Here is a list of Starry Night features that will help you create great looking Starry Night Favourite files.
For additional features, refer to the User’s Guide under the Help menu and subscribe to our monthly newsletter at StarryNightEducation.com .
3D Shadows
Starry Night can display 3D shadow cones (umbra and penumbra) for all planets, dwarf planets and moons in our solar system. To display the shadow cone for an object, open the Find pane and check the second box to the right of the object’s name. In the example below, the Earth and Moon shadow cones have been toggled on.
You can change the color of the shadow cone and select to display the umbra, penumbra or both when the shadow box in the Find pane is checked. To customize how shadows will appear, open the Options pane, expand the Solar System layer and click on “Planets-Moons”. This will bring up a new dialog window that allows you to change the display options for shadow cones.
Distance Spheres
Distance Spheres allows you to display translucent spheres at custom distance milestones from a selected object.
Tip: An example of a distance sphere to show the boundaries of our solar system can be found in the Favourites side pane under Simulations->Other->Distance Spheres->Sun distance spheres. Use the Increase Elevation button in the Toolbar to view the distance spheres. Hold down the SHIFT key and click-drag your mouse cursor around a distance sphere to change your perspective.
To add a new distance sphere, right-click or ctrl-click on a solar system object and select Distance Spheres... from the contextual menu that pops up. Alternatively, you can open the Find pane and click on an objects contextual menu button (first button located on the left of the object’s name) to view the contextual menu.
Click the (+) button in the dialog window that opens to add a new distance sphere.
Name your distance sphere and set the radius of the sphere. In the example below, the Sun will be at the center of the distance sphere. Press the Ok button when finished.
To display the distance sphere, make sure the box to the left of the sphere’s name is checked.
To view the distance sphere, use the Increase Elevation button to increase your distance from the Earth. In this example, we added a distance light sphere with a radius of 1 light year and would have to increase the elevation to at least 1 light year to view the sphere.
Magnify Planets
This is a fun and educational feature. Starry Night allows you to enlarge the sizes of solar system objects. When this feature is used, the object will no longer be drawn to scale but there are advantages. For example, when you hover above the solar system, the planets are mere dots. You can use the magnification feature to enlarge the sizes of the planets, making them easily visible.
The magnification slider is hidden by default. To view the magnification slider open the Find pane and right-click (Windows) or ctrl-click (Macintosh) on a column heading, such as “Name”. In the menu that opens, select “Magnification”.
A new slider will appear under the heading “Mag.” Move the slider to the right to magnify the size of the object.
Hide Planets
The hide feature will hide a solar system object from view. For example, if you were showing the orbit of the Earth, you could hide all of the other planets and avoid being distracted by the motion of the other planets.
Like the magnification feature, the hide feature is hidden by default. To view the hide checkbox column open the Find pane and right-click (Windows) or ctrl-click (Macintosh) on a column heading, such as “Name”. In the menu that opens, select “Hide”.
A new checkbox will appear to the left of the Alt. column. Click on the box to hide the object. In this example, Venus has been hidden from view.
Precession Dials
Precession Dial shows a ring in the northern and southern sky marked in 1000 year increments depicting the rotational axis "wobble" of the Earth over its 26,000 year cycle.
To display the precession dials, open the Options pane, expand the Guides layer and then the Celestial Guides (Poles) sub-layer. Under Celestial Guides (Poles) check the “Pole Precession Circles” box.
More Tips & Tricks online
Please visit us online at StarryNightEducation.com for more tips and tricks from us and other users of Starry Night.
Brenda Shaw
Using the Starry Night Knowledge Base Help System
To begin using this knowledge base you have several options:
View by categoy
Search
The categories are listed on the top right of the page. If you are looking for something specific try the search box or click on advanced search for a more in-depth search query.
If you need help in something that the Starry Night KnowledgeBase does not contain or you are unable to find what you are looking for, simply submit a support request.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
General
Frequently asked questions common to all Starry Night Products
Starry Night Spotlight Plugin for Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger)
This plugin allows you to use Spotlight to search inside Starry Night files’ (.snf) “notes”, “selected objects”, “centered objects” and “location names” for strings matching your query.
For example, if you have saved a .snf file with the planet Mars selected and you perform a search for “mars” in Spotlight, your saved Starry Night file will be returned in the list of found files.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
Product Manuals
Below is the latest version of our product manuals. You will require PDF reader to view these files. You may download Adobe Acrobat Reader FREE from the Adobe Website.
Expert users only. If you encounter a consistent and reproducible problem with the software or want to send us a suggestion to enhance Starry Night, please use our Bug Report form (you will not necessarily receive a reply, this form is for bug reports not general questions).
Please see the table at the end of this article to find out which features are available for your edition of Starry Night!
NEW FEATURES
Event Finder
Appulse event searching alerts you when the Moon or the Pleiades is near bright planets.
Apollo Space Missions
Support for the trajectories of the Apollo spacecraft.
Other
Smooth window fading (Win XP and Vista) Transparent floating windows (Vista only)
NEW DATA
10 New Earth Horizon Panoramas
Feel what it's like to observe from a mountain top, the shores of the Dead Sea or the southern skies of the Winter Star Party. Version 6.2 adds additional photorealistic landscapes.
Tip: To view in Starry Night, choose Options->Other Options->Local Horizon from the main menu that runs across the top of the screen. In the dialog that opens, click on the Default button in the Horizons section.
Pond
Red Mountain
Canebrake
Winter Star Party
Dead Sea, Israel
Judean Desert. Israel
Metzada, Israel
Ubeydia, Israel
National Observatory, Bulgaria
Forest Top, Bulgaria
Apollo Space Missions
Utilize the new space probe visualization capabilities in Starry Night version 6.2 to explore the Apollo Lunar Program. Visualize the spacecraft, trajectories and landing sites as you follow the crews of Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
Tip: To view in Starry Night, open the Favourites pane and navigate to Space Missions > Apollo.
Apollo Saturn V Third Stage
Apollo 13 Damaged CSM
Apollo 11 Lunar Lander
Paleogeographic Maps of the Earth
Travel in time to Earth’s distant past, present and future and view how the Earth has changed over millions of years.
Set of 4 maps show how the Earth looked 200 million years ago before the continents were separated, 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid and 100 million years in the future.
Late Cretaceous – 65 million years ago
Tip: To view in Starry Night, right click on the Earth while hovering above it and select Surface Image/Model from the contextual menu that appears. In the dialog that opens, use the dropdown menu to select the various Paleo maps.
Shaded Moon Map
High – resolution shaded Moon surface map by Ralph Aeschliman provides the most realistic depiction of our closest neighbor.
Tip: To view in Starry Night, right click on the Moon and select Surface Image/Model from the contextual menu that appears. In the dialog that opens, use the dropdown menu above the Add Image button and select “Alternate”.
3D Asteroid Models
View over 65 new asteroid models in version 6.2. All models have been accurately generated from available research data.
Tip: To view in Starry Night, open the Find pane and type in the name of the asteroid in the search box. (see asteroid list below)
Follow the Dawn Spacecraft as it begins its trek to the asteroid belt on an unprecedented mission to explore the two largest asteroids in the solar system - Ceres and Vesta.
Tip: To view the Dawn Spacecraft in Starry Night, click the Find pane and type Dawn; or, open the Favourites pane and look in the Space Missions menu.
Constellation Descriptions
Updated mythological descriptions for all 88 classical constellations
Other
Equipment database updated with more accessories. Extrasolar planets database updated. Meteor Showers database updated.
Which new features are available for my edition of Starry Night?
Feature
CSAP
Enthusiast
Pro
Pro Plus
Appulse Event Searching
X
X
X
Smooth Window Fading (Windows XP and Vista)
X
X
X
X
Transparent Floating Windows (Windows Vista)
X
X
X
X
Apollo Space Missions (Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12, 13)
X
X
65 Asteroid Models
X
X
X
Earth Horizon Panoramas
2
4
6
10
Shaded Moon Map
X
X
Dawn Space Mission
X
X
X
Palaeogeographic Earth Maps (200 million BC, 56 million BC, present day, and 100 million AD)
X
Equipment Database (30 new accessories)
X
X
Meteor Shower Database Update
X
X
X
X
Extrasolar Planets Update
X
X
X
X
88 Constellation Descriptions
X
X
X
X
Brenda Shaw
Asteroids in Starry Night
Starry Night's asteroid data file (the Asteroids.txt file in your Sky Data folder) contains a selection of interesting objects. There are far more such objects available than we include in Starry Night; if we included the hundreds of thousands of known asteroids, the average home computer would not be able to run the simulation. In addition, the orbital data for some near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) are changing so quickly that we do not include them, in the interests of accuracy.
If there is a particular asteroid you would like to see that is not already included in the Asteroids.txt file, please consult the preformatted asteroid file kindly prepared by the International Astronomical Union. The data in this file is already formatted for use in Starry Night. Locate your asteroid in this file and copy the corresponding row of text. Open your Asteroids.txt file and paste the new line in at the top, making sure the columns line up. Save the Asteroids.txt file.
When you next start Starry Night, you will be asked whether you want to update data files. Say no, because if you say yes it will overwrite the changes you made. You will now be able to search for your asteroid by name using the Find tab.
Brenda Shaw
Why can't I see the new comet?
If you're looking for a particular comet in Starry Night and can't find it, here are a few things that might be keeping you from seeing it. 1) Make sure you have the latest version of the Comets.txt file. In Starry Night, you can click on LiveSky on the menu bar, and choose Check for Data Updates in order to get the current version of the file. If you can't access it that way, you may also download the file manually from the following location:
Windows: browse to C:/Program Files/Starry Night/Sky Data.
Mac OS: in Applications, right-click or control+click your Starry Night program icon and choose Show Package Contents, and browse to Contents -> Resources -> Sky Data.
Click File/Save in your browser window when you are viewing that file, and save it into your Sky Data folder. Let it replace any older file with the same name.
2) Your program may not be set to display all the comets in the file. Click on File/Preferences... on your menu bar (or, Starry Night/Preferences, if you're using a Mac) and choose Startup/Auto Updates. Set the number of comets read in on startup to 600. This ensures that all comets in the file will be loaded into Starry Night.
3) Older versions of Starry Night may not be able to read the current comet data file, since it's bigger than it used to be. If you have a version of Starry Night that does not let you change the read-in number, you can edit the comet data file. Browse to your Sky Data folder and open the Comets.txt file in a text editor. Find the line for the comet you want (if it's a newly-discovered comet, it will be near the bottom of the file) and move it to the top of the file. Save the file and start Starry Night again, and it should force the program to load that comet first.
