Product Reviews
December/98
 |
Sienna Software Inc. "Starry Night Deluxe" Contact: Peter Forint, Sales and Marketing Manager Phone: 1-800-252-5417 or 416-410-0259. Reviewed By: |
When I first saw Starry Night it was not on the Windows platform but it's first version programmed for the Mac. I must admit I was captivated by it's power and features and of course the red running shoes of this virtual telescope computer program - enabling armchair astronomy to be done without having to haul out one's telescope in the dead of winter! The added bonus is that Starry Night is programmed and marketed right here in Toronto by a small software company called, Sienna Software Incorporated.
Installation
For me at least, installation was problematic...the required Quicktime v.3 module simply would not install on my machine from the CDROM, even in safe mode. Quicktime is needed to play back 'movies' created by the user if one wants to record astronomical events such as fly-bys or eclipse events in Quicktime format. Fortunately I was able to install the program on a Thinkpad laptop without any problems. I suspect the Quicktime problem is related to a previous version of the Apple QT player that was already installed on my machine.
Functions and Features
For those not familiar with astronomy 'planetarium-type' programs this rates as one of the best for amateur astronomers. Starry Night Deluxe allows the user to display the day or night time sky not only from any location on or around the earth but from anywhere in the solar system and beyond. The sky is presented to you in 'real time' but can also be fast forwarded or backed up minutes, hours or even centuries to simulate astronomical events at any time during history (or the future).
Starry Night Deluxe will install a 'star catalog' up to a certain star brightness on your hard drive however if you leave the SND CDROM in your player it will refer to a much larger catalog listing enabling you to view fainter and fainter stars. Especially interesting is the ability to display multiple windows or views of a particular 'event' from multiple locations in real time ...for instance being able to view a total solar eclipse from the path of totality, from the moon (looking towards the earth) and also from the Sun itself. Other features include plotting of orbits and inputting of new astronomical orbit data.
There is a whole host of options and customizations available, one of which is the darkness of the sky (eg. light pollution). Other options include field of view, location of viewer and many, many others. Custom star charts can also be printed (black stars) on white background, with names and labeling.
Documentation
Documentation comes in a couple of different forms. The printed 'Getting Started' guide was very useful, however I found it more useful after playing around with the program for an hour or two. The install program will copy the Starry Night manual to your hard drive (in HTML format) and if you have an Internet connection the most current version of the manual can be downloaded from the Sienna Software WEB site.
Online component
There is an extensive online component to Starry Night Deluxe as well, however I was not able to use this feature because I did not have an Internet link on my laptop. Starry Night has something called the Live sky which allows users (if connected to the Internet) to link to various sites for additional star catalog information along with links to other astronomy related sites! Of course Sienna is online as well and can be contacted at their Website.
Summary
Once installed, Starry Night is a very powerful program allowing new and experienced amateur astronomers to simulate the night and day sky from any perspective. Although it can be used as a planetarium type program it is capable of much more, such as planet and astronomical body 'fly-bys'.
System requirements
Windows95, NT 4 or above (will not run on Win 3.1)
with 16 Megs of RAM and
15 - 60 Megs of hard drive space (dependant on installation options)
SVGA 256 colour-compatible monitor
CD ROM drive
Mac users will need a 68040 or PowerPC or better, System 7.0
8 Megs RAM and
10 - 40 Megs HD space
See also David Paikin's page of interesting Astronomy Links