Starry Night Software

I'm thinking of buying the Starry Night software but don't know Which version to get. I was looking at either Starry Night Pro Plus V5 or Starry Night Professional V5 or should I get the new V6.


Clear Skies

Hi Joanna - do you want to control your telescope with the software?

You may also consider TheSky from Software Bisque - though that might cost a bit more than Starry Night.

If its a toss up between SNP 5 or 6, I'd get the latest one.

Dave

Joanna,

I have starry night pro-plus v5 (i think v6 is available now). It's quite expensive but it is very good. Takes a bit of getting used to. You will be able to connect to your telescope too. The pro plus version uses an all sky photographic mosaic so the image you see is a real photo.

Highly recommend it.

Hi Joanna - do you want to control your telescope with the software?

You may also consider TheSky from Software Bisque - though that might cost a bit more than Starry Night.

If its a toss up between SNP 5 or 6, I'd get the latest one.

Dave

I agree 'the sky' is very very good, but I'd say SNP might be more appealing to someone with a more general interest in astronomy?? Opinions??

Horses for courses Dave.

TheSky seems to be the de-facto package for serious imagers. Its probably due to the ability to do T-Point models. Dunno if SNP can do that. TheSky also does mosaics, can control the OTA etc etc. If you get the premium product, there's a bucket load of catalogues and scripting included. But you'll pay big bucks.

Certainly, I find TheSky6 to be excellent. I can run a data wizard and save queries on pretty much any group of objects you care to mention.

I used to use SNP and I found that good too. A bit lacking in certain areas but that was a few years ago.

Certainly, TheSky6 suits me - but if I ran a copy of the latest SNP [perhaps that would fulfil all my needs too...

Cheers
Dave

Howdy, I'm using SNP as well.

I haven't used the telescope control at all but I find the program excellent and easy to use.

The only poor part is occasional discrepancy between the databases, e.g. when you search for an object it will list it multiple times (one for each DB) and some of the results don't correlate. For example, the Blue Snowball (NGC 7662) shows up for me as anywhere between 8 and 9.5 mag and the size can be 58" or 17' which is a huge difference.

This doesn't bother me though. I picked SNP because it is supremely easy to use & I can connect to the scope if I ever feel the need in the future. Excellent for finding your way around the sky.

It also has a nice & simple observation planner built in.

There was a discussion on CloudyNights recently and the general feeling was that TheSky was quite a bit better but that Starry Night was more user friendly.

Trev