Brenda Shaw
Tips and Tricks for New 6.3.3 Features
Here is a list of Starry Night features that will help you create great looking Starry Night Favourite files.
For additional features, refer to the User’s Guide under the Help menu and subscribe to our monthly newsletter at StarryNightEducation.com .
3D Shadows
Starry Night can display 3D shadow cones (umbra and penumbra) for all planets, dwarf planets and moons in our solar system. To display the shadow cone for an object, open the Find pane and check the second box to the right of the object’s name. In the example below, the Earth and Moon shadow cones have been toggled on.
You can change the color of the shadow cone and select to display the umbra, penumbra or both when the shadow box in the Find pane is checked. To customize how shadows will appear, open the Options pane, expand the Solar System layer and click on “Planets-Moons”. This will bring up a new dialog window that allows you to change the display options for shadow cones.
Distance Spheres
Distance Spheres allows you to display translucent spheres at custom distance milestones from a selected object.
Tip: An example of a distance sphere to show the boundaries of our solar system can be found in the Favourites side pane under Simulations->Other->Distance Spheres->Sun distance spheres. Use the Increase Elevation button in the Toolbar to view the distance spheres. Hold down the SHIFT key and click-drag your mouse cursor around a distance sphere to change your perspective.
To add a new distance sphere, right-click or ctrl-click on a solar system object and select Distance Spheres... from the contextual menu that pops up. Alternatively, you can open the Find pane and click on an objects contextual menu button (first button located on the left of the object’s name) to view the contextual menu.
Click the (+) button in the dialog window that opens to add a new distance sphere.
Name your distance sphere and set the radius of the sphere. In the example below, the Sun will be at the center of the distance sphere. Press the Ok button when finished.
To display the distance sphere, make sure the box to the left of the sphere’s name is checked.
To view the distance sphere, use the Increase Elevation button to increase your distance from the Earth. In this example, we added a distance light sphere with a radius of 1 light year and would have to increase the elevation to at least 1 light year to view the sphere.
Magnify Planets
This is a fun and educational feature. Starry Night allows you to enlarge the sizes of solar system objects. When this feature is used, the object will no longer be drawn to scale but there are advantages. For example, when you hover above the solar system, the planets are mere dots. You can use the magnification feature to enlarge the sizes of the planets, making them easily visible.
The magnification slider is hidden by default. To view the magnification slider open the Find pane and right-click (Windows) or ctrl-click (Macintosh) on a column heading, such as “Name”. In the menu that opens, select “Magnification”.
A new slider will appear under the heading “Mag.” Move the slider to the right to magnify the size of the object.
Hide Planets
The hide feature will hide a solar system object from view. For example, if you were showing the orbit of the Earth, you could hide all of the other planets and avoid being distracted by the motion of the other planets.
Like the magnification feature, the hide feature is hidden by default. To view the hide checkbox column open the Find pane and right-click (Windows) or ctrl-click (Macintosh) on a column heading, such as “Name”. In the menu that opens, select “Hide”.
A new checkbox will appear to the left of the Alt. column. Click on the box to hide the object. In this example, Venus has been hidden from view.
Precession Dials
Precession Dial shows a ring in the northern and southern sky marked in 1000 year increments depicting the rotational axis "wobble" of the Earth over its 26,000 year cycle.
To display the precession dials, open the Options pane, expand the Guides layer and then the Celestial Guides (Poles) sub-layer. Under Celestial Guides (Poles) check the “Pole Precession Circles” box.
More Tips & Tricks online
Please visit us online at StarryNightEducation.com for more tips and tricks from us and other users of Starry Night.
Brenda Shaw
Is your computer ready for Starry Night?
Starry Night 6 requires that certain prerequisite programs are installed on your computer. You can download the prerequisites from the external links below. These are all free downloads.
If you are using Windows:
1. Run your Windows Update utility. This can be found in the tray in the lower right corner of your screen, or in your Control Panel. This will ensure that Windows has all the latest patches and bug fixes.
3. Visit your computer manufacturer's Support or Downloads website and update your video card drivers. This will make sure that your graphics hardware is working at full capacity. If you have a home-built computer, visit the graphics card manufacturer's website to update the drivers.
4. If you are using Windows XP or Vista, install Microsoft's Visual C++ Redistributable Package. If you are using Windows 7 it was included with your operating system, so you already have it.
6. Visit our Software Updates page to see if there are any new patches and bug fixes for your Starry Night program.
If you are using a Mac:
All of your system software updates can be installed by clicking the apple logo in the upper left of your screen and choosing Software Update. Install everything it suggests.
If Starry Night prompts you for other prerequisites during installation, you can follow the instructions to install them, or uncheck the boxes so that those components do not install.
If you still encounter problems after installing these updates, please contact Starry Night software support. You can also contact us by Yahoo instant messenger under the username starrynightedu .
Brenda Shaw
Windows 7 and Starry Night College
Starry Night College 6 is fully compatible with Windows 7. If you have trouble installing or running Starry Night College on your Windows 7 computer, try the following steps.
A. Before Installing Starry Night College
Make sure your computer meets the minimum requirements
Requires Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
1GHz or higher processor
512 MB RAM
1 GB of hard disk space
64 MB OpenGL capable graphics card
Minimum recommended monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels
Make sure Windows 7 is up to date
Click the Start button in the lower left of your screen, and choose All Programs -> Windows Update. Follow the prompts to install updates.
You can also check for updates by clicking the Action Center icon in the taskbar and then selecting Check for Updates.
B. Installing Starry Night College
StarryNightCollege6.exe is not a valid Win32 application
When installing Starry Night for Windows, the installation may not complete and Windows may display the following message: "StarryNightCollege6.exe is not a valid Win32 application." Download Starry Night College again from the link found on your order confimation email and check that the size of the StarryNightCollege6.exe file you downloaded is about 551 MB.
If the problem persists, downloading Starry Night College using a different web browser may resolve this issue. If you do not have another web browser and use Internet Explorer, follow these steps to remove temporary Internet files which may be preventing the Starry Night College installer from downloading properly:
1) Open Internet Explorer. 2) Chose Tools > Delete Browsing History. 3) In the "Temporary Internet Files" section of the resulting window, click Delete files. 4) Click Yes. 5) Click Close. 6) Quit Internet Explorer and open it. 7) Download and install Starry Night College again. The download links are provided in your order email.
C. Running Starry Night College
Do not run in compatibility mode
Make sure you are not running the program itself in compatibility mode. Starry Night is Windows 7-compatible, and running it in XP or Vista mode may create errors. To make sure, right-click on your Starry Night desktop icon (the one you use to start the program) and choose Properties. Click the Compatibility tab and make sure the box for 'Run in compatibility mode' is not checked. You may need to leave the box for 'Run as administrator' checked.
Update your graphics card driver
If Starry Night College gives you an error message or crashes before loading the sky images then install the latest Windows 7 graphics card drivers. A driver is a piece of software that controls hardware in your computer. Updating drivers means keeping your computer working correctly with other programs.
You can update your video card driver by visiting your computer manufacturer's support website. Look for the Drivers or Downloads section. You will probably be asked for the model number or serial number of your computer and will be given links to download the appropriate drivers. Download and install anything related to Video or Graphics. This will make sure that your graphics hardware is working at full capacity.
Here are some links to common computer brands' driver download sites.
If you have a home-built computer, you will need to identify your graphics card. To do this, click Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Personalization > Display Settings.
If you are unable to identify your graphics card, find drivers for it, or find drivers for your computer, please contact technical support.
Starry Night College stops working after or during Home Location selection
Right-click the program icon on your desktop and choose Run as Administrator. This will ensure that Starry Night has access to all the folders where it needs to create files. You may be asked for your system password.
Still having problems?
Get in touch with Starry Night technical support by sending an email through our support site or by contacting starrynightedu on Yahoo! IM.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
The application has failed to start because MSVCR90.dll was not found.
Error: "The application has failed to start because MSVCR90.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."
This is an error that you may encounter on Windows XP computers. It's caused by having installed a newer version of Starry Night from disc over top of an older program of the same major version and edition. For example, you might have installed Starry Night Elementary 6.0.6 and then later installed Starry Night Elementary 6.2.3. (The correct way to go from 6.0.6 to 6.2.3 would be to download and run an update patch.)
To fix this, browse to the folder where Starry Night is installed, likely C:/Program Files/Starry Night/ . Delete the file called starrynight.exe.manifest . This should let you run the program.
Brenda Shaw
"An error occurred while extracting files. Please contact support."
This error can occur when applying the 6.3.3 update patch to Starry Night on a Mac computer running OS 10.6.x. Snow Leopard. It is accompanied by a long list of files that it claims did not install. This error message is itself a bug, and the files did install correctly despite the error message. If you check the version number in the program it will have successfully updated to version 6.3.3.
Brenda Shaw
DVD's
Frequently asked questions and help files specific to Starry Night DVD's
Are the DVD's compatible with my Region/Zone?
Starry Night DVD's do not have zone restrictions (region-free). However the DVD's are in NTSC format. All North American DVD players will read NTSC format DVDs. Many DVD players sold in Europe will read both NTSC and the European standard PAL. Check with your DVD retailer if you are unsure of your players capabilities
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
Constellations & The Zodiac
Finding your birth sign, seeing the sun on the Vernal Equinox
How do I find my birth sign?
Adjust the date and time in Starry Night to your birthdate. If you were born during the day, choose View->Hide Daylight to turn off daylight so that you can see the stars as they appeared at the moment of your birth. Turn on the Zodiac constellations by choosing the Zodiac stick figures from the Constellation Options dialog box in the Constellations layer of the Options pane and label the Zodiac constellations by checking the Labels option in the Constellations layer. The constellation which the Sun is located in is your astronomical birth sign. This may not agree with your astrological sign, for the reasons given in the previous question.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
How do I follow the sun's path through the Zodiac over the course of a year?
Set the time to a time of day where the Sun will be above the horizon all year, for example 12 Noon. Select View->Hide Daylight to turn off sunlight, so that you can see the background stars. Turn on the Zodiac constellations by choosing the Zodiac stick figures from the Constellation Options dialog box in the Constellations layer of the Options pane. Change the time step in the Control Panel to a discreet step of 1 day and press the Forward button in the time mode controls to run time forward and watch the Sun move through the Zodiac.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
The sun appears to be in the wrong Zodiac constellation on a given date.
