Amazon.co.uk Review
Starry Night Pro is a CD-ROM package in the same family as the successful
Starry Night Backyard and
Deep Space Explorer. Designed for use at home by budding astronomers and devoted amateurs, this is a wonderful tool for fun and learning, and surely the modern inheritor of the role formerly occupied by the Atlas of the Universe series.
Starry Night Pro is the most advanced of the three above mentioned packages, and is for use by those who are already furnished with reasonable astronomical knowledge. Coming with a companion book for further reading, the package includes all the latest developments in stellar knowledge. As well as some excellent video footage of astronomical phenomena, there are fascinating interviews with scientists from prestigious institutions such as NASA, which provide the latest understanding of new developments--meteorites, new comets, orbital dynamics. The package also comes with the usual series feature of directing the programme to what you can see from your own home.
There is a greater scope than in other packages--you can view starfields up to a distance of a staggering 700 million light years--the detail of some of the areas discussed by the experts, and also the coordinates and data ascribed to more than 16 million stars. Add to this the usual excellent quality of the graphics and the visual effects and you have a winner. Even if you already own the less advanced packages, you shouldn't hesitate to rush out to buy this one. --Toby Green
Manufacturer's Description
Starry Night Pro V4.x has everything the amateur astronomer or devoted hobbyist needs to explore the heavens. View stunningly realistic star fields from 350 million light years out or from your own backyard.
Starry Night Pro V4.x has access to over 500 million celestial objects, including the complete NGC/IC, PCG and Hubble Star Guide catalogues. OpenGL graphics support the 3D positions of 28,000 galaxies in the Tully collection and navigate through the closest stars to us in 3D perspective. Add images to build your own custom data with a graph tool allowing you to predict eclipses and conjunctions. You can add custom field of view indicators to match your telescope eyepieces, binoculars or CCD, add a custom 360-degree photo of your own backyard, track the latest satellites, comets and asteroids or control most popular brands of computerised telescopes including Meade LX-200, AutoStar and the Celestron Nexstar series.