Starry Night Pro Plus Astronomy Software - For The Astronomer In You

[Darryl]

The best planetarium software that I have used so far is Starry Night Pro Plus software. It has amazing graphics and tons of very useful and I dare say educational features. Whether you are a seasoned astronomer looking to control that fancy Goto Telescope, or have kids who want to learn about the Universe, having this virtual observatory software may be just what you are looking for.

I have used this software to control my Meade LX200GPS telescope when I'm doing Astrophotography. The Pro Plus also integrates with Maxim DL CCD software to make imaging even more enjoyable. The custom field of view for CCD cameras or DSLR's is a nice feature as it represents what should be visible in the cameras view when taking the image.

For the family and the individual interested in Astronomy and the Universe this software can put you right into space. You can explore our solar system including our sun, moon and planets or the adventuresome can go on a much more elaborate tour of our Universe. The graphics as I have already mentioned, have to be the best there is in a planetarium software package.

One of the big features is the AllSky CCD mosaic which is an actual single image of our night sky viewed from earth. This adds an unprecedented amount of realism in an astronomy software package. There is no comparison between the computer generated sky’s you see on some planetarium software packages and the AllSky mosaic you get with Starry Night.

There are a few different packages available as of this writing. They include the Complete Space and Astro Pk., Enthusiast, Pro, Pro Plus, AstroPhoto Suite and Apollo. While each of these serves their own purpose, I would go for at least the Enthusiast as a minimum. If you want to save upgrading later and you want to do armchair Astronomy the Pro version is the way to go. If you have a computerized telescope and planning on using a PC to point it, I would go with the Pro Plus. If you're into Astrophotography the AstroPhoto Suite would suite you the best. I also have to include the ultimate imaging bundle which would be Starry Night Pro Plus and a full version of Maxim DL CCD. It’s a pricey combo but it’s a good one if you really want to take the imaging side of this hobby and run with it, it’s the combination I use.

I now have to mention one of the things that people sometimes have when running the software, and that's computer power, mainly graphics. Do not use the minimum recommended hardware for this program. You will not get the full benefit from it. It may even decide not to run. Read the system requirements before you purchase.

The Starry Night Software is one of the best computer based planetariums available. I can highly recommend it.

[Buldric]

Ohhhhh, looks like someone got paid to do an ad!

Nonetheless, i must agree, i use this program too, and it is great. However, I still use StarCalc to print my star maps. I find it much better for that. However, the research you can do with starry night is endless. And its graphs for viewing conditions is b-e-a-utiful.

[Darryl]

I wish I was getting paid for it. It is like an ad in the sense that I am saying mostly positive things about a good planetarium program. This was a post written from experience with the Starry Night. I might put the odd ad on the site in various forms to try and recoup some of the costs of running the site or more if I can do it. I do however want to maintain the integrity of the site. Relevant advertising can be of interest to people. I guess this post could be an ad candidate. I had a couple of links on some posts a few days ago and took them down. I want to rethink how I am going to approach it. I am trying to contribute something to the site and my personal experience with Starry Night Pro Plus was a good fit. I have a lot of other personal experiences with various astronomy products to pull from. I hope you enjoy them all when I get a chance to write them . There are lots of different people looking for information for lots of different reasons.

I have never used StarCalc before. If you find anything worthwhile feel free to write a post like the first one in this thread and/or submit the site as a link to the links section.

One program you may want to look at is PHD Guiding PHD Guiding - Extreme Astronomy Links. I haven't used it a lot but its one powerful easy to use piece of software. It takes some of the headaches away that some of the other guiding programs sometimes give with their obscure settings.

Regards,