet

Horizon panoramas can now be associated with individual planet locations

Stars now show a spectral class in the dynamic Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams and Info pane

3D object models can now display textured surfaces

Asteroids positions have been tuned and now calculate more precisely

Applescripting added (Mac only)

"Universal Binary" compatible (Starry Night 5.8 runs on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Mac computers)

Key Features

Viewing Locations

View from any location on Earth
View from any planet, moon, comet, asteroid, satellite or star
View anywhere in the universe up to 700 million light years away

New in version 5

Photorealistic Earth horizon panoramas
Choose your specific zip code for easy latitude and longitude locations
Locations are now searchable by country, province/state, and location type

Time

Speed up and slow down time
Travel backwards and forward through time

Extensive Databases of Objects and Images

Receive automatic Internet updates of new discoveries and orbital data of comets, asteroids and satellites
Hipparcos and Tycho-2 3D star catalogs
Exclusive Tully database of 3-D positions of 28,000 galaxies
Hubble Space Telescope images

Observation Tools

Realistic depiction of twilight, daytime and nighttime views
Magnify up to 600,000 times
Show planet, asteroid or satellite orbits

New in Version 5

Locate objects easily using "Find" pane
Zenith button added to the toolbar

Multimedia

OpenGL support renders high-end 3D graphics
Save & export color images

New in Version 5

SkyGuide's interactive multimedia tours of the night sky deep explorations Fly around the universe using spaceship mode

Detailed Information on Objects

Categorized information for every object and constellation

Constellations

Stick figures of all constellations (including Zodiac)

New in Version 5

High-resolution illustrations of all 88 classical constellations

Charts

Easy-to-print star charts with smart labels
Celestial Grid and Ecliptic line

QuickStart User Card
Detailed User's Guide in PDF format

New in Version 5

Updater to download and automatically install new features and bug fixes

Other Super Features

Zoom in on the AllSky Image, a full-color CCD mosaic of the entire sky visible from Earth, to a limiting magnitude of 14-15

Connect to MaxIm DL to take pictures with your telescope and camera and import them into Starry Night (Windows only)

Move your telescope freely in altitude or azimuth using the "telescope handbox simulator" (Macintosh only)

Use the improved "Telescope" pane to park/unpark and home your scope, configure slew limits and more

Explore PGC Catalog of 1 million galaxies

Plan observing sessions using SkyCalendar full of upcoming astronomical events

Export positional data for any object over a specific time span or interval with the Ephemeris Generator

Track satellite positions more accurately as predicted by the SGP4 model

Deepen explorations of the universe with over 100 SkyGuide tours

Choose from over 30 photo-realistic horizon panoramas

Enjoy high resolution exclusive constellation illustrations and images from Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes and Chandra X-Ray Observatory

Fly around the universe using joystick-supported spaceship mode

Control most popular brands of computerized telescopes including Orion SkyQuest Intelliscope, Meade LX-200 and AutoStar and Celestron Nexstar series (additional cable required)

View over 55 million stars and 1 million galaxies with online link to 500 million stars

Customize field-of-view indicators to match your eyepieces stored in the equipment list

Store comments and images on individual targets in observation logs

Print full sky (180 degree) star charts of any area in the sky

Receive automatic updates of new discoveries and orbital data of satellites, comets, and asteroids

See the Sky as Never Before with the AllSky CCD Mosaic

Weighing in at 6.44 billion pixels in size, the full-color AllSky CCD image mosaic of the entire night sky visible from Earth may be the biggest addition to Starry Night software since its inception. Named "AllSky" for its uniform coverage from pole to pole, it’s a single picture of the whole sky.

See the entire Milky Way in exquisite detail and then zoom in to explore dust lanes and nebulae. Instead of dots and circles, you will see an actual photo of a star or a deep sky object.

Smoothly and swiftly navigate this full color photograph of the entire night sky, to a limiting magnitude of 14-15. Five years in development, the AllSky CCD mosaic is comprised of about 20,000 individual images, originally imaged at a resolution of 12 arcseconds per pixel with a scientific grade, custom built AP9E CCD camera.