Astrology uses the constellation boundaries as they existed several thousand years ago. Since that time, the stars have shifted in the sky, due to the precession of the earth, and the astronomical constellation boundaries no longer match the astrological constellation boundaries. Starry Night shows the astronomical constellation boundaries. With Starry Night, you can set the time back to about 600 BC (when the astrological boundaries were set), and you will find that the dates when the sun is in each constellation now match the astrological dates.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
General Run-Time Problems
Problems with the way the program runs
I get an error message when I try to run Starry Night.
This usually means that your computer doesn't meet the system requirements for Starry Night.
I've tried everything and I can't get Starry Night to work? (windows)
It’s very important to have the latest display drivers for your video card installed. Display drivers can be downloaded from the web site of your video cards manufacturer.If you don’t know which video card you have, click here.
If the problems continue, try the following:
1. Change your Colour display to 16 bit. In windows, right click on your Desktop, and select Properties from the menu. Click on the Settings Tab and change the display to 16 bit if it was previously set at 32 bit.
2. Use half-size textures to save video memory. Select File-Preferences-OpenGL. Check the "Use half size texture" box.
3. Screen Resolution. If your screen resolution is set at 1400 pixels or higher, switch back to a lower resolution.
4. Close down other programs to save on memory resources. Look at your system tray (bottom right where the time is displayed), if you have a large number of applications running, this will affect performance. Right clicking on most of the items listed in the system tray will allow you to turn them off.
5. Keep your operating system up to date by doing a Windows update. Click the Start Button-Windows Update. This will download the latest patches to make your computer run smoothly with your applications. Consider also updating Internet Explorer to the latest version.
6. QuickTime. Starry Night 6 requires QuickTime 6.5 or later, which is available on the CD. Open the sample.mov file included in the installation (inside the QuickTime folder on your local hard disc) and see if this movie plays. If it doesn't, you might have to reinstall QuickTime.
7. Also try the following. Right click on your Desktop and select Properties from the menu that comes up. Then click on the Settings tab and click on the Advanced button. Click on the Troubleshooting tab and move the hardware acceleration tab a couple of ticks to the left.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
Starry Night runs very slowly on my computer.
Your computer may meet the minimum system requirements for Starry Night, but not the recommended system requirements. Updating the processor speed, the OpenGL capable graphics card or the amount of RAM on your computer should speed up Starry Night. See the OpenGL section for other performance optimization tips.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
The installation seemed to go OK. How do I run the program?
The name of the application file is "starrynight.exe" and it is in the "Starry Night (version name)" folder under C:\Program Files on your hard drive. You can run the program by clicking the "Start" button on your desktop, then choosing "Programs | Starry Night (version name)".
On the Macintosh, Starry Night can be found in the Applications folder.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
What are the system requirements for Starry Night?
Windows: Requires Windows XP, 800 MHz or higher processor, and 512 MB RAM. 64 MB OpenGL 1.4 capable graphics card (OpenGL 2.0 is required for features like shaded sky and animated grass). Minimum recommended screen resolution of 1024 x 768.
Macintosh: Requires OS X 10.3.9 or higher. Will not run on OS 10.2.x or earlier. 64 MB OpenGL 1.4 capable graphics card (OpenGL 2.0 is required for features like shaded sky and animated grass). Minimum recommended screen resolution of 1024 x 768.
Optimized for NVidia GeForce and ATI Radeon based graphics cards.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
When I click on a saved Starry Night File (SNF), Deep Space Explorer comes up instead of Starry Night. How do i make it so Starry Night opens my saved files?
To make Starry Night the default program for opening .SNF files, right click ( Ctrl-Click and hold on the Mac) on an .snf file you saved and select "Open With->Choose Program (Other on the Mac)" from the contextual menu. A window will open with a list of applications. Select the Starry Night application and click on the box that says "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file".
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
When I exit Starry Night, the following error message pops up: "Unhandled Exception c0000005 at Address 005abe4f" (Windows only).
This error can occur if your monitor display is set to 256 colour mode. Right-click the mouse on your desktop background and choose "Properties" to open the Display Properties window. Click the "Settings" tab. Increase the "Number of colours" or "Colour Quality" to 16-bit (also known as high colour, or thousands of colours), 24-bit (also known as true colour, or millions of colours) or 32-bit, and then press "OK" to fix this problem.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
Configuring your joystick for spaceship mode
Every joystick is slightly different and you may need to do some tweaking to get all the functions to work with your particular model. Starry Night joystick support is configurable by editing the configuration files found in the following folders:
To see the Sky Data on the Mac, Ctrl-click on the Starry Night Application icon and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu that opens. Then navigate to the Contents/Resources/Sky Data folder.
Open these files through your text editor, clicking on the files directly might not work.
It works like this:
Starry Night enumerates any detectable joystick axis and assigns it an integer value. For Mac, possible axis values are within 1 and 9. On Windows, possible values are within 1and 6. Typically, the x and y axis of a joystick have enumerations of 1 and 2, respectively. Hence, the following values in the configuration file:
The other axis-related "Joystick” values in the configuration file seem to be less predictable. So, in anticipation that not every joystick will behave identically, Starry Night can tell you which integer values (corresponding to detected axes) it has detected.
If you have a joystick connected and Starry Night displays a green "Detected" message on the upper left corner of the sky window, you can press the backquote key “`” (usually left of the '1' key on the keyboard). This toggles the display of the enumerated axis numbers Starry Night has detected. So if the displayed digits are; "1247", that means Axis-1, Axis-2, Axis-4, and Axis-7 are valid values to use in the configuration file. So you may enter something like this:
Note that this scheme allows one to assign whatever function to whatever axis they wish. In other words, you can select which controls on your joystick perform a specific function.
Other options:
Now there is the "axis sense" configuration to consider. Basically, the "sense" tells Starry Night how to interpret the direction an axis is deflected. So, if you're a pilot, you\'ll probably want pushing forward on a joystick to be translated as pitching down, instead of pitching up. So let\'s say the joystick axis are now configured but the pitch needs to be reversed, the following configuration values are required:
There is also the concept of a "neutral" position. This basically means that a small portion of the initial deflection of an axis will be ignored so that subtle, involuntary movements of the joystick are not responded to. The following value controls the joystick's neutral area:
Note that there is no sensitivity setting for throttle. We put a standard 25 Giga Watt warp drive in the spaceship. If you want to accelerate faster, you'll have to pay big bucks for the engine upgrade.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
Windows Vista and Starry Night
New computers do not always come with all of the supporting software required to run advanced programs. We see this problem frequently with new Vista computers. Please see the following checklist of things that you may need to update in order to get your Vista computer up to speed.
Updating Windows and your computer:
1) If you have a laptop or prebuilt desktop computer, visit the manufacturer's website and download all available updates for drivers, firmware, and other supporting software. This may be available as a single package for your model of computer, or it may be several separate installations.
2) Update your Vista installation so that you have all of the most recent patches to Windows itself. See the Vista Updates website for help, or use your Windows Update utility.
1) Download and install the latest version of Java.
2a) If your Starry Night disc lists Vista on it as one of the supported operating systems, you do not need any special installation instructions. Simply insert the disc and let the installer run.
2b) If your disc only lists Windows XP and Mac OSX as supported operating systems, the following instructions are required, as you don't have the Vista-compatible installer.
Open your Windows Explorer and look for the following location on your Starry Night disc: Data/Disk1/InstData/Windows/Vm/Install.exe (Note: on some older version 5 editions, a file called setup.exe is right there when you look at the contents of the disc. If you have a disc like that, apply the following directions to the setup.exe file instead of the install.exe file.)
Right-click on Install.exe and choose Properties. Click on the Compatibility tab.
Make sure the box for 'Run in compatibility mode for...' is checked and that Windows XP is selected from the dropdown menu. Also check the box for 'Run in adminstrator mode'.
Click OK and double-click on Install.exe to install Starry Night.
To update to the latest version of Starry Night, simply download the standalone updater from our updates page and run it by double-clicking. Do not use the special compatibility mode instructions; just save and double-click.
2c) If you have a Digital Download installer that is earlier than version 6.0.6, right-click on the installer, choose Properties and click the Compatibility tab, and set the compatibility options as described above in 2b). If you have Digital Download 6.0.6 or 6.2.x, its installer is already Vista-compatible, and you just have to double-click to install it.
3a) Visit the Starry Night Updates page to make sure you have the latest version of Starry Night itself. Download the latest update available for your version.
3b) For all versions 5.x and earlier, use the compatibility mode settings on the installer as well as any program updates you download. If you are running version 5.x, run the program, register, and set your home location BEFORE downloading and installing any updates.
If the updater is unable to find your Starry Night installation, please disable your antivirus software and then run the update.
Using Starry Night:
1) Download and install the latest version of Quicktime.
IMPORTANT: Older versions of Starry Night are not compatible with Quicktime 7.4 and later. Quicktime 7.4 was released on 16 January 2008.
If you are using Starry Night 6.x, update it to the latest version, because Starry Night 6.2.3 is compatible with Quicktime 7.4 and later.
2) Check your graphics card drivers and update them if necessary. You might have a utility in your computer that tells you when your graphics card needs new drivers, but it often won't catch the latest updates. If you have a prebuilt computer, you should visit the computer manufacturer's support website to update your drivers.
If you built your own computer or changed the graphics card in a prebuilt computer, you can get the drivers from the graphics card manufacturer instead.
If you aren't sure what graphics card you have, right-click on your desktop background and choose Personalize, and then choose Display options. The graphics card should be listed underneath the picture of rectangles representing your monitor configuration.
3) Make sure you are not running the program itself in compatibility mode. Starry Night is Vista-compatible, and running it in XP mode may create errors. To make sure, right-click on your Starry Night desktop icon (the one you use to start the program) and choose Properties. Click the Compatibility tab and make sure the box for 'Run in compatibility mode' is not checked. You may need to leave the box for 'Run as administrator' checked.
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Windows Vista and previous versions of Starry Night
To install Starry Night versions 6.0.4 and earlier in Windows Vista, the installer must be run as Administrator and in XP Compatibility mode.
With your Starry Night disc in the drive, open your Computer window and click on your CD drive in the left-hand pane. You will see the contents of the Starry Night disc. Find the actual installer by following this path:
Data/Disk1/InstData/Windows/VM
You will see a file called 'install'. Right-click on it and choose Properties. Choose the Compatibility tab. Under the section marked Compatibility Mode, choose Windows XP (Service Pack 2) from the pulldown menu and click on the box so that it appears with a checkmark in it. Under the section marked Privilege Level, click on the box marked 'Run this program as an administrator' so that it appears with a checkmark in it. See screenshot below.
Click Apply and then OK, and then run the installer.
