Starry Night Digital Download 6

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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/su...=kb&article=61

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

regards,CS

[CoombellKid]

Originally Posted by 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?)

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. 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 (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by CoombellKid

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

http://www.starrynightsupport.com/su...=kb&article=61

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

regards,CS

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

[CoombellKid]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

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

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

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 (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by 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

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!

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.

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 (Chris Malikoff)]

LOL!

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

[CoombellKid]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

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.

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)

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 (Chris Malikoff)]

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 ).

Going to try Voyager some stage.