Starry Night Pro Plus 7 – looks like this new version is now out?

[Dennis]

Just browsing the SN website and stumbled across SNP 7. (I have SNP Plus 6 installed). I must have missed the fanfare of the launch of this update.

http://store.simulationcurriculum.com/collections/software/products/starry-night-pro-plus-7

Anyone used this yet?

Cheers

Dennis

[Octane]

Oh, fantastic! I was looking the other day and it was still in beta.

I've been a fan of Starry Night Pro Plus ever since I got into astronomy. It has the best graphics out of all the planetarium software available.

Thanks for the heads up! Must get my hands on it. :)

H

[mithrandir]

H if you are registered with them for emails you should get one about a discounted upgrade. You need your serial number.

[h0ughy]

havent got that email yet - might be the only starry sky i see at home

[White Rabbit]

I miss SN6 after jumping ship to TSX. I love the functionality of TSX but you cant beat SN6 for ease of use and looks.

I might have to load it up and take a look at the new update.

Cheers for the heads up.

[Dennis]

I’m a registered SNP Pro Plus 6 user, having owned the SW since Version 3 and I’ve not yet received an e-mail.:shrug:

Maybe there hasn’t been a formal announcement yet? Could be a new strategy – let the new release dribble out by word of mouth so there is less of a big hit on the download servers?;):)

Cheers

Dennis

[RickS]

I didn't get an email either... or a notification of the beta after their support asked me if I'd be willing to try it (I have been waiting a long time for a bug fix)

At least I'm not paying them a subscription for not fixing bugs like another software vendor I could mention :mad2:

[Octane]

Go to the site, click the upgrade menu item up the top.

Select what you're upgrading from, input your serial number and you can buy it for $83US. :)

H

[mithrandir]

... or ~$105US including shipping if you also want the DVD. Looks like lots of people are downloading. Firefox has had the spinning "connecting" icon for several minutes so far.

[netwolf]

I got the email wonder how this compares now to TSX. Would welcome a user review/compare.

[Rigel003]

Got the email this morning. Had a quick look at the features and ordered the upgrade straight away. I've always loved Pro Plus 6.

[BPO]

Been a SN user since v3 or v4 (I forget which) and upgraded to v6 SNPP, but it's always been little more than a gigantic resource-hogging QuickTime app, and I got sick of the issues arising whenever Apple made QT even worse than it already was.

Maybe it's time to take another look now that it's at v7, but it faces some pretty stiff competition, and most of it free: C2A, CdC, HNSky, XEphem and all the rest.

As for looks, I think Stellarium is probably the winner there, although Voyager is another flashy one, as is KStars. It doesn't make them any more functional, though, and the "plainer" industrial-grade apps like C2A, CdC, etc are hard to beat, especially at the price!

[jenchris]

Users already registered get a discount -

[RickS]

I've been told my 3 year old bug should be fixed and that they will give me a refund on the upgrade if it's not. Seems fair enough...

[RickS]

After mulling it over for a few hours I decided it wasn't that reasonable to expect me to spend more money on a piece of software that has been unusable since I bought it (on three different computers Version 6 crashes as soon as I try to search for an NGC object). I have sent them a polite but stern response and will see if they are willing to do better.

[peter_4059]

I got the email but not sure if it is worth the extra $$$$

Extra-solar (Exso) planets as 3D bodies with proper location, size, orbit and planetary texture!
Ultra High Resolution and Super Detailed Photographic Surface Maps of All Planets and Moons!
Massive expanded galaxy catalog with 2+ million objects, based on Sloan (SDSS) and others!
Updated Messier Catalog with New Ultra High Resolution Images!
Stars now fully rendered as 3D Spheres with Classification-appropriate Color/Texture and Relative Radii!
New, Stunning AllSky Maps featuring Planck, 2Micron, IRAS-Cobe!
Starry Night Universal Search to quickly and easily find Anything, Everything, Anywhere, Everywhere!
Completely Redesigned and Spectacular Easy-to-use User Interface!
Analemma Drawn on Planet Surfaces!
Over 6000 New Text Descriptions for Satellites, Space Missions and Deepsky Objects!
The list of NEW features goes on and on!

[mithrandir]

It looks like there will be a service pack for SNP+7 really soon. Lots of errors being reported on Y!

One note. If you install on a PC that has never had Quicktime on it before SNP+7 will not run until you at least log off and on again, and possibly until you reboot. It complains it can't find a Quicktime dll when the real issue is that your PATH has to be refreshed.

[Dennis]

Hmm, still haven’t received an e-mail notification…:(

Feeling rejected and dejected...:sadeyes:

Dennis

[RickS]

The support folks were kind enough to offer me a free upgrade so I am now a happy customer. They did warn me that the new version may take some time to stabilize...

Cheers,
Rick.

[johnd]

I am one of the beta testers for version 7. To be honest, the release took the testers by surprise as there are many unresolved bugs. You can see the effects in the Yahoo group.
In my view there was still another months worth of work before it was up to scratch. For instance, SN7 crashes spectacularly when I ask it to move my scope. This was working fine in SN6, so I'm not sure what has happened.
I guess SC decided to use the larger user group as their testbed and hope they can resolve the issues quickly.