Starry Night Digital Download 6

[Marko of Oz]

I just bought/downloaded The Core application for Starry Night Digital Download 6 (http://www.starrynightstore.com/digitaldownloadnew.html) (around 100mb's) and I must say that for around $25US it's a bargain.

I had an old old version of Starry Night Backyard but it had only limited objects in its database. I've had/tried other programs like Stellaruim etc and while they are great/free programs they don't seem to show up to date things like comets/asteroids etc.

There are additional addons/data modules available for download for more $$ that are optional extras. From what I can tell you don't need them to enjoy and use the program properly.

I've only just started playing around with it but I'm very happy so far.:thumbsup:

I've attached an actual picture of the screen display from my location @ approximately 11pm, 10/11/07 showing comet Holmes position in Perseus among other things.

[netwolf]

How does this compare with the Pro plus version?

Regards

[Marko of Oz]

No idea. If you want to compare the features of their other packages all the info is on their site for your perusal.

I don't need the features of the more expensive packages so the choice was easy. If you're in the market for inexpensive, easy to use planetarium software this is it.

cheers

Mark

[CoombellKid]

I have Pro Plus and it's is awesome, lots of eye candy. Not sure if this is
for the DD version but they have just released update 6.2.0

http://www.starrynight.com/support/softwareupdates/

New Features....
http://www.starrynightsupport.com/support_trio/index.php?action=kb&article=238

Bug Fixes
http://www.starrynightsupport.com/support_trio/index.php?action=kb&article=229

The new update is 161mg-190mg depending on your system. I'll be waiting
until I head into town next to access a high speed connection.

Enjoy Mark it's a great program

regards,CS

[Omaroo]

I bought and downloaded the Download version a little while ago too. It's all good except for two major bugbears I have with it...

1) No night vision mode. Don't even offer it as a downloadable extra.

2) As soon as you move the cursor somewhere over a portion of the screen, obtrusive object data flashes up and hides everything. It's difficult to even park the cursor somewhere without displaying all sorts of stuff you don't want to see. For the life of me, i can't find how to disable it.

Other than that - it's pretty good. Doesn't compare to CarainaSoft Voyager though IMHO - but good for the price.

Cheers
Chris

[Marko of Oz]

Chris,

One thing I've discovered about this software is that it is highly configurable as far as what you want displayed onscreen. To get rid of unwanted information/object data try this:
In the file menu select Preferences.
In the drop down box select Cursor Tracking (HUD)
In the scroll window is ticked what information is displayed when the mouse hovers over an object. For example, unticking "Description" gets rid of "quote all sorts of stuff you don't want to see. end quote" ;)

cheers

Mark

[CoombellKid]

Chris, you can also change the HUD display to appear in the upper left
corner in the of the main window from in the same Preferences dialogbox
Mark is talking about.

Night vision should be in the "Options" menu towards the bottom. However
some features might be turned off to encourage you to upgrade.

regards,CS

[Omaroo]

Thanks guys - yep - that's better! :)

Still no N/V though... :(

[Astro78]

Voyager 4 offers a great demo (including nightvision modes). You're allowed to use it free until Dec '08.

Fairly new to this but would rate much higher than Stellarium and SkyChart 3

http://carinasoft.com/voyager4/demo/index.html

[Omaroo]

Yep - my favourite by far. A little exxy, but superbly configurable. It's the only planetarium program that I've seen which can duplicate the sky exactly as my eyes see it.

[CoombellKid]

Does it allow you to configure sky glow? and or distant light domes?


Starry Night does, it works pretty darn well too. I have Casino's light dome
to my north. And you can configure SN to the magnitude of stars seen
locally. Plus you can put in a panoramic picture of your yard from the point
you observe from. This also works pretty well. One time I was outside and
observed m45 between two trees, went inside and sure enough there it was
between the same two trees in SN

regards,CS

[Omaroo]

Check and check.

You can even re-configure the horizon by point, click and drag. Got a tree in the way? Put one there. Got a block of flats off to the west? Put one there....or just do the panoramic photo thing like SN if you want.

[Astro78]

It sure does. You can set glow +magnitude depending on how far you have zoomed in - perfectly matching what you see.

You can do the same personal horizon settings with Voyager but need to photograph your settings in .tiff with photoshop (don't own), otherwise you draw an outline which looks crappy.