If you have Starry Night version 5.8.2 or earlier, and you are able to successfully run Starry Night, you may find that you need to disable the OpenGL features. Choose File/Preferences... on the menu bar, and choose the OpenGL tab. Uncheck the box marked Use OpenGL. This will disable some of the advanced graphics features, but you will still be able to use your Starry Night software.
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Starry Night 6.0.6 worked on my computer, but 6.2.0 does not
Some users have reported that after updating to Starry Night 6.2.0, the program crashes on startup with an error message saying that OpenGL failed to initialize, even though they never had problems with OpenGL when using 6.0.6. This problem seems to be occurring with older ATI Radeon Mobility graphics cards on computers running Windows XP.
This is a bug and will be repaired shortly in a patch. To continue using Starry Night until that patch is released, uninstall and reinstall Starry Night from your discs, and download and install the 6.0.6 patch for your edition.
If you are experiencing this problem on a Windows XP computer, please confirm that you are using a Radeon Mobility graphics card. Right-click on your desktop background and choose Properties, then click the Settings tab. Below the picture of the two numbered rectangles representing monitors, there should be a line of text on a dropdown menu that describes your graphics hardware.
QuickTime 7.4 and later are incompatible with Starry Night 6.2.1 and earlier on Windows Vista and Windows XP. Here are some of the problems that users have reported:
Missing portions of the left-hand tabbed menu
Missing object catalogues from the Options tab -> Deep Space menu
Objects don't show up in searches, e.g. can't find ISS using the Find tab
Objects failing to display in the sky even though images are in the appropriate Sky Data folders
All-Sky Image mosaic does not display or does not show up under Options tab -> Stars menu
Problems with panoramic horizons
Corrupted or shortened filenames in the Favourites menu and under Options tabs
Inability to find ASCOM telescope drivers and plugins
If you suddenly started seeing these problems, QuickTime may have automatically updated itself, or it may have updated as part of an iTunes update. Open your Quicktime player and click Help -> About Quicktime Player on the menu bar to see what version you are running.
If you are experiencing these problems while running any Starry Night version 6.x, please update to version 6.2.3, as the 6.2.3 update contains a fix.
If you have Starry Night 5.8.2 or earlier and are running Quicktime 7.4 or later, please follow these steps to revert to Quicktime 7.3.1.
Make sure Starry Night is installed and updated. Its installer may try to detect and install Quicktime updates automatically, so this step must be done first. If you can't skip the Quicktime detection, just let it run and install what it wants.
After installing and updating Starry Night, uninstall Quicktime by clicking Start/Programs/ and looking for the Quicktime menu. There will be an uninstall icon there. (Don't use the Add/Remove Programs utility in Control Panel, as it appears that that does not completely remove Quicktime. You need to use Quicktime's own uninstaller.)
The application has failed to start because MSVCR90.dll was not found.
Error: "The application has failed to start because MSVCR90.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."
This is an error that you may encounter on Windows XP computers. It's caused by having installed a newer version of Starry Night from disc over top of an older program of the same major version and edition. For example, you might have installed Starry Night Elementary 6.0.6 and then later installed Starry Night Elementary 6.2.3. (The correct way to go from 6.0.6 to 6.2.3 would be to download and run an update patch.)
To fix this, browse to the folder where Starry Night is installed, likely C:/Program Files/Starry Night/ . Delete the file called starrynight.exe.manifest . This should let you run the program.
Brenda Shaw
Installation Problems
Installing Starry Night on your computer
How do I install Starry Night?
To install Starry Night, insert Disc 1 into the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive and follow the onscreen instructions.
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I already have a previous Starry Night product on my computer. Do I need to remove them before I install Starry Night?
No. Starry Night will be installed as a completely new program, and you can choose to keep the other version of Starry Night on your computer or remove it.
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I'm upgrading from version 4/5 to version 6.0 of the same product. Do I need to remove it before installing the new version of Starry Night?
Yes, you should remove version 4/5 of Starry Night from your computer before installing the new version. You may have customized version 4.0/4.5 in some ways (for example, by adding images, creating custom settings or using the Orbit Editor).
To transfer this information to your new version of Starry Night, first create a new folder on your hard drive. Then save all of the customized files from version 4/5 in this folder. See “Backing Up Custom Data” in your User's Guide for information on the location of all customized files. The file structure has not changed between versions 4/5 and 6.0 of Starry Night.
Once you have backed up these files, uninstall the existing version of Starry Night 4/5, then install the new version. Once the new version is successfully installed, you can then place your saved custom files in the appropriate folders, overwriting Starry Night's default files when necessary.
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The installation seemed to go OK. How do I run the program?
The name of the application file is "starrynight.exe" and it is in the "Starry Night (version name)" folder under C:\Program Files on your hard drive. You can run the program by clicking the "Start" button on your desktop, then choosing "Programs | Starry Night (version name)".
On the Macintosh, Starry Night can be found in the Applications folder.
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When I try to start the program I get a message which says "There may be a problem with your data folder". What can i do? (windows only)
To fix this, manually delete any Starry Night folder installed in your computer. The default path is C:\Program Files\Starry Night. After you remove the Starry Night folder, reinstall the program from the CD or DVD (depending on your product).
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Starry Night and Windows 7
Starry Night 6 is fully compatible with Windows 7.
There are however two areas where people have encountered some issues:
1. Installation.
If you have an older Starry Night 6 installation disc (6.3.1 or earlier), the installer may not work on Windows 7 without some easy changes.
First, visit http://www.java.com and install the latest version of Java on your computer. This is required for older Starry Night installers.
To use an older installer on Windows 7, follow these steps:
With the disc in the drive, click Start -> Computer.
Double-click on your optical (DVD/CD) drive to view its contents. (Ignore or cancel the program if it starts to install.)
Right-click on the Setup or Install icon and choose "Troubleshoot Compatibility."
Follow the instructions on screen. If you are asked for a compatibility mode, choose "Windows XP."
The program should now successfully install.
If you want to install older Starry Night software (version 5 or earlier) on Windows 7, you can try this same method.
2. Graphics card drivers.
If you have upgraded to Windows 7 on a computer that used to run Windows XP or Vista, you may need to update the driver software that controls your graphics hardware.
The best way to get these new drivers is to visit your computer manufacturer's support or downloads site, but you can also try simply running "Windows Update" from Start -> Control Panel -> Windows Update.
You can also try visiting the graphics card manufacturer's website to install drivers if the computer manufacturer doesn't have them. Consult your computer's manual or Control Panel to find out what kind of graphics card you have. The three main manufacturers are ATI, NVIDIA, and Intel.
Note that if your graphics hardware is not supported on Windows 7, the manufacturer may not provide drivers for that operating system at all. As a last ditch effort, you can try installing Window Vista graphics card drivers if Windows 7 drivers are not available, but there is no guarantee that they will work.
Do I need an OpenGL graphics card to run Starry Night?
Yes. Upon startup, Starry Night will check your hardware to see if you have an OpenGL compatible graphics card. If you do not have such a card, Starry Night will not run.
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How do i find out if I have an OpenGL video card?
Download an OpenGL diagnostic program (Windows and Mac) to determine the OpenGL properties of your video card.
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How do I upgrade my graphics card video driver?
Your OpenGL graphics card driver should be up to date for best performance. To update your video card driver, visit the web site of your video cards manufacturer. Drivers are usually available in the Support or Downloads areas of the web site.
If you own a laptop and even certain PC's, it is best to visit the web site of your computer manufacturer. Often, video drivers are designed for specific makes and models. This could involve downloading the latest video driver and an updated video BIOS for your display adapter. Follow the manufacturer instructions for your computer.
Starry Night is optimized for Nvidia Geforce and ATI Radeon video cards. Their web sites are listed bellow. Support regarding the update of video drivers should be directed at the manufacturer of your video card.
Right click on your desktop and select Properties from the contextual menu. This will open the Display Properties window.
Click on the Settings tab at the top of the Display Properties window and then click on the Advanced button. This will open a new window. Click on the Adapter tab to display information on the video card you have installed in your computer.
Windows Vista
Right click on your desktop and select Personalize. Choose Display Settings. The Display Settings window will show you your graphics card as indicated below by the red arrow. In this example the graphics card is a Radeon X550.
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I have an OpenGL card but things are still choppy. How do I improve performance?
Upgrading to a 64 MB Video Card and greater will significantly enhance OpenGL performance. Switching from millions of colors to thousands of colors can improve performance, but will reduce image quality.
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I have an S3 or SIS card and OpenGL does not work?
Unfortunately OpenGL does not seem to work in Starry Night with most S3 and SIS video cards.
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I'm getting an error message when I turn OpenGL on. What should I do? (version 5 only)
This can happen if you are using an older video driver. You should visit the web site of your video cards manufacturer and download the latest driver available for the make and model of your card.
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The planets look like black sphere's when OpenGL is enabled.
This seems to happen with certain ATI video cards. ATI has released a driver update that fixes this issue.
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The tooltips help feature does not work properly (Windows only)
Tool tips:
This is a problem with Microsoft Windows XP. To fix this issue, download and install Windows XP Service Pack 2.
What can I do if images in Starry Night look too dark or bleached out?
If your Starry Night display appears too dark, you should adjust you monitors gamma value. Gamma correction controls the overall brightness of an image. Images that are not properly corrected can look either bleached out, or too dark. A gamma value of 1.6-1.8 seems to give good results.
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What differences can I expect if I run Starry Night on an OpenGL compatible graphics card?
Starry Night will run much faster because it takes advantage of OpenGL graphics rendering technology. In addition, OpenGL users will see much higher-resolution solar system object surface maps, and photo realistic panoramic horizons. Finally, stars will look more realistic and orbit and path lines will not look as jagged.
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What do the various OpenGL options in the Preferences window mean?
OpenGL offers improved graphics on computers whose video hardware supports it. The OpenGL dialog box allows you to select a number of options.
Use OpenGL: Checking this option will enable OpenGL if your video card supports it. If for some reason, you have an OpenGL graphics card but do not wish to run the OpenGL version of Starry Night, uncheck this box.
Use sub-pixel accuracy when plotting labels: Sub-pixel accuracy gives labels a smooth feel as they move on the screen. However, depending on your video card this can cause labels to flicker.
Draw stars using polygon smoothing: Some video cards have trouble doing what's called polygon smoothing and this can cause "blocky stars". By default polygon smoothed stars on the PC are turned off and on the Mac they are turned on. If you are experiencing the "blocky star" effect on the Mac you can try turning this feature off. On the PC, if your card supports it, turning this feature on can have a speed improvement in how fast stars are drawn; if your card doesn't support it, it can result in slow stars or blocky stars.
