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Starry Night Pro Plus 6.2
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| List Price: | $249.95 |
| Price: | $189.99 |
Availability: Usually ships in 3-4 business days
Ships from and sold by J&R Music and Computer World
3 new or used available from $170.00
Average customer review:
Product Description
Travel where you've never been before! For the advanced amateur astronomer, the full-color AllSky CCD mosaic, sophisticated telescope controls and comprehensive observational tools included in Starry Night Pro Plus version 6 will engage you in the hobby like no other software. The biggest single addition to Starry Night software since its inception, the full-color AllSky CCD image mosaic of the entire night sky visible from Earth weighs in at 6.44 billion pixels in size. Named AllSky for its uniform coverage from pole to pole, it's a single picture of the whole sky that has been precisely mapped to Starry Night's computer generated stars and databases. View on your computer screen an image better than the best-trained human eye can capture in real-time viewing through a telescope on a "good seeing" night. 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. In all, Starry Night Pro Plus version 6 has over 25 new features that bring more power and control to your observing and imaging. Starry Night Pro Plus will change how you look at the night sky. Hover over Earth and see details within 1 km (0.6 miles) resolution Create your own astrophotography using imaging plug-in to integrate Starry Night and MaxIm DL* imaging software (sold separately, Windows only) 1000+ craters, valleys and more instantly with surface feature outlines for the Moon Controls most popular brands of robotic telescopes
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1532 in Software
- Brand: Imaginova
- Model: PP60-C1U
- Released on: 2006-09-01
- Platforms: Mac OS X, Windows Vista, Mac OS X Intel, Windows XP
- Format: CD-ROM
- Dimensions: 1.95 pounds
Features
- Includes DVD-ROM software, DVD movie, astronomy book, and user's guide
- Sky-exploring software for the advanced amateur astronomer
- Full-color AllSky CCD image mosaic of the entire night sky visible from Earth
- View positions and outlines of 1400 dark, emission, planetary, and reflection nebulae
- Comprehensive observational tools; sophisticated telescope controls
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
For the advanced amateur astronomer, the full-color AllSky CCD mosaic, sophisticated telescope controls and comprehensive observational tools included in Starry Night Pro Plus version 6.0 will engage you in the hobby like no other software.
 100 degree field-of-view of the AllSky Image. View larger. |
 From any place on Earth, see the real night sky in full-color photographic detail. View larger. |
 Hover above the Earth for a detailed view of our home planet before blasting off to explore deep space. View larger. |
 Recognize 1000+ craters, valleys, and more instantly with surface feature outlines for the Moon. View larger. |
 Enhanced telescope control makes Starry Night even easier-to-use for unsurpassed astronomical observations. View larger. |
The biggest single addition to Starry Night software since its inception is now yours in the Pro Plus version 6.0--a full-color AllSky CCD image mosaic of the entire night sky visible from Earth--a picture so detailed, it weighs in at an astounding 6.44 billion pixels in size. Named AllSky for its uniform coverage from pole to pole, it's a single picture of the whole sky that has now been precisely mapped to Starry Night's computer generated stars and databases. Previously only available to Windows users through Desktop Universe planetarium software, the display of the AllSky image has been drastically improved in Starry Night and is now accessible to Mac users as well.
Computer Images With Exquisite Detail
With Pro Plus version 6.0, you can view on your computer screen an image better than the best-trained human eye can capture in real-time viewing through a telescope on a "good seeing" night. You'll be able to 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.
Smooth and Swift Navigation
With Pro Plus version 6.0, you'll smoothly and swiftly navigate the full color AllSky CC 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. The AllSky image in Starry Night presents the entire sky as a full-color, seamless mosaic at 5 resolution levels depending on your zoom setting. This consistent resolution, color and depth of coverage eliminates the uncertainties of comparing images from many and varied sources. Zoom from the widest possible view of 180 degrees to 0.5 degree field of view.