Would like to try the latest Starry night but would prefer new TV :rofl:

Just found my 1st Galaxy - NCG 6744!!! :eyepop:

[CoombellKid]

Like this, my neighbour places to my south in SN from my yard.

regards,CS

[Astro78]

That's unreal ! So confirming they're your pics right? - edit - that is your pic. Was this .tiff ?

Did you need to do any special editing or any at all with photoshop?

[CoombellKid]

Yup! that's my back yard looking south as you would see it if you were
standing there. I had to change the sky area to transperant, I must admit
that did take a while to do. It's a case of the more time you spend on it
the better it looks.

Another lil one of the many funky functions in SN I like, is right clicking on
named stars, constellations, planets...etc...etc... it will give you an audio
pronounciation. Selected from the popup menu that appears

regards,CS

[Omaroo]

Voyager allows you to do exactly the same thing, photo-realistically, not just a shadowline (or, you can have both).

Here's a couple out over a side fence at my place - done rather hastily, so sorry about the detail...

[Astro78]

Are you able to assist me to do this with Voyager Omaroo? Or do you just have to have a copy of photoshop?

[Omaroo]

Travis - you'll need Photoshop CS2 or CS3 to do the panorama stitching well. If you send me a series of jpg photos of your backyard I'll see what I could do. You need to use a good wide angle and mount your camera on a tripod. Start taking photos and overlap about 10% from frame to frame. If you can, mark (right at the top) where north is on the one facing north, and similarly for south.

If you can get these together let me know by PM

Cheers :)
Chris

[CoombellKid]

Kinda looks a bit warp compared to SN, still it looks pretty cool. With a
name like Voyager does it have a built in flight simulator? SN allows you
to fly to any galaxy in it's database within 750 million lightyears from Earth
in 3D, kinda like star trek Enterprise. You can also ride Satelites in Earths
orbit, watch Earth transit the sun from Saturn as it did last year. You can
print 3 pane charts and indenpendantly set the FOV for the ep to be used,
finderscope and wide field of the constellation. Just select to object and
center it and print. I find that one of the most handy features of SN.

regards,CS

[CoombellKid]

SN also allows you to hook into various weather sats globally, and various
observatories (mainly solar). It has a bunch of cool features and lots of
eye candy. I could list and list but you'd better better off checking out
there website.

regards,CS

[Omaroo]

Ditto, ditto! After using both, I still reckon Voyager is my fave. The interface relies less on OpenGL so it is also much snappier. They are both great programs, but I find Voyager is more data-centric and SN presentation-centric. Take your pick, or, like me who also has StarAtlasPRO, try them all. :) Truthfully? They are all extremely capable, and being commercial-quality they just, well.. work as advertised. No clunks, no spits, no spats. It just comes down to my mood on the day which one I'll fire up for the evening!

Rob - it looks a little warped because of the projection method chosen ATM. You have 7 methods to chose from - Gnomonic, Orthographic, Stereoscopic, Equidistant, Mercator, Elliptical and Sinusoidal.

Here's me flying to Neptune..... zwoooosh!!

Cheers
Chris

[programmer]

I did the same thing in Stellarium.. it's eerily similar to what I actually see in my yard. I used a free, completely automated tool (you just point it at a folder of images and it does the rest!). I'll post the details if you need it. One thing I want Stelliarium to do is specify the limiting magnitude so I only see on screen what I can actually see in real life. But it's free! Good for the beginner I guess. Even runs well on my laptop.

[[1ponders]]

JFYI if you want an excellent free panorama stitching program the just works! then try autostich. In it's free form it only takes jpegs but you just open the folder with the files, select the files you want and press start. It does all the rest. Fantastic for what you guys are trying to do. If they need to be as tiffs then download Irfanview and convert your jpegs to tiffs. Done! You won't need photoshop and if you want to remove bits and pieces then open your panorama jpeg up into paint and use the eraser to remove what you want.

Back on Topic. :)

[programmer]

That's the one :)

PS: How does Starry Night "Enthusiast" fit into the whole SN scene? It's stated as being version 6.2 which is higher than the digital download versions too.. The digital download is attractive as I can get it almost instantly, but I'm curious how this version fits in (and which is best to get--I was about to buy/download the v6 core application to have a look).

[Omaroo]

One thing with Autostitch - can it generate a TIFF that supports the transparency required of the sky area? It's not a common TIFF tag, that's all.

[Astro78]

Hi Chris,

Mate that is so good of you, thank you very much. :D

I'll PM you some pics with some good light shortly, just need to borrow a tripod.