Use half size textures: Checking this option will save on video graphics memory and should improve performance on slower computers or video cards with less than 32 MB of memory.
Force texture cache size: Specifies the amount of memory cached by your video card.
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What is OpenGL?
OpenGL is a software interface for graphics hardware that allows programs to display real-time 3D graphics and interactive environments. OpenGL enables a suite of powerful visualization features such as rendering, texture mapping and other special effects. OpenGL is one of the most powerful graphics technologies out there.
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When I turn on object labels, such as star labels, they tend to flicker or flash on and off?
You can minimize this effect by adjusting the gamma settings of your video display. In Windows, right click on the desktop and select Properties from the contextual menu that opens. In the Display Properties window, click on the Settings tab and then on the Advanced button to access your display properties. Video cards vary, but look for a setting that allows you to correct for gamma. A gamma value of 1.6-1.8 seems to give good results.
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After updating to 6.0.4 I see a large black area around the Sun
It appears an OpenGL-related change we made in 6.0.4 is behaving badly on some PCs.
Please follow the instructions below if you are noticing any graphics anomalies in Starry Night.
Close Starry Night.
Open up Windows Explorer. Navigate to the following folder: C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Imaginova Canada\Prefs\
Open up the file called Prefs.txt in this folder with Wordpad.
In this file, there is a line (toward the end of the file) that looks like this: <SN_VALUE name="UseOpenGLStateTracking" value="Yes">
Change this line to: <SN_VALUE name="UseOpenGLStateTracking" value="No">
Save the file
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Orbital Elements
Where can I get orbital elements for new objects I want to add using the Orbit Editor?
Entering Orbital Elements
The shape of a planet's orbit and the planet's position in that orbit is defined by the planet's orbital elements. If you know the orbital elements for a planet, moon, comet, asteroid or satellite then you have enough information to add that object to Starry Night. To enter the orbital elements for a new object, open the orbit editor.
Style: Orbital elements come in a number of different formats depending on who is supplying the elements are for what type of object they are being supplied for. You can enter the orbital elements for any object using any format you want. Starry Night lets you switch between the various formats for the orbital elements with the Style popup. Since planets, moons and asteroids are most often in near-circular orbits their orbital elements are normally given in a way that best represents these types of orbits. Comets on the other hand often have highly eccentric orbits and their elements are normally given in what Starry Night calls Perircentric style. NASA's standard way of describing a satellite's orbit is using a concatenated form called a NASA two line element (or TLE for short).
Ref Plane: In order to specify orbits, or for that matter, the position of any astronomical object, it is necessary to have a reference system. There are two standard reference planes, the equatorial plane of the Earth and the ecliptic plane (the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun). However, due to precession, the equatorial and the ecliptic planes are slowly changing their positions relative to the background stars. Consequently, an astronomical reference plane is dependent upon the time of the observations. The Ref Plane popup menu allows you to select between standard ecliptic and equatorial references planes.
Ecliptic: An ecliptic reference plane based on the time of your current Starry Night window.
Ecliptic 1950: An ecliptic reference plane based on the J1950.0 standards.
Ecliptic 2000: An ecliptic reference plane based on the J2000.0 standards, established by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1976.
Earth Equatorial: Reference plane based on the time of your current Starry Night window using Earth's equatorial coordinate system.
Earth Equatorial 1950: Reference plane based on the J1950.0 standards using Earth's equatorial coordinate system.
Earth Equatorial 2000: Reference plane based on the J2000.0 coordinates, established by the IAU in 1976 using Earth's equatorial coordinate system.
Planet Equatorial: Reference plane based on the time of your current Starry Night window using the equatorial coordinate system of whatever body this object is orbiting.
Pericentric and Near-circular Orbital Elements
Adjusting sliders and entering orbital elements into data boxes is relatively easy. Understanding what these numbers represent is a little more difficult. Orbital elements remain a mystery to most people, due in part to the complex names these numbers have acquired, and secondly to the trouble many people have in thinking three-dimensionally. To make matters even more complicated, often an orbital element will have several different names.
Note: The real world is more complex than the Keplerian model, since there are other factors that can influence an orbit, including the gravitational influence of other planets, gravity anomalies of the parent, and atmospheric drag on an object if it is in a low orbit.
Several numbers are required to establish an object's orbit. These orbital elements, first defined by Johannes Kepler at the turn of the 17th century, place an object on an elliptical path at a particular time, and orient it about a parent body.
Mean Distance: Kepler's third law of orbital motion gives us a precise relationship between the speed of a satellite and its distance from the parent. Objects that are close to the parent orbit quickly, while objects farther away orbit more slowly. The implication is that if we specify either the speed at which the object is moving or its distance from the parent, we've measured similar values. In effect, Mean Distance and Mean Motion are two ways of describing the same thing.
The convention with planets is to call this number the Mean Distance. Planets in circular orbits would travel at a constant distance from their parent body, but since most planetary orbits are elliptical, this distance is constantly changing. The common practice is to average this distance, and record it as Mean Distance. It is usually measured in AUs.
The convention with satellites is to call this number the Mean Motion. Satellites in circular orbits travel at a constant speed, but since most orbits are elliptical, their speed is constantly changing as they orbit. The common practice is to average the speed, call it the Mean Motion, and record it in units of revolutions per day.
Comets orbits are extremely elliptical, so the distance between comet and parent body is usually measured at pericenter, the point in their orbit where they are closest to the parent. This distance is called the Pericenter distance, and is given in units of AU.
For objects in orbit about the Sun, such as comets, pericenter distance is called Perihelion distance.
Eccentricity: Eccentricity describes the shape of the orbit, based on a ratio of the distance of the focus from the center of the orbit's ellipse to the length of its semi-major axis. A circular orbit has an eccentricity of 0, while an extremely elliptical orbit, such as a that of a comet, has a value close to 1. The eccentricity of hyperbolic orbits is greater than 1.
Cool fact: Spy satellites are often polar orbiting. From this inclination, they can examine all parts of the Earth as it rotates underneath them.
Inclination: The orbit's elliptical shape lies in a plane known as the orbital plane. The orbital plane always goes through the center of the parent object, but may be tilted at any angle relative to the parent's equator. Inclination is the angle between the orbital plane and the equatorial plane, measured between 0° and 180°. If the orbit lies in the ecliptic plane, the inclination is 0°. At 90°, the orbit is perpendicular to the ecliptic, while an inclination of greater than 90° describes a retrograde orbit.
Satellites with an inclination near 0° are said to have equatorial orbits, because the satellite orbits around the equator. Those whose orbits are inclined near 90° are called polar, because the satellite crosses over the north and south poles.
Ascending Node: This angular measurement specifies the point at which the orbit crosses northward through the ecliptic plane.
The ascending node is also sometimes called the Longitude of the Ascending Node, and is measured from the Prime Meridian of the parent body.
Argument of Pericenter: The pericenter is the point on the orbit which is closest to the parent body. The Argument of Pericenter specifies the angular location of the pericenter, and is measured in degrees.
The value is determined by measuring the angle (measured at the center of the parent) from the ascending node to pericenter. For example, when the Argument of Pericenter is 0°, the pericenter occurs at the same place as the ascending node. That means that the planet would be closest to the Sun just as it rises up through the ecliptic plane. Likewise, when the Argument of Pericenter is 180°, the planet, as it rises up through the ecliptic plane, is at its farthest from Sun.
Mean Anomaly: Mean Anomaly describes exactly where on the orbit the new object is located at the specified time. It is measured as an angle over one revolution, starting from 0° at the pericenter.
Converting Orbit Editor Dates: the Orbit Editor requires you to input dates as a Julian day value. If the original date is in ordinary format, there is an easy way to convert it to a Julian day.
Enter the ordinary date into the Time palette.
Click the Set Julian button.
Copy the Julian date and close the dialog.
Go back to the Orbit Editor and paste in the Julian date.
To find the NASA epoch, switch to the AMSAT style. Starry Night automatically converts the date for you.
You can also perform similar actions in order to convert a Julian date or NASA date to a normal date.
Plug your NASA epoch into the appropriate AMSAT data box,
Switch styles to Pericentric.
Copy the Julian day from the Epoch data box.
Press the Julian button on the Time Palette.
Paste in the new Julian day.
Set the time. The Time palette displays the Julian date as a normal time.
Epoch: A set of orbital elements is a portrait of an orbit, at a specific time. The Epoch specifies this time. In most cases, this time is expressed as a Julian date. However, NASA has its own epoch system that is commonly used for describing satellite orbits. Its format lists the year, the number of days, then the percentage of the day. For example 1997045.5 would translate as February 14th, 1997, at 12 hours UT.
Orbit Editor Calculations: You may notice that some numbers you enter may change when switching between different styles. For instance, if you've entered 485° in an Ascending Node box, move to another style, then return, the number will have changed to 125°. Starry Night has recalculated the number, but in effect, the value of the orbital element remains the same. The new number displayed is mathematically equivalent to the original number that you entered.
You also may notice that sliders may change when adjusting certain elements. This is because Starry Night is recalculating the position of the sliders.
For instance, if you adjust the Rotation rate of an object using the sliders, the Meridian slider will jump to a new position. Note that the Meridian drawn on the object has not moved. Starry Night has recalculated the Meridian position to keep it synchronized with J2000 standards.
Note: Data box entries are not recalculated in such a fashion.
Brightest Satellites This page tracks the 100 brightest satellites and gives their NASA two line elements (TLE).
Iridium Satellites Iridium bills itself as the worlds first handheld glabal satellite telephone and paging network. The satellites that were put into orbit for this network can be tracked using the TLEs found on this page. More Iridium info.
Other Satellites A good collection of weather, navigation, military, and communications satellite elements from the Celestrack website.
The orbital elements of satellites are normally entered using NASA two line elements. If you chose Artificial Satellite as the type of object you're adding then Starry Night will default the Orbital Elements tab to NASA Two Line Elements.
Two line elements are always given as Earth Equatorial coordinates. To enter a NASA TLE you can copy both lines from a document or webpage and paste them into the Orbit Editor by clicking "Paste TLE from Clipboard"; Starry Night will automatically split them up into the two separate fields and enter them. If you want to change a specific value within the TLE then type the new value and click "Refresh Elements". Usually you will want to add new satellites to Starry Night using the batch Satellites.txt file. See links on the left for more information.
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How do I update my Comets, Asteroids or Satellites?
Select Update Comets/Asteroids/Satellites from the LiveSky menu.
