Starry Night Deluxe Planetarium
Source: Sienna Software, Inc., 284 Richmond Street East, Toronto, Ontario,
CANADA, M5A 1P4
WWW: http://www.starrynight.com/
Price: US$150 for "Pro" version, US$64 (CD-ROM) or U$49 (download)
for "Backyard" version, approx. half price in lots of 10 or more,
not readily available in Australia. Can be ordered online from their site.
Copyright 1990 - 2000 Sienna Software, Inc.
Updated 29 January 2000, and again on 11 May 2000, with introduction of new Starry Night "Professional" and "Backyard" versions... and again on 27 January, 2001
A fully-functional trial 15-day copy (of "Backyard") can be downloaded free from their website: http://www.starrynight.com/
Review addendum for "Pro" version
Review addendum for "Backyard" version
I discovered this product via Bill Arnett's home page (The Nine Planets fellow). While he (and some reviews) say it's only available for Macs, there is now a Windows version (which I have).
Like Nine Month Miracle, this is a specialised product, and one which does its speciality very well indeed. Surely it is the pick amongst several competing programs. For anyone teaching astronomy, this program is a must have.
Starry Night lets you view the night sky, from anywhere on earth, or anywhere else in the solar system, at any time past, present or future.
It includes more than 19,000,000 stars in its database, making the Milky Way look very realistic. The user can adjust the viewing field, direction, horizon -- make the ground invisible -- turn on and off various coordinate systems (local, equatorial, ecliptic, galactic), find and zoom in on planets, many of their moons, all of the Messier objects, many NGC objects, many comets, etc. -- and that's just for starters.
Starry Night's entire user's manual is available online -- a good chance to see exactly what it does. They also offer a free download of a demo. [The manual -- in html -- is also provided on the CD.]
Let's start with a quick look at the program's basic displays, and then we'll get into the features and options. Click on each thumbnail to get the full screen view.
I've set it to the current date and time as I write this -- early evening on Thursday 22 October 1998:
It's now 7:26 pm:
Now it's 7:28 pm and we've swung around to look towards the northeast:
This shot adds the constellations at 8:56 pm:
Now I've removed the constellations, but added the ecliptic (green) and galactic
guide (blue)
I asked it to find and zoom in on Saturn:
But why stay on earth? Here is the view of Mars, from Phobos :
Sunset from Saturn:
Or maybe Saturn, Enceladus and the sun, from Rhea:
The navigation tools are good, but a little cumbersome until you get used to them (my ONLY complaint with the program).
They include a tool palette
which
provides the basics, and also gives access to other features (set location,
time, viewing height, field of view, etc.).
A pop-up zoom can be accessed:
along with the location setting tool:
find and magnify tool:
go to tool:
lift off tool:
and date - time tool:
A planet palette (finds planets, moons, comets)
is
provided, as well as the ability to display their orbits:
(retrograde motion of Mars).
Sky scenes can be converted to negative images for printing:
Eclipses can be viewed from anywhere: here is the same solar eclipse as viewed
from earth, the moon, and the sun:
An example of the "find and zoom in" feature:
M31
(Andromeda Galaxy)
(the
view from just off Io)
Advanced features include:
Orbit editorThe Orbit Editor is one of the most exciting features of Starry Night Deluxe. Using it, you can add and edit new objects in your virtual Solar System. For instance, if a comet or moon has been recently discovered, you can use the Orbit Editor to add it to Starry Night by simply entering its orbital elements. The Orbit Editor also allows you to add surface and atmosphere maps to your new objects. Live SkyLiveSky unites the power and ease-of-use of Starry Night with the vast sea of information on the Internet. With LiveSky, you can easily link from any star, planet, or other celestial object to any place on the Internet or your local hard drive.
LiveSky allows you to search the LiveSky web site for information concerning any object you can select in Starry Night. The LiveSky site has hundreds of links to the best astronomical sites around the world!
Most importantly: With LiveSky you can also zoom into a small region of space and call on the Digitized Sky Survey by the Space Science Institute to bring you an incredible view of the patch of sky you are looking at. See pictures of thousands of galaxies, nebulae and clusters by using this powerfultool!
Here is an example: I'm looking at the open star cluster NGC 4755 and have zoomed way in on it (field of view is 30').