Is it best to angle up to get the obstructions in frame or keep parallel to the ground?

Clear Skies,
Trav

[[1ponders]]

You will need to use jpegs in autostitch and then convert to a Tiff using photoshop or Irfanview.

[CoombellKid]

I did mine in PS 7, didn't use a stitch program. SN uses PS's .psd file
format for their panoramas. The stitch program I have came with my
canon camera. It put an unatural wavy horizon into 360 images. The
image is 512x4092 pixels and you use a config file to position it.
You can save all your different viewing location with their true
horizons. Must get queensland astrofest when I'm up there next.
When I took the image I think I pretty much aimed straight at
the horizon

regards,CS

[CoombellKid]

Your are right SN is a bit eye candy, but the data is there in several
formats in the Hud (configurable), info panel on the left and also link
to the internet. However I haven't tried the other two so I really cant
compare.

regards,CS

[CoombellKid]

Enthusiast just has less features then Pro & Pro Plus, SN's website lists
what features are or are not available in each version. V 6.2 is that latest
update released last week. It was released to the beta testers the weekend
before.... but 160-190mg DL wasn't going to happen on my bush dial up, I'll
be grabbing it when I'm in town next at the local internet cafe who has a
lot faster connection than mine, hell I could email them and then drive to
town and still beat my email lol

regards,CS

PS: I wish there was a "word missing checker" lol

[programmer]

Well I bought the digital download 6 Core to have a look. Interesting so far, but will have to delve further. Am I able to get a custom panorama into this version or is that only pro? I have a PNG image that I use for Stelliarium that I'd like to use.. amazing the difference it makes having your own backyard in the picture for reference. Now I'm wondering which modules I should buy to add on to the core, if I need any.

[Omaroo]

Trav - no problem - pleasure!

Just keep your shots parallel to the ground plane, with your average horizon cutting straight across the middle of the frame. If the horizom deviates from this at points, (like the roof of an adjacent house) don't worry - as long as the end of the last frame is at the same height as the beginning of the first.

Cheers
Chris

[CoombellKid]

As mentioned in my message #29 above SN uses PS .psd file format for it's
panoramas. I use Pro Plus and can only guess the DD core version is a stripped
down version of what I have.

regards,CS

[Omaroo]

Download 6 Core allows you to use your own, but it's messier (pun unintended) :) You also need to supply an accompanying text file describing the attributes of the image file.

One thing I noticed with SN - how on earth do you get to see below the horizon?

Pic of SN from my back yard

[Marko of Oz]

1) Stand on tippy toes
2) Click on the Options tab down the left hand side and under Local View untick Local Horizon.

cheers

Mark

[iceman]

You can also make the horizon transparent, so it still shows it but you can see the stuff behind it.

[Omaroo]

Thanks Mark - I really don't find the menu systems on SN anywhere near as intuitive as Voyager. It also seems that when you delete you local horizon you aren't left with the option of a single horizon line with cardinal points displayed. Very annoying! Yes, I can put up the local grid, but even it doesn't display a single line at 0 degrees.

[Marko of Oz]

Overall I'm very pleased with SNDD.

The only add-on I've felt compelled to buy as an extra is the Image and Object Database so that there are pictures of the objects you're looking at to help with identification, like 47 Tuc, Messier objects etc.

cheers

Mark

ps: I'd like to say that I consider myself still very new to semi serious amateur astronomy/photography and that I think this version of the software is aimed at me and those like me. Probably not for the seasoned/advanced amateur. (is there an oxymoron in there somewhere?) :D

[programmer]

I'm not in front of SN at the moment, but are there instructions for doing the panorama? If you have a link, that would be great. Although if it requires photoshop that will be a pain.. unless Irfanview supports the format. Guess I should just wait until tonight.

[Omaroo]

Prog - Not that I know of. I winged it by copying the accompanying text file and modifying the obvious. I also used existing panoramas to judge what dimensions the graphic should be, the cardinal point reference to an edge of the frame and where the horizon line is expected vertically. Then you need to leave it in .psd Photoshop format. Yuk!

