RedShift 5

Redshift was first launched 11 years ago and has been developed over the years into the current Version 5 which is a very versatile and stylish and well organised on screen: the overall impression it conveys bears comparison with Encarta, for example.

It is, above all, focused on being a planetarium programme to enable users to study aspects of visual astronomy and it is invaluable for learning about the heavens and for planning and carrying out observing sessions. There are orrery views and guided tours and tutorials and other aids for beginners.

The scope of Redshift is mind-boggling – it covers 20 million stars, 100 moons, 50,000 minor planets, 1500 comets, … and provides access to the Hipparchus, Hubble and Tycho2 catalogues, amongst others. It can also be updated online, although it remains to be seen how much after-sales support can be provided by the software house, given the low price of the product

The great thing about planetarium programmes, such as Redshift, is that you can set them up so that you view the sky, or objects from wherever in space you want to site your mind’s eye. Thus you can look at Saturn’s rings from Saturn or the Solar sustem from Vega or Andromeda, …. More typically you set up the software for the location of your back garden, including altitude, and pan around the sky in a virtually limitless choice of space and time; zooming into great detail where required.

From my point of view, now Version 5 of Redshift is available it is an excellent programme. I like the way in which it has been enhanced to make observing sessions much more productive. The sky diary warns you of upcoming events such as meteor showers, eclipses, etc and you can access charts which pinpoint the best possible times to observe and, say, on what day and at what time is Saturn going to be at its highest elevation this year.

So, overall, and at less than £30, I regard this as probably the best all-round “buy” – in short a “must-have” astronomy package – and one which provides wonderful scope for armchair and field observing and fascinating opportunities for leisure and education.

Mike Whitecross

On the bright side it is useful as an up-to the minute star chart for identifying those bright things in the sky that you sometimes argue with your mates over ("Planets don't twinkle, that's Uranus!") and you can download co-ordinates for additional/new objects from the internet, for instance I used it to track the positions of the pathfinder and mars explorer probes. You can also add your own objects, so I guess if you had a degree in maths you could simulate a massive asteroid hitting the earth, but don't expect hollywood style results that's all.