View on your computer screen what you would see if you were looking through a telescope. The overlay of the AllSky CCD image and data has been precisely mapped to Starry Night’s computer generated stars and databases.

Zoom in on any object in the AllSky image and see increasing detail as higher resolution images are loaded in. There’s more to explore in each of the 5 levels of the image resolution.

Create Your Own Astrophotography

For Windows users, the company has added a plug-in to MaxIm DL/CCD Advanced Imaging software (sold separately). This innovative integration lets you find your target with Starry Night, capture the image with your telescope and camera, process the image with MaxIm DL and then import the pictures back into Starry Night.

Take advantage of the "FOV" pane to create customized field-of-view indicators for your CCD chips.

This integration requires Starry Night Pro Plus 5.0 and MaxIm DL version 4.0.7 or higher. For more information about MaxIm DL, click here:

www.starrynight.com/promo/maxim

MaxIm DL/CCD V. 4
(With CCD Camera Control and Telescope Control)

Advanced CCD Imaging Software for $399

Whether you want to produce stunning portraits of astronomical phenomena, collect science data, or hunt for new objects, MaxIm DL/CCD has all the tools you need.

Amateur and professional astronomers alike turn to MaxIm DL/CCD for complete control of the CCD experience, from image acquisition to final processing, in a single application.

More astronomical discoveries have been made with MaxIm DL/CCD than any other commercially-available software package.

MaxIm DL/CCD is the most advanced, user-friendly astronomical CCD imaging and image processing software package on the market. Within a matter of hours, you will be able to make your own discoveries using the camera equipment you already own.

Join the ranks of observers like Michael Oates, who so far has discovered 143 comets, 103 of which were found using MaxIm DL to process archived SOHO images.

MaxIm DL/CCD will allow you to: Control all your equipment, including CCD or video camera, filter wheel, autoguider, AO accessory, telescope, focuser, and dome. Works with more equipment models than any other package. Link to Starry Night Pro for advanced telescope control and observation planning. Use the very latest image processing tools – the ones you need to produce stunning, colorful astronomical portraits. Make your own discoveries. Create a light curve for a variable star or asteroid. Determine a precise astrometric position for a newly discovered asteroid. Discover a supernova in a distant galaxy using the comprehensive search tools. All image processing functions work at high bit depth, to ensure that no data is lost. Unlike most packages, color imaging is fully supported throughout.

The handy quick preview function allows you to quickly tune the settings for best results.

The recognized leader in astronomical image processing, MaxIm DL/CCD combines high bit depth, extensive processing tools and remarkable ease of use.

Gain Finer Control Over Your Computerized Scopes

"Home Scope" moves your scope to its home position for easier computer-to-star alignment.

"Sync Gaze" synchronizes the scope’s internal gaze direction with Starry Night.

"Park/Unpark" lets you set the position of your scope when you’re not using it. This is ideal for scopes placed in a permanent location or in one position over several days. Simply unpark your scope and start observing immediately without having to perform a star alignment again or recalibrating.

"Slew Limits" prevents the telescope from moving outside a user-defined horizon in both altazimuth and equatorial configurations. This helps to protect your valuable equipment that would otherwise hit the mount or tripod of the telescope. Starry Night Pro Plus version 5.0 also allows you to display your slew horizon in the Starry Night sky.

"Quick Center" immediately centers Starry Night on the telescope position indicator.

For Macintosh users, the program adds a "Telescope Handbox Simulator" which allows you to push the direction arrows in the Starry Night interface to move your scope.