[CoombellKid]

The menu system is quite ok once your used to it. I mean it's pretty straight
forward really. Not sure about your version but there are a variety of ways to
display a horizon. Firstly I toggle the horizon using "Ctrl + h" you can have
the standard horizon, a single line horizon, and photorealistic you can make
them all opaque <-typo or semitransperent. With N, E, S and west marked
or not it's up to you how you want it displayed.

regards,CS

[CoombellKid]

instruction for creating photorealistic horizon can be found on SN website in
their knowledgebase support thingy here...

http://www.starrynightsupport.com/support_trio/index.php?action=kb&article=61

But I think you might find you can only do this in Pro and Pro plus

regards,CS

[CoombellKid]

With pictures of objects, you should be able to either add your own or you
can download from DSS from within the program by right clicking on an object
and select "Add Image" from the popup menu.

Actually I have from time to time added some of the lovely images folks have
posted in the imaging forums.:D These can also be turned off and on under
an option called "User Images" in the options pane on the left.

regards,CS

[CoombellKid]

The lastest up date has another 10 photorealistic horizons in it if you
have Pro Plus. But still no classic aussie with gum trees and such, must
do something about that.

regards,CS

[Omaroo]

Nah, it works with Core 6 - see message #35

[CoombellKid]

Yup saw that after I posted, I only mentioned it as it's in the Pro/Pro Plus
part of the knowledgebase. But then again when you buy an upgrade of
SN you actually get the full package, unlike MS OS's. I gave away my
copy of SN 5 Pro Plus after installing v6 :lol:

regards,CS

[CoombellKid]

Oh yeah I almost forgot, there is also the animated horizon. Which looks like
your standing neck deep in some dodgy looking grass as the wind blows it
around. Does Voyager have that eh' eh' eh' in actual fact once seen you
will probably not want to revisit. You can also add ambient sounds like winds
a blowing, a river flowing, crickets a sing'in....etc...etc

regards,CS

[Omaroo]

A certain Iggy Pop comes to mind......

LOL! I'm not sure that I want my processor churning away on the really, uhm,, unnecessary stuff.... but hey, if you want it I suppose you get it!:rofl:

At the end of the day they are two of the best around. I'm keyboard-driven, so the way that Voyager caters to me with nearly every function accessible via a keyboard shortcut (as well as hierarchical mouse-driven menus), I'm happy.

[CoombellKid]

awwww come on, what happens if your ever forced to highrise living. Your
PC would just oooze with the feeling, your in the great outdoors.:D:D:D

Actually I have thought of a great ambient aussie sound... Imagine this
Kookaburra's singing in the background along with zzzzzzZZzzzz slap!
zzzzzZZzzzzZZ slap! zzzZZzzzZzzz slap!...etc...etc...

what do you think?

regards,CS

[Omaroo]

LOL!

"Buuuzzzzzzzz......buzzz........ZIT! !!...ZIT!!...thud."

:rofl:

[CoombellKid]

Look up keyboard shortcuts in the help file, you'll a lot of info there on
how to access the many functions in SN via the keyboard.

regards,CS

[programmer]

I put Starry Night on the laptop last night, but it screws up the graphics somewhat.. will have to look into it. Could just be a video drivers issue. Interesting that it let me install on a second PC (I already had it on the desktop) when I'm pretty sure the licence says one computer. I thought it would've registered over the net.

Also tried Voyager, but there seem to be serious issues. Half the time when dragging the sky around with the mouse, it would just refuse to move. I could see the scroll bars going up/down and left/right, but the screen wasn't updating. Can't remember if that was on the desktop or laptop though. If the latter then I'll definitely have to check video drivers. Voyager looks ok, although a bit old school (i.e. Windows 3.1-ish) :P

Stellarium though, has no issues and runs well on the laptop. I did have to reduce the width of my custom panorama image to 2048 pixels (was 4096) as it complained that it was too large, and basically it didn't work. Same image was fine on my desktop PC.. only difference is 64-bit Vista (desktop) vs 32-bit Vista (laptop).

[Omaroo]

LOL! I'd guess that you laptop has some "issues" with graphics. Make sure that you have OpenGL running properly.

[programmer]

Finally put my backyard panorama in SN (digital download). Gimp 2 was very handy in converting my PNG to photoshop PSD :)

It looks pretty good, and I've managed to get it quite accurately aligned. Had to crop my original image as SN wants an 8:1 width to height ratio which is annoying. Doesn't help with close horizons like backyards. The image is also quite fuzzy looking whereas in Stellarium the panorama looks just like the source image. Maybe it's just my technique, but anyway I'm happy with it.

I've found Stellarium to not have enough visual config options, where as with SN I've got the visible stars to closely match my actual view (i.e. not many stars at all :sadeyes:).

Going to try Voyager some stage.