ScienceMan Review - Starry Night

Beautiful, powerful, accurate, photo-realistic, fascinating, sophisticated, engaging... my small brain can't conjure up enough glowing adjectives for this program.

Starry night is a wonderfully easy to use astronomy program that lets you see what is in the sky from any location on (or above!) Earth at any time. By "any time", I mean that you can see what the sky looked like from a particular location 1500 years ago if you want! Read this description from a MacWorld review; (just one of countless glowing reviews!)

"Starry Night is as beautiful as it is powerful. In its photo-realistic representations of the planets and moons, the stars really look like stars, and trees on Earth's horizon cast moving shadows as the Sun moves across the sky. You can see the planets rotate or zoom by as the Hubble Space Telescope would see them, or from any position on any planet or major moon in the solar system--even from any point in interplanetary space (see "Moons over Mars"). I've seen the midnight sun from the North Polar Cap of Mars, and I've seen Pluto from its moon, Charon. I've ridden comet Hale-Bopp as it passed Earth, watching Earth grow bigger and then recede in the distance. The program's ease of use encourages idle celestial tourism and late nights exploring the solar system..."

I have had the chance to indulge in the Deluxe version of Starry Night (Starry Night Basic "BackYard" is incredible... but I highly recommend spending a little more for the Pro version, as it is now called). My apologies for any confusion over the name!

Why go Pro? The perks in the deluxe version I like the most are;

Quicktime Movie tool - you can actually make a movie of your Starry night adventures, let's say, a planet fly-by. This is great - this way you can add your celestial adventures to presentations, your classroom instruction, etc., without ever having to start up the Starry Night program.
Enhanced planet detail - beautiful planet images.
19 million more stars - who can ever have enough stars?
Celestial views from anywhere in the solar system, with the ability to elevate above planets, moons, and comets.
Many more perks too numerous to mention!

Another great offering from Sienna is the maintenance of the free "Livesky.com" site on the world wide web. It's a wonderful companion to the Starry Night software for your astronomical journeys.

Breaking news! You can now really indulge yourself by getting the Pro version. What perks does it hold? You should really check out the comparison chart at the SiennaSoft website... get exactly what you want and need!

Granted, there are other good astronomy programs, such as RedShift , The Sky Voyager II , Dance of the Planets and Astronomica... (I'd check them all out - they may have particular features you need) but I really like the outstanding and easy to use Starry Night. If you want to teach anything astronomical, you need this program. You even have a couple of purchase options - register Starry Night Backyard for $49, or get the Starry Night Pro Version for $149. A bargain either way. Have fun gazing!