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Science Forum Index » Astronomy Forum » what is a good astro software program
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| n3drk |
 Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 5:09 am |
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I am looking for a very good, economical astronomy software program. I have
"The Sky" which was included with my telescope purchase but thinking of
upgrading. I read a review of Redshift 5 and that person said it was a very
bad upgrade. Would like to hear from the experiences of others. Thank You |
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| Dave |
| Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 6:28 am |
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"n3drk" <n3drk@triad.rr.com> wrote in message
news:MRADb.129126$Vu5.8000374@twister.southeast.rr.com...
Quote: I am looking for a very good, economical astronomy software program. I
have
"The Sky" which was included with my telescope purchase but thinking of
upgrading. I read a review of Redshift 5 and that person said it was a
very
bad upgrade. Would like to hear from the experiences of others. Thank You
Cartes du Ciel is pretty good and has the advantage of being free. The user
interface isn't as polished as some of the commercial products, but it's
still quite usable. You can use multiple star and DSO catalogs.
The main drawback (for me, alluded to above) is that you can't move to a
different part of the sky by dragging the mouse (unless it's an option I
haven't managed to find.)
I'm sure others will suggest alternatives.
DaveL
http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/ |
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| Mark Smith |
| Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:34 am |
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On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 10:09:48 GMT, n3drk wrote:
Quote: I am looking for a very good, economical astronomy software program. I have
"The Sky" which was included with my telescope purchase but thinking of
upgrading. I read a review of Redshift 5 and that person said it was a very
bad upgrade. Would like to hear from the experiences of others. Thank You
http://www.pricelessware.org/2003/PL2003DESKTOP.htm
There are 2 freeware astronomy programs listed here.
Mark |
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| Steve |
| Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:43 am |
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n3drk wrote:
Quote: I am looking for a very good, economical astronomy software program.
I have "The Sky" which was included with my telescope purchase but
thinking of upgrading. I read a review of Redshift 5 and that person
said it was a very bad upgrade. Would like to hear from the
experiences of others. Thank You
I'm quite impressed with Starry Night. It comes in a few different
versions - I use the Backyard variant - and is very easy to use plus it can
be kept up-to-date via the internet.
If you can find an old copy of version 3 somewhere grab it; I didn't think
the marginal improvements in version 4 justified the price of upgrading :-(
Steve
--
www.frontierastro.co.uk
FrontierAstro - dedicated to Frontier and Astronomy |
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| Stuart Turrell |
| Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 11:43 am |
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starry night i agree, i also currently have the backyard version, but i have
got starry night pro plus 4.5 on order!
It comes with soem free dvds to learn from and some expansion disks to add
more objects.
www.space.com
"Steve" <fdkjhgds@fdghsdjhgf.net> wrote in message
news:D_DDb.459$5M1.160858@newsfep1-win.server.ntli.net...
Quote: n3drk wrote:
I am looking for a very good, economical astronomy software program.
I have "The Sky" which was included with my telescope purchase but
thinking of upgrading. I read a review of Redshift 5 and that person
said it was a very bad upgrade. Would like to hear from the
experiences of others. Thank You
I'm quite impressed with Starry Night. It comes in a few different
versions - I use the Backyard variant - and is very easy to use plus it
can
be kept up-to-date via the internet.
If you can find an old copy of version 3 somewhere grab it; I didn't think
the marginal improvements in version 4 justified the price of upgrading
:-(
Steve
--
www.frontierastro.co.uk
FrontierAstro - dedicated to Frontier and Astronomy
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| Joshua |
| Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 2:34 pm |
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n3drk wrote:
Quote: I am looking for a very good, economical astronomy software program.
If you run (or plan on running) Linux, then I heartily recommend KStars
( http://edu.kde.org/kstars/index.php ). Latest version even includes
telescope control!
Dark skies to ya!
~ Joshua
--
"You can't have bread and loaf."
Remove the numbers from my e-mail to contact me.
Woohoo! http://www.gentoo.org |
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| Dave |
| Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2003 6:00 am |
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"Stuart Turrell" <stuartturrell@yahooo!!.co.uk> wrote in message
news:brqimt$ajm$1@titan.btinternet.com...
Quote: starry night i agree, i also currently have the backyard version, but i
have
got starry night pro plus 4.5 on order!
It comes with soem free dvds to learn from and some expansion disks to add
more objects.
www.space.com
I quite like starry night backyard, though I find that it does occasionally
crash, on both PCc I've tried it on. It is limited in the number of DSOs
and limiting magnitude of the stars, so the pro version may be better
depending on what you want to use it for.
DaveL |
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| Justin Lake |
| Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2003 9:41 am |
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"n3drk" <n3drk@triad.rr.com> wrote in message news:<MRADb.129126$Vu5.8000374@twister.southeast.rr.com>...
Quote: I am looking for a very good, economical astronomy software program. I have
"The Sky" which was included with my telescope purchase but thinking of
upgrading. I read a review of Redshift 5 and that person said it was a very
bad upgrade. Would like to hear from the experiences of others. Thank You
I think it was last year that Personal Computer World (UK mag) gave
away Starry Night Beginner as part of their cover disk. It coincided
with a burgeoning interest in Astronomy in myself and my 6yr old son.
It is the most fantastic freebie I've ever had and I would certainly
have paid £30 or more for it and still thought it good value. It's
features as a desktop planetarium are very good, attractive and easy
to use (some genuine Wow! moments the first time we used it). I've
used The Sky (level 1 I think) and Redshift and they don't compare in
my opinion.
In the summer I bought a Celestron C8-N and my evening sessions have
all been planned using my free Starry Night. My son likes exploring
with it as well but I don't want to give the impression it's basic toy
software - it really is a very good tool.
I'm going to get the Pro Plus 4.5 shortly for £99 from Amazon, but the
range starts at about £30 I think.
Hope this was useful!
Regards,
Justin |
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| Kilolani |
| Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2003 3:28 pm |
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Starry Night Pro is outstanding, and the biggest advantage to version 4 is
the OpenGL. Of course, if your computer doesn't support OpenGL then the
improvements might be viewed as marginal.
Quote: "Steve" <fdkjhgds@fdghsdjhgf.net> wrote in message
If you can find an old copy of version 3 somewhere grab it; I didn't
think
the marginal improvements in version 4 justified the price of upgrading
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| R West |
| Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2003 10:44 pm |
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Mark Smith <marksmith@burntmail.com> wrote in
news:1pxu0rfomz1cj.l6mven8tx3bm$.dlg@40tude.net:
Quote: http://www.pricelessware.org/2003/PL2003DESKTOP.htm
I have been lurking here for a couple of weeks and thought I would offer
this link.
http://www.seds.org/billa/astrosoftware.html
Regards,
R West |
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| KArcher |
| Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2003 12:43 am |
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