Click here to see the Starry Night screen
Click here to see the photograph of the same area from the Digitized Sky Survey
Make you own (Quick Time) movies
The program allows you to generate your own Quick Time movies of anything that you can display -- very handy for teachers!!
Teaching materials
A number of useful teaching ideas and exercises are provided.
Movies
Some very good movies are provided. Here is a sample that tracks Comet Hale-Bopp's orbit (6 MEG). [On the CD-ROM only -- otherwise open CD-database/SET1/Hale-Bopp.mov ]
Additional movies:
Earth's rotation and revolution (3.5 MB)
Alignment of the planets this autumn (sadly not visible from earth) (2 MB)
Orbits of Mercury and Venus as seen from earth (1.5 MB)
Orbits of Mars' moons (184 KB)
Revolution of the inner planets (1.1 MB)
Revolution of the outer planets (943 KB)
Total solar eclipse of 20 July 1963, as I saw it from Maine USA (2.2 MB)
See the online manual for all the details.
Also see and play with the preset Starry Night scenes that are provided on the CD-ROM --
they're all in the /Learning Materials subdirectory of the Starry Night free demo directory. Just double-click on any .sni file to open that scene in Starry Night.
Reviews and awards
Apple Computer Interface Design Award: Starry Night Deluxe has won Apple's prestigious Human Interface Design Excellence award for Most Elegant Product in addition to receiving the runner up prize for Most Innovative Product and Best Overall Interface.All around, this is an exceptional piece of software.Sky & Telescope: "Starry Night is an impressive program that has become one of a handful I use on a regular basis. For the price, it's a steal."
My rating:
Main audience: years 6 - 12 astronomy (the younger end will need some help with the interface)Quality of content: 5
Technical quality of multimedia presentation: 5
Interest / Excitement: 5
Overall value / utility: 4 3/4 (marked down only due to interface)
Professional Version of Starry Night
The professional version add some extremely useful features, making it one of the best pieces of software I've ever used!
In no particular order, they include:
Star charts -- a GREAT feature for classroom use:
Print advanced sky charts showing star fields and deep sky objects from Pro's Hipparcos/Tycho, Hubble Guide Star, NGC/IC and PGC databases. Include binary and variable star markers, proper motion vectors, magnitude markers and more. Infinite resolution alt/az, equatorial, ecliptic or galactic guides and markers. New label avoidance algorithms assure that object labels won't overwrite each other. Option for automatically using default chart settings when printing. Chart preview on screen.
Included data:
The complete Hipparcos and Tycho stellar databases from the European Space Agency provides highly accurate star positions and data. Over 19 million stars and other celestial objects from the Hubble Guide Star catalog. Positional and image information for all 110 Messier objects. All the planets and most moons with high resolution surface rendering and the ability to add more comets, asteroids, moons, planets and satellites using the built in orbit editor. Internet standard format data files for the latest comets, asteroids and satellites lets you update Pro's comet, asteroid and satellite databases quickly and accurately. The entire NGC/IC deep sky database including area ellipses and orientations. Over 70,000 galaxies from the Catalog of Principal Galaxies (PGC), Custom image layer for adding CCD images and photographs. Direct Internet link LiveSky.com and to the Digitized Sky Survey for immediate access to the Palomar photographic plates. Add custom data files using built in data converter tool.
Information about astronomical objects:
Double click on any constellation to read information about it. Double click on any star, planet or deep sky object to determine its rise, transit and set times, magnitude and position in local, equatorial, ecliptic or galactic coordinates. Information windows for stars show magnitude, distance, variability, whether it is a binary or multiple, colour, temperature, radius, luminosity, proper motions its location on an Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and more. Link out to LiveSky.com for the most up-to-date information on the web, including images from photographic plates, full catalogue information, scientific papers and more. Instant identification information for any object under the cursor immediately pops up giving you the object's name, alt/AZ position, ra/dec position, magnitude,, constellation and distance (if known). Point at any object (or use the angular separation tool) and drag to another object to determine angular separation and distance separation (if known).