Compatible with More Telescopes

Starry Night Pro Plus 5.0 is now compatible with the Orion SkyQuest Intelliscope series (XT6, XT8, X10 and X12) in addition to these scopes:

Meade LX200

Meade LX200 GPS

LX200 Compatible Scope

Meade ETX Autostar

Autostar V2.2 or later ((ETX, LX90, LXD55)

Celestron NexStar 60, 80, 114 GT

Celestron NexStar 5 or 8

Celestron NexStar 8 GPS

Celestron NexStar 11 GPS

Get Unprecedented Views of Earth and Mars

Zoom in and explore the surface of Mars and Earth in unprecedented detail with new higher resolution surface maps.

Mars

The Mars shaded color map in Starry Night Pro Plus version 5.0 is a 24-bit color map representing the Mars land mass topography above the sea. Map was enhanced by Mario Rossi.

Earth

Hover above Earth and take a quick dive into the atmosphere for a detailed surface map of 1 km (.6 miles) resolution.

Expand Your Knowledge and Experience of the Universe

More databases… more to explore

Principal Galaxy Catalog (PGC): with 1,000,000 galaxies brighter than magnitude 18

Zwicky Cluster of Galaxies Catalog: Contains 9134 clusters

Hubble Space Telescope image database: Contains 33 images from the Hubble image showcase

Chandra X-Ray Observatory image database: Contains 52 of the best images from Chandra

Spitzer Space Telescope image database: Contains 9 of the most spectacular Spitzer images to date

Location Database: Added observatory locations

Deepen Your Explorations of the Universe with the SkyGuide

Delve into the fascinating science, history and mysteries of the cosmos with the SkyGuide’s interactive, multimedia tours. A whole new way to interact with Starry Night, SkyGuide acts as your guide to the night sky and Starry Night. SkyGuide provides you with an tips on using Starry Night; tours of the night sky for every season; Astronomy Dictionary; Record Holders of celestial phenomena; links to up-to-the-minute astronomy and space news; and much more.

With direct, down-home explanations and impressive visuals of all kinds of night sky phenomena, you’ll never be "lost in space" again.

Choose from over 30 Photo-realistic Horizon Panoramas

16 Earth horizons in all:

NEW! Mountain Lake, Canyon DeChelly, Central Park, Charles River, Dusty Basin lake, Goblin Valley. Telegraph Float, Very Large Array, Vineyard

Cabezon Peak, Grass, Lake, Oppenheimer Mountain, Stonehenge, West Mesa, White Sands

NEW! Planet and planetary moon landscapes: Pluto; Venus; Phobos and Deimos (moons of Mars); Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede (moons of Jupiter), Tethys (moon of Saturn), Titania (moon of Uranus) and a new generic rocky moon panorama for all other moons

NEW! Hazy sky cloud panorama

Enjoy Exclusive Constellation Illustrations

88 new high-resolution constellation illustrations exclusive to Starry Night offer new interpretations and details on classical illustrations

Fly around the universe with Spaceship Mode

Pilot your own spaceship to explore 800 Million light years of space. Plug in a USB joystick and pilot the old fashioned way. "Go There," "Center," and "Magnify" also work in Spaceship Mode

Enhance Your Observing Experience with these Tools

SkyCalendar

Never miss a noteworthy celestial event. SkyCalendar displays monthly, weekly, and daily views of upcoming astronomical events and regional star parties. Starry Night now provides the ability to import, view and even create your own calendars (using the standard vCalendar format). Moon phases, your observing logs, star parties or even an observing club calendar can all be viewed and maintained through the Starry Night SkyCalendar pane. Check out the date of the next New Moon and plan your observing schedule around it.

Ephemeris Generator

Know exactly where an object is and will be when you observe in the field. The Ephemeris Generator exports positional data for any object over a specific time span or interval. Options include: Rise / Set / Transit times for any object.

Satellite Positions

Track artificial satellite positions more accurately as predicted by the SGP4 model.

Even Easier to Use

Interface

Starry Night now has an updated look and feel. Darker interface elements and larger readouts aid usability and make for a better user experience

Advanced find feature

More options in the find panel allow customizable object searching

Variable Brightness Options (fading)

Control the brightness of almost every object, indicator line and image in the Starry Night sky with brightness sliders. Toggle items on and off

Target Customers

For full features and wanton visual appeal, Starry Night Pro Plus is the high end, more elaborate edition of Starry Night that will appeal more to experts in astronomy or educators involved in teaching astronomy. However, all the many super editions of Starry Night are well worth the minimal price points on these other editions of Starry Night.