Note: Menu items show on the graphic below will vary depending on your version of Starry Night.
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Using the Orbit Editor
You can use the Orbit Editor to create new celestial objects. For instance, if a comet or Moon has been recently discovered, you can use the Orbit Editor to add it to Starry Night, simply by entering its orbital elements. The Orbit Editor also allows you to add surface and atmosphere maps to your new objects.
Adding your own objects to the solar system is a great way to learn about celestial mechanics. The Orbit Editor lets you view the shapes, sizes, and positions of a new orbit, as well as use sliders to adjust these aspects in realtime. This feature makes it clear what each particular orbital element means, and how the orbit is affected when adjustments are made.
To use the Orbit Editor:
Select File-New (Comet/Asteroid or Satellite) orbiting the Sun. Or,
Right-click (windows) or Ctrl-Click (Mac) the Sun or the planet (or moon, asteroid, etc) around which you want the new object to orbit, and select New Comet (or Asteroid or Satellite).
Starry Night opens an Orbit Editor window in which you can now define the orbit and characteristics of the new planet, moon, asteroid, comet, or satellite that you are adding.
Note: Starry Night calculates a preferred field of view for each tab folder, one that reflects the function of the tab. For example, the view of your new object from the Surface tab is closer than that of the view from the Orbital Elements tab.
Tip: The Orbit Editor window is resizeable.
When the Orbit Editor first appears the Orbital Elements tab will be selected. You can name your object, select the object type, such as Moon, planet, and so on from the fields at the top of the window. You can also adjust the diameter, and the Absolute Magnitude of the object in the Other Settings tab. Absolute Magnitude is the brightness of the object seen from 10 parsecs, or 32.6 light years.
Adding Multiple Objects
The Orbit Editor lets you add individual planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and satellites; it is also a terrific tool for learning about orbital elements. Sometimes however you want to add a number of objects at once. You can add multiple objects most easily by writing their data directly to the Satellites.txt, Asteroids.txt, or Comets.txt files stored in the Sky Data folder. You can also download updated versions of these files from this website. For more information on adding comets, satellites or comets as a batch or to update these file sees the links below.
Starry Night looks for a file called Asteroids.txt when it starts up and, if found, will load the positions of the first 100 asteroids found in this file (Enthusiast and Digital Download is limited to 10 Asteroids). Since the orbital elements of asteroids are constantly changing it is a good idea to update this Asteroids.txt file from time to time. The Asteroids.txt file is based on astorb.dat produced by Ted Bowell at the Lowell Observatory. Astorb.dat is an ASCII file of high-precision osculating orbital elements and some additional data for all the numbered asteroids and the vast majority of unnumbered asteroids (multi-apparition and single-apparition) for which it is possible to make reasonably determinate computations. Each orbit, based on astrometric observations maintained by the Minor Planet Center, occupies one 187-column record. The research and computing needed to generate astorb.dat were funded principally by NASA grant NAGW-1470, and in part by the Lowell Observatory endowment.
To download, right click (or click and hold on Macs) and, depending on which web browser you are using, pick "Save This Link As...", "Download Link to Disk", or "Save Target As...". After downloading, move Asteroids.txt to your Sky Data folder, replacing the older copy.
Single Asteroids
If you are tracking a specific asteroid that you want to add to Starry Night try using the Orbit Editor. The Orbit Editor is a good tool for learning about celestial mechanics. Celestial mechanics is usually passed over in introductory Astronomy courses, because the mathematics and time needed to grasp orbital concepts is just too involved for most students. Starry Night provides an interactive simulator where the orbital elements of an object can be changed in a visual manner making a complex subject understandable and, dare we say it, fun.
As an example let's put an asteroid into orbit around the Sun, and observe how the orbital elements affect the orbit. The goal is to gain insight into the meaning of each of the orbital elements.
Select File-New asteroid orbiting Sun. This will open an Orbit Editor window where we define the orbital elements of our new asteroid. By default, the name of the new object is \"Untitled\". Give the asteroid a new name.
For Type of Object, select Asteroid.
Click the Orbital Elements tab.
Use the sliders to interactively change each of the orbital elements. For example, try moving the inclination slider. You'll get firsthand knowledge of the meaning of "inclination" -- a tilt in the orbit -- and the slider provides almost instantaneous feedback to any changes you make.
Try the other sliders:
Ascending Node: moves the node markers around (the little triangles).
Arg of Pericenter: moves the pericenter marker around (the little line). The pericenter marks the spot where the new planet comes closest to the parent body around which it orbits.
Mean Distance: the size of the orbit.
Eccentricity: the higher the number, the more elliptical the orbit.
Mean Anomaly: the position of the planet in the orbit.
Click the Axis/Rotation/Size tab. Use the Pole Position and Diameter sliders to further customize your new asteroid.
If you like, you can paste in a new surface maps on the Surface tab.
Close the Orbital Editor window and Press Save.
The asteroid you have created is now a first class citizen of Starry Night, meaning that you can view from it, centre on it, etc.
Note: to remove an asteroid or planet you have created, select it on the planet palette and press Delete.
Starry Night looks for a file called Comets.txt when it starts up and, if found, will load the positions of the first 100 comets found in this file. Since the orbital elements of comets are constantly changing it is a good idea to update this Comets.txt file from time to time. The Comets.txt file contains positions of comets calculated by the Planetary Services Division of the Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
To update Starry Night\'s comet data: open the Comets.txt file in your web browser by clicking the Comets.txt link above. Select "Save As..." from your browser\'s File menu and replace the Comets.txt file in Sky Data folder. Be sure to save the file as "text" and make sure the C in Comets.txt is a capital letter C.
Single Comets
If you are tracking a specific comet that you want to add to Starry Night try using the Orbit Editor. The Orbit Editor is a good tool for learning about celestial mechanics. Celestial mechanics is usually passed over in introductory Astronomy courses, because the mathematics and time needed to grasp orbital concepts is just too involved for most students. Starry Night provides an interactive simulator where the orbital elements of an object can be changed in a visual manner making a complex subject understandable and, dare we say it, fun.
For more information about adding a new planet, asteroid, satellite, moon, or comet to Starry Night see "Using the Orbit Editor".
Starry Night can read satellite orbital elements directly from a two-line-element file. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) defined the TLE format as a way of succinctly describing a satellite's orbit in a small number of characters. NASA and the Goddard Space Filight Centre make available the TLEs for many current satellites.
Starry Night looks for a TLE file called Satellites.txt in its SkyData folder when it starts up and, if found, will load the positions of the first 150 satellites found in this file (in Enthusiast and Digital Download only 10 satellites are loaded). Since the orbital elements of satellites are constantly changing it is a good idea to update this Satellites.txt file from time to time.
To download, right click (or click and hold on Macs) and, depending on which web browser you are using, pick "Save This Link As...", "Download Link to Disk", or "Save Target As...". After downloading, move Satellites.txt to your Sky Data folder, replacing the older copy.
Alternatively you can download the TLE text file directly from Orbitessera website. This website also has a lot of good information on the structure of two line elements with some history and explanations. The TLE file found at the Orbitessera website is updated frequently, often once a day, so it is a good way to get the most recent satellite elements. Note however that you will need to change the name of the downloaded TLE file from the Orbitessera website to "Satellites.txt", place the file into the Sky Data folder and restart Starry Night before the new orbital elements are updated.
Single Satellites
If you are tracking a specific satellite that you want to add to Starry Night try using the Orbit Editor. The Orbit Editor is a good tool for learning about celestial mechanics. Celestial mechanics is usually passed over in introductory Astronomy courses, because the mathematics and time needed to grasp orbital concepts is just too involved for most students. Starry Night provides an interactive simulator where the orbital elements of an object can be changed in a visual manner making a complex subject understandable and, dare we say it, fun.
For more information about adding a new planet, asteroid, satellite, moon, or comet to Starry Night see "Using the Orbit Editor".
See Also:
Brightest Satellites This page tracks the 100 brightest satellites and gives their NASA two line elements (TLE).
Iridium Satellites Iridium bills itself as the worlds first handheld global satellite telephone and paging network. The satellites that were put into orbit for this network can be tracked using the TLEs found on this page. More Iridium info.
Other Satellites A good collection of weather, navigation, military, and communications satellite elements from the Celestrack website.
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Asteroids in Starry Night
Starry Night's asteroid data file (the Asteroids.txt file in your Sky Data folder) contains a selection of interesting objects. There are far more such objects available than we include in Starry Night; if we included the hundreds of thousands of known asteroids, the average home computer would not be able to run the simulation. In addition, the orbital data for some near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) are changing so quickly that we do not include them, in the interests of accuracy.
If there is a particular asteroid you would like to see that is not already included in the Asteroids.txt file, please consult the preformatted asteroid file kindly prepared by the International Astronomical Union. The data in this file is already formatted for use in Starry Night. Locate your asteroid in this file and copy the corresponding row of text. Open your Asteroids.txt file and paste the new line in at the top, making sure the columns line up. Save the Asteroids.txt file.
When you next start Starry Night, you will be asked whether you want to update data files. Say no, because if you say yes it will overwrite the changes you made. You will now be able to search for your asteroid by name using the Find tab.
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Plugin SDK
The Starry Night plugin SDK is needed to develop plugins for Starry Night.
Starry Night Plugin SDK
Starry Night Plugin SDK
The Starry Night plugin SDK is needed to develop plugins for Starry Night. This cross-platform (Mac and Windows) SDK contains example plugins, headers for creating your own plugins and other information. Since the SDK is being constantly updated please check back here from time to time to check for updates.
Macintosh SDK comes with telescope plugin for Starry Night version 5.0.5 and higher. Windows SDK comes with ASCOM telescope plugin and ASCOM focuser plugin.
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Printing & Making Movies
Printing star charts and making QuickTime animation sequences
Can I print star charts showing the whole sky (180 degrees)? How can I do this.
Yes, but only in Starry Night Pro, Pro Plus and Astrophoto Suite. Digital Download and Enthusiast is limited to a field of view of 100 degrees (what a typical human normally sees).
Choose Preferences from the File menu (Windows) or the Starry Night Pro menu (Macintosh), choose General from the dropbox in the upper left corner of the Preferences dialog box, and check the box marked “Allow Maximum Zoom Out”. Then continue zooming out using the left zoom button until you have a circular field of view of 180°, which is the entire hemisphere of sky that is above the horizon at any one time. Then choose File->Print to print this image.
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How do I print star charts?
Adjust your window to the view you want, then choose File ->Print.
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Neither the "Export as Image" feature nor the "Make Movie" feature do anything. What's wrong?
