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 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.
Version 6 includes an additional 6 GB of the AllSky image in DDS texture format, which enables the AllSky image to load up to 20X 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 20X
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)
New Features:
* 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 starhopping 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 8 additional photorealistic
Earth horizon panoramas
* And all the new data and
features of Starry Night Pro version 6, including
o 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
o 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.
o Smoothly track and follow satellites with the Meade LX200 GPS telescope
(Mac only)
o And much more.
Other Features:
* 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
Starry Night Pro Plus version 6 includes:
* 2 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
System Requirements
To run Starry Night Pro Plus version 6 you need:
A DVD-ROM drive is required for the installation of Starry Night Pro Plus version 6 on your computer.
Windows: Requires Windows XP, 800 MHz or higher processor, 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended) and 5 GB (11 GB needed for full install) of hard disk space. 64 MB (128 MB recommended) OpenGL 1.4 capable graphics card (OpenGL 2.0 is required for features like shaded sky, animated grass and fast AllSky rendering at wide FOV). Minimum recommended monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. DVD-ROM drive required for installation.
Recommended Graphics Card: 128 MB nVidia GeForce 6600 (or higher) or ATI Radeon X800 or higher.
Macintosh: Universal Binary runs natively
on Intel and PPC Macintosh computers. Requires OS X 10.3.9 or higher, G4
800 MHz or higher processor, 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended) and 5 GB (11
GB needed for full install) of hard disk space. Will not run on OS 9.x
or earlier. 64 MB (128 MB recommended) OpenGL 1.4 capable graphics card
(OpenGL 2.0 is required for features like shaded sky, animated grass and
fast AllSky rendering at wide FOV). Minimum recommended monitor resolution
of 1024 x 768 pixels. 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.