STAR Atlas:PRO, formerly known as SKY:Lab, was created as a tool to minimize the time consuming tasks associated with planning astronomical observations, that include determining what to observe?, where the object is located?, size & brightness & other information, and whether or not it is currently visible in the night sky. Furthermore STAR Atlas:PRO was built to assist in identifying faint objects that appear on many amateur CCD images.

The primary goals of STAR Atlas:PRO are to produce detailed, accurate, and customizable Large and Small field of view Star Charts that show the exact location size & orientation of deep sky objects, and to maintain lists of objects to be observed, essentially a full-featured computerised Star Atlas.
Furthermore, all Astronomical Data Catalogues can be accessed using a seperate interface available for every astronomical catalogue supported by STAR Atlas:PRO. Both astronomical Stellar and Non-Stellar objects can be listed, browsed, filtered, searched, and cross-referenced to other similar catalogs. The Comet Database, for example, can list Comets in their order of brightness, and galaxies from the NGC2000.0 database can be cross-referenced to more comprehensive data in the extensive LEDA Database. The Hipparcos Stellar database can be queried to provide lists of newly discovered Variable & Multiple Stars Systems from its catalog.

The in-built Observation Planner maintains a list of objects that you are planning to observe or photograph, and then reports to you which objects from the Observation Planner are visible in your Night Sky. You can add your own objects or objects from any of STAR Atlas:PRO's catalogues. With each entry made, you can keep notes and of course draw Star Charts for its location.

Observation Planning is aided by STAR Atlas:PRO's Internet capabilities that allow you to retrieve digitized images from the on-line STScI Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) by clicking anywhere on a Star Chart, select the Field Size of the image to retrieve, and watch the image appear on your screen. DSS images can then be stored as part of STAR Atlas:PRO databases, and the area covered by each DSS Image are optionally drawn to scale on Star Charts. Click on the Star Chart, and the previously stored DSS image for that location is displayed, or alternatively browse all stored DSS images then plot the positon of anyone you choose from, and there is no limit to the number of DSS images you can integrate into STAR Atlas:PRO. This is a valuable tool for examining objects before decidiing to add the object to the Observation Planner.

Another pre-requisite for STAR Atlas:PRO's design is to accurately plot the position of Comets and Planets, and to produce Star Charts that show a Comets path through the Sky over a period of time. Comparison of STAR Atlas:PRO's predicted Comet Positions were compared to those produced from the IAU Minor Planetary Centre (MPC), confirming Comet Positions to nominally be within arc seconds of those calculated by the MPC.

Accurate Comet positions are complimented by STAR Atlas:PRO's ability to connect to the IAU Minor Planetary Centre to retrieve and import the latest comet orbital elements. There is no internal limit to the number of Comets that can be loaded into STAR Atlas:PRO.

Color and Black & White Star Charts produced by STAR Atlas:PRO to the screen or printer, are highly configurable so that you can display exactly what you want. Deep Sky Objects and Galaxies are drawn to correct size and orientation, you can Overlay CCD Field of View or Eyepiece Field of Views for your own equipment, display Star Colors, various Star Labels, and plenty of other similar options.

STAR Atlas:PRO's graphical user interface promotes minimizing hands on the keyboard by using a simple point & single-click interface. The user has two main control menus, the first is the floating toolbar and the second is the popup floating toolbar that appears when you click on a Star Chart. Point and Click anywhere on a Star Chart to Identify the object, Change Field of View, Centre Screen, Zoom In or Out, Overlay CCD and Eyepiece Field of Views, retrieve image from the Digitized Sky Survey, or Add your own Text to the chart. Click on a floating command toolbar to Access the Astronomical Catalogues Menu, Goto RA & DEC co-ordinates, change chart drawing preferences, goto your current Zenith position, Zoom, Pan, Print the Star Chart, Access On-Line Help, or display a Star Chart Symbols legend, and change the symbol colors.

Take me to the Online Store for Advanced Edition
Take me to the Online Store for Standard Edition
Back to Software
Back to B & T Shop