These two features will not work if you chose the "Minimum Install" option when you installed QuickTime. You should reinstall QuickTime and choose the "Recommended Install" option. Both features should then work properly.
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Why do the movies I made with Starry Night have distorted colors when I play them back?
This is a result of the compression method which you used when saving the movie. From within Starry Night, choose Preferences from the File menu (Windows) or the Starry Night menu (Macintosh) and select QuickTime from the dropbox on the upper left. Click on the "Quicktime Movie Preferences" button. The "Compression Setting" window which opens allows you to modify the compression settings. The top dropbox in this window is the compression method. If you saw distorted colors in the movies you made, try changing the compression method. "Sorenson Video 3" is a good compressor which usually doesn't distort the original images noticeably. Also make sure that the "Quality" slider in the "Compression Settings" window is all the way to the right.
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Why aren't the movies I made with Starry Night smooth when I play them back?
To have smooth play back of movies, set the Starry Night frame rate (Preferences-Responsiveness) the same as the QuickTime recording frame rate. The frame rate should be 24 or higher and the quality set to "Best" in the "Compression Settings" window.
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Can I print images in colour?
You cannot print images in colour by using the File ->Print command.
However, there is a way around this. Set up the screen so that it shows the image you wish to print out. Choose File ->Export as Image. This opens a window which allows you to save the screen as a graphical image. The bottom left corner of this window has a dropbox which allows you to save the image in several popular formats, such as a "jpeg" or a "pict". Once you have saved this image, you can open it a program such as Internet Explorer and choose File ->Print to print out a colour image.
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Product Comparison
Product comparison chart and commonly asked questions on product differences
Do you have a product comparison chart?
A comparison chart describing the features of all of our current Starry Night software offerings can be found at the following link:
I’m not sure if I need Starry Night Enthusiast or Starry Night Pro 6?
Do you want to?
¶Control your robotic or “goto” telescope
¶Record and plan your observations
¶ Add sky events to calendars
¶Access 500 million stars down to 21st magnitude
¶View dozens of deep sky databases containing thousands of objects
¶Travel in time from 99 999 BC to 99 999 AD
¶View hundreds of satellites, comets and asteroids
¶Create your own databases
¶Add images to any area of the sky
¶Create custom full sky (180 degree) star charts
¶Create custom Field of View indicators for your eyepieces and CCD’s
¶Generate ephemerides
¶ Explore advanced topics in SkyGuide
¶Preserve your night vision by reddening the display
¶Want the best program that includes all the features
Then Starry Night Pro 6 is for you. Click here to learn about some of the features in Pro 6.
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Starry Night Pro Plus 5 and NGC-IC Images
It has been brought to our attention that for a brief period near the launch of Starry Night Pro Plus 5.0 the NGC-IC image database was listed in our "Product Comparison Chart" as a feature of this new product.
Although this image set was never intended as a feature of Starry Night Pro Plus 5.0, we realize that it was mistakenly advertized for a breif period and should therefore be made available to those who want it. We appologize for the error and have solutions below for users who want this data.
There were a number of reasons for not including these images in Pro Plus 5. The most important reason was the addition of the AllSky image, which, in effect supercedes these by providing an accurate, full-sky colour image.
For those customers who want to use these images with Starry Night Pro Plus 5.0, there are two options:
1) If you already own Starry Night Pro Plus 4.5, or purchased "PlusPak 2" separately, you may use the installer on this disk to install the images to your copy of Pro Plus 5.0. (Be sure to select your "Starry Night Pro Plus 5" installation folder when prompted for an install location.)
NOTE 1: You may notice that the PlusPak 2 installer also installs the "Milky Way Images" by default. Installing these over your existing Milky Way images will have no ill effects.
NOTE 2: Advanced users can simply copy the "NGC-IC Database Images" folder into their "Starry Night Pro Plus 5\Sky Data\" folder from an existing copy of Starry Night Pro Plus 4.5 if they prefer.
2) Use the web-installer (available below) to download and install the images to your copy of Starry Night Pro Plus 5.
Download and Installation Instructions:
- Click on the Windows or Macintosh (OS X) link below to download that installer.
- When the download is complete, double-click on the installer
What is Deep Space Explorer and how is it different?
Unlike Pro or Enthusiast, which allows you to view the sky from anywhere on Earth or the solar system, Deep Space Explorer explores the realm of galaxies outside of our own Milky Way galaxy.It deals more with large-scale structures of the universe and cosmology.
Starry Night Deep Space Explorer is no longer available.
Note:All version 6 products contain the Deep Space Explorer database, allowing you to leave the confines of the Milkyway and explore 28, 000 galaxies plotted in 3D.
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QuickTime
Information about the multimedia program QuickTime needed to run Starry Night
I am trying to install QuickTime, and it asks me to enter a registration number. Why doesn't my Starry Night registration number work?
The QuickTime registration screen is only for a more advanced version of QuickTime (QuickTime Pro) that is not included with Starry Night. Just leave this screen completely blank (no name or number) and press the Next button to install the regular version of QuickTime.
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I get an error message when I try to install QuickTime.
This usually occurs if the “Temp” folder on your hard drive is full (this is the folder temporarily used by installers, including the QuickTime installer). If there is too much in this folder, the installer may not work properly. You should empty the “Temp” folder (if there are any old files in this folder which you need, move them to another folder) and then run the QuickTime installer again. You should close all other applications, including any anti-virus software utilities, when you run the installer. If you still encounter errors, you may wish to visit Apple’s QuickTime page for support help: http://www.apple.com/quicktime.
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The buttons and sliders are missing from Starry Night?
Reinstall Quicktime and choose the "Recommended Install" option, as the buttons and sliders will be missing from the Starry Night interface if you choose the "Minimum Install" option.
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What is QuickTime and why do I need it?
QuickTime is a tool for manipulating graphics files and constructing and viewing animation sequences. Starry Night uses it to allow you to make movies of Starry Night sequences and to save screen images from Starry Night as graphics files. Starry Night will not run at all unless you have version 6.5 or later of QuickTime.
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When I install QuickTime, what type of installation should I choose?
You should choose the "Recommended Install" option, as the moviemaking and image exporting features in Starry Night will not work properly if you choose the "Minimum Install" option.
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Where do I get it and how do I install it?
If you have a Macintosh, QuickTime is probably already installed on your computer. On Windows, QuickTime is installed at the end of the installation of Starry Night.
You can also download the latest version of QuickTime from Apple. Follow the instructions that appear onscreen to install QuickTime on your computer.
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Quicktime incompatibilities
QuickTime 7.4 and later are incompatible with Starry Night 6.2.1 and earlier on Windows Vista and Windows XP. Here are some of the problems that users have reported:
Missing portions of the left-hand tabbed menu
Missing object catalogues from the Options tab -> Deep Space menu
Objects don't show up in searches, e.g. can't find ISS using the Find tab
Objects failing to display in the sky even though images are in the appropriate Sky Data folders
All-Sky Image mosaic does not display or does not show up under Options tab -> Stars menu
Problems with panoramic horizons
Corrupted or shortened filenames in the Favourites menu and under Options tabs
Inability to find ASCOM telescope drivers and plugins
If you suddenly started seeing these problems, QuickTime may have automatically updated itself, or it may have updated as part of an iTunes update. Open your Quicktime player and click Help -> About Quicktime Player on the menu bar to see what version you are running.
If you are experiencing these problems while running any Starry Night version 6.x, please update to version 6.2.3, as the 6.2.3 update contains a fix.
If you have Starry Night 5.8.2 or earlier and are running Quicktime 7.4 or later, please follow these steps to revert to Quicktime 7.3.1.
Make sure Starry Night is installed and updated. Its installer may try to detect and install Quicktime updates automatically, so this step must be done first. If you can't skip the Quicktime detection, just let it run and install what it wants.
After installing and updating Starry Night, uninstall Quicktime by clicking Start/Programs/ and looking for the Quicktime menu. There will be an uninstall icon there. (Don't use the Add/Remove Programs utility in Control Panel, as it appears that that does not completely remove Quicktime. You need to use Quicktime's own uninstaller.)
Questions about the Starry Night registration number
Every time I start Starry Night, I'm asked for the registration number.
If Starry Night keeps asking you to register, this most likely means that you have not obtained your registration number yet. To do so, select Help>Registration and click the Get Registration button in the dialog box that opens.
If you entered your number in correctly but Starry Night still asks you to register, it could mean that some of your folders or files were marked as read-only, in other words write protected.
Windows
To fix this, right click on the Starry Night folder and select Properties from the menu that pops up. This opens the Properties window. In the Attributes section, ensure the read-only box is not checked. If it is, uncheck the box and click on the Apply button. Apply the changes to all folders, subfolders and files.
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How do I register my copy of Starry Night?
We encourage you to register by visiting our online registration page. This allows us to notify you of any bug fixes, upgrades or new plugins for Starry Night.
I want to move my copy of Starry Night to a new computer. How do I retrieve my registration number?
Choose About Starry Night (product name) from the Help menu (Windows) or the Starry Night menu (Macintosh). Your name and registration number should be in the bottom left corner of the window which opens.
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Where do I find my registration number for the program?
(Your registration number is needed if you intend to purchase an upgrade)
The Starry Night plug-in that works together with the SETI@Home screensaver
Do you still support SETI?
SETI has recently updated their software. Unfortunately, this new SETI version does not work with Starry Night.
We do however plan to add support for SETI in the near future.
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Solar System Bodies
Planets, moons, comets, satellites, and asteroids
How do I see the phases of the moon?
Open the Find pane and double-click on the Moon’s name. If you get a message saying that the moon is beneath the horizon, click the Reset Time button. Zoom in on the Moon if you want a closer look. Now change the time step in the Control Panel to a discreet value of 1 day. Use the Single Step Forward button in the time mode controls to watch the Moon's phase change day-by-day. You may have to hide the horizon by choosing View->Hide Horizon to keep the Moon in view.
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I have downloaded the latest comet/asteroid/satellite files, but some of the objects in this file don't show up in Starry Night.
The file "Prefs.txt" in the "Starry Night (Pro or Enthusiast or Digital Download)-Sky Data-Prefs" folder has fields named "MaxNumOf Asteroids", "MaxNumOfComets", "MaxNumOfSatellites" and Starry Night will only read in a number of objects equal to the values in these fields. You can change the values of these fields to read in more objects (this may slow the program down if you read in too many objects).
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Jupiter's great red spot doesn't appear to be in the correct position. Is there someway to reposition it?