Imaginova's Starry Night Pro Plus differentiates itself from other astronomy programs with the vast number of celestial objects shown in the program, how the visuals reflect the most current imagery available on Earth, and the degree of flexibility with which you can navigate the skies. Starry Night also offers both time travel, the ability to set the skies to appear as they will thousands of years from now, or thousands of years previous, and space travel, animating a rapid journey from Earth to whatever cosmic entity you like. The program also provides the opportunity to see how the skies look from the perspective of other objects. In Starry Night, you will see a ton of detailed information about what you're seeing, and the real-time feature that presents you with a beautiful, time-sensitive view of what's in the sky directly above you, complete with sunrises and sunsets, but minus the clouds, is simply amazing.

Recommendation

For any astronomy buffs, Starry Night Pro Plus is a super program that will provide countless hours of enjoyment and interesting viewing of the heavens. Those folks brand new to computer astronomy software may want to begin with the scaled down versions of Starry Night, to get started in viewing the heavens, and then later move up to this marvelous Pro Plus edition. Those heavily involved in astronomy, or already well experienced with astronomy software, and educators teaching astronomy classes, will all want to give serious attention to this most amazing of astronomy soft ware programs.

Price

$249.95 Starry Night Pro Plus 5.8.2
$  49.95 Starry Night Complete Space & Astronomy Pack with Free Screensaver
$  79.95 Starry Night Enthusiast 5 with Free 5.8 Update
$149.95 Starry Night Pro 5 with Free 5.8 Update
$  29.95 Constellation Adventure - Just Right for Kids 9 & Up
$  49.95 Complete Space & Astronomy Pack
$299.95 AstroPhoto Suite

Note: The version 5 of Starry Night Pro Plus comes with a free update to the latest version 5.8.2, available via download at the http://store.starrynightstore.com/57-landing.html site.

System Configuration Requirements

To run Starry Night Pro Plus version 5 you need:

A DVD-ROM drive is required for the installation of Starry Night Pro Plus version 5.0 on your computer.

Windows Machines
800MHz or higher processor
Windows XP
256MB RAM (512 MB recommended)
3GB free hard disk space for full install
OpenGL support requires a 64MB OpenGL capable graphics card
1024 x 768 pixels monitor
DVD-ROM drive required for installation

Macintosh Machines
G4 800MHz or higher processor
OS X 10.3 or higher
256MB RAM (512 MB recommended)
3GB free hard disk space for full install
Will not run on OS 9.x or earlier
OpenGL support requires a 64MB OpenGL capable graphics card
1024 x 768 pixels monitor
DVD-ROM drive required for installation

Basic support for joysticks recognized by Windows XP and Mac OS X

Requirements for Video DVD: Home DVD player and TV, or computer with DVD player

MaxIm DL Advanced CCD Imaging Software for Windows is sold separately

AllSky CCD Image and Associated Data © 2005 Main Sequence Software Inc. All rights reserved

About Imaginova Canada Ltd

Imaginova Canada Ltd. is the developer of Starry Night, the realistic astronomy software for personal computers. The company is dedicated to producing science software of excellent quality and they welcome feedback on any of their many products.

Contact

Michael Goodman
Imaginova-Orion-StarryNight
952-653-0493 (office)
FAX 952-935-4050
612-805-7041 (mobile)
mgoodman@space.com

Exec.Offices:
470 Park Ave. South
New York, NY

Imaginova Canada Ltd
284 Richmond Street
East Toronto Ontario
CANADA
M5A 1P4
416-603-8381
Business hours: Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm EST
FAX 416-603-8389
Marketing / Advertising Inquiries 1-212-703-5873
www.starrynight.com