If you have the processing power, set the AllSky image to be more precise and a better match between the photographic stars in the AllSky image and the Starry Night stars. For the highest quality AllSky image, you will need a video card with a minimum of 96 MB VRAM.
Pro Plus version 6.0 includes an additional 6 GB of the AllSky image in DDS texture format, which enables the AllSky image to load up to 20 times faster. In addition, at wide fields of view, the AllSky image can be rendered via shaders for perfect rendering accuracy and a dramatic speed improvement, but you will need a higher-end OpenGL 2.0 capable graphics card to see this phenomenal improvement. A 128 MB nVidia GeForce 6600 (or higher) or ATI Radeon X800 (or higher) are recommended.
In all, Starry Night Pro Plus version 6 has over 25 new features that bring more power and control to your observing and imaging. Starry Night Pro Plus will change how you look at the night sky.
Exclusive to Pro Plus:
- View positions and outlines of 1400 dark, emission, planetary and reflection nebulae
- Identify 1700 globular and open star clusters
- Fly over super-high resolution 24-bit color map of Mars land mass topography above the sea.
- Hover over Earth and see details within 1 km (0.6 miles) resolution
- Create your own astrophotography using imaging plug-in to integrate Starry Night and MaxIm DL imaging software (sold separately, Windows only)
Two DVD-ROMs of Starry Night software for Windows and Macintosh, an exclusive SkyTheater DVD with over an hour or original movies about space, Starry Night Companion, a 192-page illustrated astronomy book, and a new, comprehensive 210-page User's Guide.
From the Manufacturer
For the advanced amateur astronomer, the full-color AllSky CCD mosaic, sophisticated telescope controls, and comprehensive observational tools included in Starry Night Pro Plus version 6 will engage you in the hobby like no other software.
The biggest single addition to Starry Night software since its inception, the full-color AllSky CCD image mosaic of the entire night sky visible from Earth weighs in at 6.44 billion pixels in size. Named AllSky for its uniform coverage from pole to pole, it's a single picture of the whole sky that has now been precisely mapped to Starry Night's computer generated stars and databases. Previously only available to Windows users through Desktop Universe planetarium software, the display of the AllSky image has been drastically improved in Starry Night and is now accessible to Mac users as well.
View on your computer screen an image better than the best-trained human eye can capture in real-time viewing through a telescope on a "good seeing" night. 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.
The AllSky image in Starry Night presents the entire sky as a full-color, seamless mosaic at five resolution levels depending on your zoom setting. This consistent resolution, color, and depth of coverage eliminates the uncertainties of comparing images from many and varied sources. Zoom from the widest possible view of 180 degrees to 0.5 degree field of view.
If you have the processing power, set the AllSky image to be more precise and a better match between the photographic stars in the AllSky image and the Starry Night stars. For the highest quality AllSky image, you will need a video card with a minimum of 96 MB VRAM.
Version 6 includes an additional 6 GB of the AllSky image in DDS texture format, which enables the AllSky image to load up to 20 times faster.
In addition, at wide fields of view, the AllSky image can be rendered via shaders for perfect rendering accuracy and a dramatic speed improvement, but you will need a higher-end OpenGL 2.0-capable graphics card to see this phenomenal improvement. We recommend 128 MB nVidia GeForce 6600 (or higher) or ATI Radeon X800 (or higher).
In all, Starry Night Pro Plus version 6 has over 25 new features that bring more power and control to your observing and imaging. Starry Night Pro Plus will change how you look at the night sky.
Exclusive to Pro Plus:
- Zoom in on full-color AllSky CCD image mosaic of the entire night sky to a limiting magnitude of 14-15, mapped precisely to Starry Night's databases
- AllSky CCD image loads 20 times faster in DDS texture format (additional 6 GB of hard drive space needed)
- View positions and outlines of 1400 dark, emission, planetary, and reflection nebulae
- Identify 1700 globular and open-star clusters
- Fly over super-high resolution 24-bit color map of Mars land mass topography above the sea
- Hover over Earth and see details within 1 km (0.6 miles) resolution
- Create your own astrophotography using imaging plug-in to integrate Starry Night and MaxIm DL imaging software (sold separately, Windows only)
- Plan observing sessions with Event Finder that instantly displays celestial events, such as lunar and solar eclipses and conjunctions, for months far into the future.
