"Hallo northern sky" software

[ballaratdragons]

Is anyone familiar with "Hallo northern sky" software?

I am very close to getting my new mount which uses the Ascom system and I am looking around in the meantime to find programs for using with the GoTo from the Lappy.

This is the link to "Hallo northern sky" software, and there is a link down near the bottom of the page to Screenshots of the program. Looks good but I've never heard of it: http://www.hnsky.org/software.htm

[ballaratdragons]

So I take it that no-ones heard of it. :shrug:

Anyone, yoo-hoo :lol:

[Harb]

Must admitt I haven't...............but I would probably be happier if it was called "Hallo Southern Sky" Software ;)

[ballaratdragons]

Yeah Harb, the name is a bit of a worry. It's not a new program, it's been available for years, but has a recent upgrade. Yet I've never heard of it!!!

That must say something in itself!

[ballaratdragons]

Ahhhh, I found a review about Hallo Northern Sky!

Hallo Northern Sky

Despite the name, Hallo Northern Sky is for the whole sky.
I appreciate first this software for its ergonomy, the ease to change parameters and for the display of the target parameters in the upper left of the screen. Positive side while you zoom in more faint stars appear, not always well differenciated, but this is a performance to highlight as it is not always programmed in freeware products. At any moment you can bolden the star appearance and reduce or extend the limit magnitude. Couterpoint when zoom out, all faint stars continue to be displayed, whitening your screen. You have to reset the limit magnitude to get a more realistic sky.

DSO are listed not as empty shapes but are filled, presenting a grey surface a bit similar to the Catalog of Principal Galaxies to simulate their appearance at the eyepiece; an excellent initiative usually available on high-end products and loading expensives CD's.

Better than other freeware, Hallo provides a Search tool to find planets or their satellites, stars, constellations, DSO (Messier, IC and NGC) but also a hundred comets and so many asteroids. As for many small programs, 433 Eros although of magnitude 12 is not listed. The zoom is also powerful. You select an area with a right-clic of the mouse to center it and you zoom by clicking on the IN or OUT menu. Double stars have not been forgotten and the double-double epsilon Lyrae-1 appears well when the true field decreases below around 18' and magnitude below 8.

There also two very useful tools. First the fact you can move around the sky using the arrows. Even displaying all objects the refresh is very fast. The second tool is the accelerated motion which is available using F-keys. Very useful to find a conjunction or the accurate position of an asteroid for example among stars.

Hallo is now at version 2.04 and runs fine on Windows 32-bit platforms in high resolution, better than some high-end products.

It is free with 26000 deepsky objects and all stars to magnitude 12 and with the original GSC CD's, GSC-ACT or the USNO UCAC2 to magnitude 16. It displays all planets, the Moon, Sun, moons of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Uranus and Neptune and a few hundred asteroids and comets. It comes with 255 small DSS (r) deepsky images which will blend in at the right size and orientation. Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies. Contains 23011 galaxies.



Hmmmm, sounds pretty good to me :thumbsup: Downloading now :lol:

[Omaroo]

I've been using it for a little while Ken - I downloaded it while I was also trying Voyager III & IV for Mac and Windows. I prefer Voyager now so I've paid the $160 to bring in the DVD from the States even though the freeware Hallo is OK. Voyager was just more polished, and I prefer the extra power that it gives, particularly in how object names are controlled. Hallo's star maps when printed don't reflect the detail that you see on screen for some reason whilst Voyager's do.

Cheers
Chris

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Chris,

I downloaded 'Hallo' last night and had a play with it. It is very good (especially as its free). I am a Cartes du Ciel fan and yet 'Hallo' seems even better. It has many more features and is easier to navigate around the screen. I also like the actual DSO images used.

I am yet to try everything in the program, but so far so good.