Add your own images -- BIG improvement, due to N American bias:
Add custom surface images for any newly added planet, moon, asteroid, comet or satellite. Change surface images for any included planet, moon, asteroid, or comet. Use new Image Editor features for adding deep sky images to any area of the sky either from CCD images, scanned photographic images or directly from the Digitized Sky Survey on the Internet. Replace any Messier image shipped with Starry Night Pro with one of your own. Add horizon scenery such as new trees, a picture of your house, clouds, etc. to your custom horizon. Replace constellation images with your own.
I have done this, very easily, due to the program's automated like to the Digitized Sky Survey. You can even add photos taken through your own telescope...
Expanded viewing locations:
View from any included planet, moon, satellite, comet or asteroid or from any fixed heliocentric location in the solar system or from any star or location within 20,000 light years of the Sun. Add your own solar system objects that you can also view from.
Constellations:
Either astronomical or Rey's stick figures for all the constellations including optional classical constellation illustrations from the 17th century for every constellation. Includes short summary of information for each constellation and links to LiveSky.com for detailed information on the web.
Hertzsprung - Russell diagrams
Because Starry Night Pro includes the complete Hipparcos and Tycho stellar databases from the European Space Agency it has highly accurate star positions and data. This means that Starry Night Pro is able to provide features never before available in a reasonably priced planetarium program. One of the many Starry Night Pro features to utilize this new data is the Hertzsprung-Russell diagramming plug-in. At the beginning of the 20th century Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung and American astronomer Henry Russell discovered that a pattern emerges when the absolute magnitudes of stars are plotted against their spectral types. Most stars that we see in the night sky fall along a specific region of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram called the "main sequence". Knowing a star's specific location on an H-R diagram can tell us a lot about a star: whether it is a hot, bright, bluish star, a cool dim, reddish star, the age of the star, whether it is a red supergiant, a white dwarf, etc. Starry Night Pro dynamically plots all stars from your current view for which it has absolute magnitude information in an automatically updated H-R diagram.
Option to flag all double and/or variable stars:
Normal display
Doubles and variables flagged
Much better coordinate - reference systems guides and options (local, ecliptic, equitorial, galactic)...
"Night vision" feature -- red screen to save user's night vision. Great when taking Starry Night on a laptop out with you during an observing session!!
"Light pollution" setting -- simulates what you can see under different levels of light pollution.
Customise you own horizon feature.
Improved ability to add new objects and set their orbits.
Much easier to make your own QuickTime movies (which I will use extensively in the astronomy module)...
Free downloadable student materials and bulk pricing: http://www.starrynight.com/english/educators.shtml
My rating:
Main audience: years 6 - 12 astronomy (the younger end will need some help with the interface)Quality of content: 5
Technical quality of multimedia presentation: 5
Interest / Excitement: 5
Overall value / utility: 5
"Backyard" Version of Starry Night
This is their "no-frills", inexpensive [student] version, but it still retains all the main features of the more expensive "Pro" version.
For a very detailed comparison, see: http://www.starrynight.com/english/differences.shtml
In a nutshell, for home users and primary schools, the "Backyard" version is adequate -- for secondary teaching, I'd want "Pro".
Pro includes not only the entire Hipparchos/Tycho data, but also over 19 million stars, proper motion vectors, over 70,000 galaxies, the complete NGC/IC deep sky database, Hertzsprung-Russel diagrams, an orbit editor for learning about orbital elements, 3D star fields, automatic access from within Pro to the complete in-depth online information at LiveSky.com, and much, much more.
Many of these additional features are NOT NEEDED for primary but are VERY USEFUL for secondary.
Examples: Pro links to "Live Sky", which is WWW access to entire (Palomar, I believe) sky survey -- can go from Starry Night window to real photo of same area...
Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams VERY USEFUL for teaching stellar evolution (secondary).
Backyard lets you view from anywhere on earth or solar system -- Pro extends this to any location within 20,000 light years of the sun!
BOTH let you make Quick Time movies of anything you simulate.
Pro also offers several other extras which I seldom use...
So again, most schools -- certainly primary -- would be OK with the much cheaper Backyard.
My rating:
Main audience: years K - 10 astronomyQuality of content: 5
Technical quality of multimedia presentation: 5
Interest / Excitement: 5
Overall value / utility: 5
Written by Stephen R. Kessell
Updated 27 January, 2001