- Create Observing Lists of astronomical objects using a variety of filters such as magnitude, altitude above horizon, type, or database. Quickly see what objects you have observed and which ones you still need to hunt down.
- Find targets effortlessly with three-view star-hopping charts customized to your equipment.
- Select your equipment from expanded default database of over 300 Orion, Meade, Celestron and Vixen scopes, binoculars, SBIG, Apogee, FLI and Starlight Express CCD chips, and more.
- Recognize 1000+ craters, valleys, and more instantly with surface feature outlines for the Moon.
- View the locations of 160+ extrasolar planets.
- Enjoy eight additional photorealistic Earth horizon panoramas.
- And all the new data and features of Starry Night Pro version 6, including
- Take advantage of improved Digital Settings Circles Support for non-motorized telescopes such as Orion SkyQuest IntelliScope, NGCMAX, Lumicon Sky Vector, Discovery Digital Star Finder, Orion SkyWizard III, and Celestron Advanced Astromaster.
- Control your robotic telescope focuser with Computer Controlled Focuser Support (Windows only). Supported models include AstroOptik telescopes, Astrophysics GTO mount, Finger Lakes focusers, Gemini equipped mount, JMI Smart Focus, Meade LX200 and Autostar, Optec TCF-S, and PCFocus.
- Smoothly track and follow satellites with the Meade LX200 GPS telescope (Mac only).
- And much more.
- Controls most popular brands of robotic telescopes, including Orion SkyQuest Intelliscope, Meade LX200 and Autostar, Celestron Nexstar series, and all ASCOM-compliant scopes (additional cable required)
- Explore 65,000,000 stars
- Access 500+ million stars online
- Explore PGC Catalog of 980,000 galaxies
- Choose from over 30 photorealistic horizon panoramas
- Add custom field of view indicators to match your telescope eyepiece, binoculars, CCDs, or DSLRs
- And all the data and features of Starry Night Pro version 6
- Two DVD-ROMs of Starry Night software for Windows and Macintosh
- Exclusive SkyTheater DVD with over an hour or original movies about space
- Starry Night Companion, a 192-page illustrated astronomy book
- New, comprehensive 210-page user's guide
Customer Reviews
Expensive, but well worth it. Also supports Vista
Works great on my Macbook AND my Vista machine (which is used less and less as I revel in the joy that is "Mac OS X"). The amount of information available is staggering. I was somewhat underwhelmed by the AllSky survey, but when I consider it only adds 60 to cost (compared to Pro) and other enhancements are included as well, the "Plus" is well worth it. be prepared for a total install of almost 12Gb if you copy the AllSky to the local drive (recommended).
I can certainly understand passing up Pro Plus for just Pro, but if you have the extra, I think it's well worth the money spent...
***Vista issues seem to have been addressed in the current version. You may need to DL patches from the site for older ones...***
What an awesome product!
Starry Night Pro Plus 6.0 is my first astronomy computer program and I have to say it is amazing. It was easy to setup and easy to use. Controls and options are very intuitive and just a click away. To control your telescope your computer needs a serial port (which mine lacks) but, since I have a dobsonian mount it does not matter much for me.
Starry Night Pro Plus - Great in XP
I purchased this software in June 08 from Amazon.com. After the install I was impressed with the software capabilites. With real time views from your zip code to views from other parts of space. It makes finding the constellations easier than I could have ever imagined and bring up specific galaxies, stars, novas, comets and a whole host of other bodies with a simple check. After a couple of hours of playing it became very user freindly. However, I run it on a 2005 Sony VAIO with XP, 120 GB hard drive, over 1 GB of RAM and standard processor. I plan to hook it up to my Orion telescope and test the other abilities. Again, it works great in XP.