Starry Night uses a file called "JupiterGRS.txt" located in the Sky Data folder to determine the mean longitude of the GRS. To change the GRS's position you can open this file and enter a new mean longitude. The GRS drifts non-algorithmically so the GRS mean longitude will need to be updated from time to time. The latest mean longitude is available from Sky & Telescope's excellent Great Red Spot web page.
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The "Update Comets/Asteroids/Satellites" option is not working properly.
Starry Night updates Comet, Asteroid and Satellite data daily. To download the latest available data, select Update Comets/Asteroids/Satellites from the LiveSky menu. An internet connection is required for this feature.
If you receive an error message when trying to download the update, it is likely due to your internet security settings. Try the following:
1. Configure your Internet Security or Firewall software (such as Norton Security) to allow Starry Night to access the Internet. In the event this does not work, attempt to disable your Internet Security or Firewall software temporarly while the update is being done.
2. (Windows only) Disable the Windows XP Firewall. The Firewall can be accessed in the Control Panel under Security Centre.
3. Starry Night does not support Proxy servers.
If all else fails, you can still download and install the files manually. Click on the links below to download the Comets.txt, Asteroids.txt and Satellites.txt files. Then place these files in the application's Sky Data folder.
On Windows: My Computer/Local Disk/Program Files/Starry Night <name> 6/Sky Data
On the Mac: Ctrl-click on the Starry Night application icon and select Show Package Contents. Navigate to Contents/Resources/Sky Data .
The "Weekly Sky Events" section of SkyGuide is outdated, even after I do the online update (Windows only)
Untitled Document
Quick Solution: Delete the mainindex.html file from the Sky
Data/Conductor/Scripts/SkyGuide/Weekly_sky_events folder on your hard disk.
Then select Update Comets/Asteroids/Satellites from the LiveSky
menu. The new and updated file will then be downloaded.
For more information read on:
When you install Starry Night, all of the files that are installed on your
hard disk are given the same date. This date matches the date you installed
Starry Night.
When you select Update Comets/Asteroids/Satellites from the
LiveSky menu, Starry Night compares the dates of the files
in both your local hard disk and on the Internet server where the latest files
are stored (these files are updated weekly). The updated files from the Internet
server are only downloaded if the dates of the files on your local hard disk
are older than the ones on the Internet server.
Because the files on your local hard disk have a date that match the day you
installed the program, there is a chance that Starry Night will think that the
files you have on your hard disk are more up to date than the ones on the Internet
server. The result is that you will receive a message saying that all the files
are up to date, even thou the information shown in the Weekly Sky Events section
of SkyGuide continues to be outdated (usually showing events starting in August
23, 2004).
The problem will correct itself, next time we update the files on the Internet
server, thereby giving them a date that is newer than the files on your local
hard disk. So one would have to wait until the next update for the Weekly Sky
Events section files to be updated. It is important to note that this will only
occur once – that is, after this initial wait period for the date of the
files on the Internet server to be newer than the files on your local hard disk,
the updates will work normally and instantaneous when you see outdated information.
To solve this right away and get the updated Weekly Sky Events information,
see the quick solution tip above.
Future installers for Starry Night will not give files the same date as the
installation date, so that the files on the Internet server are always newer.
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When I view the solar system from above the sun by selecting Outer Solar System from the Favourites menu, why don't the orbits of Pluto and Neptune overlap?
The orbits of Pluto and Neptune do overlap. However, because the orbit of Pluto is tilted at an angle to that of Neptune, it can appear from your perspective that Pluto is always outside Neptune. A neat way to see this is as follows: Choose "Favourites | Solar System | Outer Solar System" and rotate your view so that you are directly over the north pole of the sun looking back down on the solar system. The orbit of Pluto will appear to be completely outside the orbit of Neptune. Now blast off using the elevation button until you are about 3000 AU above the sun. Use the zoom button to enlarge your view so you can clearly see the two orbits. Now you can see that Pluto's orbit does come within that of Neptune. The "correct" view of the orbits can only be seen when you are very far away, and the effect of Pluto's tilt is small compared to this distance.
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Where can I get orbital elements for new objects I want to add using the Orbit Editor?
Why can't I find Halley's Comet at the Battle of Hastings?
Unfortunately, predicting comet positions on past trips around the sun is one area of astronomy where simulation programs like Starry Night are not very effective. As a comet goes around sun, its orbit is altered by the gravitational influence of the sun and planets in ways that can't be predicted by Starry Night. The gas and dust released by the comet as it gets closer to the Sun also causes the orbit of the comet you are interested in to change. For example, the orbital period of Halley's comet has varied from 76 years to 79 years over the last thousand years. The bottom line is that the orbital elements for a comet in Starry Night are valid only for its most recent trip around the sun and can't be used to predict its appearance in the more distant past.
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Why doesn't the location of the International Space Station match what I see in the sky?
The orbital elements of artificial satellites (including the ISS) are constantly being adjusted slightly. You need to update satellite elements on a regular basis to keep the satellites in their proper position. You do this by choosing "Livesky->Update Comets/Asteroids/Satellites", which will download new elements from our website. You need to close and reopen Starry Night before it will use the new elements.
If you are comparing the predictions in Starry Night with those from another source such as www.heavens-above.com , ensure to use the home coordinates listed at this web site along with the TLE (Two Line Elements). You can copy the TLE's from Heavens-Above and paste them in the satellites.txt file located in the Sky Data folder.
There is also a known incompatibility between newer versions of Quicktime (7.4.x and later) and older versions of Starry Night (6.2.1 and earlier). One of the symptoms, if you have an older Starry Night version with a newer Quicktime version, is that some objects can't be found through the Find tab. Please see our detailed article on this problem to learn how to fix it.
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Can I add a satellite around Mars or other planets/moons?
Yes. Right click (windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac) on the planet or moon you want to add your satellite to.
Then select Add Moon orbiting ...
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How accurate are the positions of the planets and moons in Starry Night?
The position of the eight major planets should be accurate to within 5 arcseconds for times within 3000 years of the present. The theory used to predict Pluto’s position is less accurate: between the years 1885 and 2099, its position is accurate to within 1 arcsecond, but the accuracy will decline significantly outside these dates. The position of our moon should be accurate to within 10 arcseconds for several thousand years in either direction. The theories used to predict the positions of other moons are simpler and therefore potentially less accurate.
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How do I add my own objects?
With Starry Night, you can add Solar System objects such as asteroids, satellites and newly discovered comets using the Orbit Editor. For more information, refer to the Starry Night User's Guide.
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Starry Night 6 now supports 3DS Models
3DS models are computer graphic entities that describe (in 3 dimensions) the shape and structure of any solid object. The 3DS model format is a common meta-format used by most 3D modeling programs such as Autodesk's 3D Studio, from which the name is derived. A 3DS model is typically stored in a file with a 3DS extension, as in Voyager.3ds.
Note: 3DS models can only be added to Starry Night Enthusiast, Pro, Pro Plus, Middle School and High School.
How are 3DS Models Used in Starry Night?
If you have a 3DS model of an object already in Starry Night, you can make Starry Night draw that object using your 3DS model instead of the usual way the object is drawn - ie. a 2D image. This is a great option for irregular shaped objects like man-made satellites, space probes and small moons and asteroids.
Note: Currently Starry Night does not support textures on 3DS models.
What models come with Starry Night 6?
The following models are shipped with Starry Night:
Spacecraft
Pioneer 10 and 11 Cassini Huygens probe Galileo Deep Impact Deep Space Galileo Giotto Hayabusa Iridium Magellan Mariner 9 Mars Express Mars Global Surveyor Mars Odyssey Mars Pathfinder Mars Reconnaissance Messenger NEAR New Horizon Opportunity Spirit Rosetta Stardust Ulysses Venus Express Voyager 1 Voyager 2
Small bodies
Annefrank Braille Bacchus Amalthea Castalia Deimos Phobos Ephimetheus Geographos Hyperion Ida Toutatis Tempel Default Comet Default Asteroid
Where can I download additonal 3DS Models?
3DS models can be downloaded from several websites. A good place to start is:
Follow the instructions at the above web site to download .3ds model files to your hard disk.
Interesting models to check out range from the tiny moons of Mars to sci-fi models from your favorite movies and TV series!
Adding a 3DS Model via the Orbit Editor
After you have downloaded your 3DS models, you can add them to Starry Night via the Orbit Editor feature. Right-click (windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac) on the object you want to add your 3DS model to and select either "Edit Surface Image/Model" or "Edit Orbital Elements" from its contextual menu.
In the dialog box that opens, click on the "Surface Image" tab and then on the "Open Model" button. Select the 3DS model from the location on your hard disk where you saved the file. Remember that 3DS files have a .3ds extension at the end of the file.
Submitting your 3DS models
If you have 3DS models you'd like to share with other Starry Night users, we'd love to hear from you. 3DS models can be emailed here.
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On Pro Plus 5, the features on Mars don't correspond with the information in the HUD
[Starry Night Pro Plus 5 only]
Please download the Mars.zip file to retrieve a new Mars image that corrects this issue. The download is about 64 MB in size.
Unzip the contents of this file, and place the resulting Mars folder in the Sky Data/Planet Images folder - overwritting the existing Mars folder that is currently there.
Windows:Program Files/Starry Night Pro Plus/Sky Data/Planet Images
Macintosh:Ctrl-click on the Starry Night Pro Plus application and select Show Package Contents. Navigate to Contents/Resources/Sky Data/Planet Images
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Planets appear black in my Starry Night Digital Download version 6 after upgrading from Digital Download version 5
The following patches fix an issue in the Starry Night Digital Download 6 upgrade where some planet surface images appear black:
If you're looking for a particular comet in Starry Night and can't find it, here are a few things that might be keeping you from seeing it. 1) Make sure you have the latest version of the Comets.txt file. In Starry Night, you can click on LiveSky on the menu bar, and choose Check for Data Updates in order to get the current version of the file. If you can't access it that way, you may also download the file manually from the following location:
Windows: browse to C:/Program Files/Starry Night/Sky Data.
Mac OS: in Applications, right-click or control+click your Starry Night program icon and choose Show Package Contents, and browse to Contents -> Resources -> Sky Data.
Click File/Save in your browser window when you are viewing that file, and save it into your Sky Data folder. Let it replace any older file with the same name.
2) Your program may not be set to display all the comets in the file. Click on File/Preferences... on your menu bar (or, Starry Night/Preferences, if you're using a Mac) and choose Startup/Auto Updates. Set the number of comets read in on startup to 600. This ensures that all comets in the file will be loaded into Starry Night.
3) Older versions of Starry Night may not be able to read the current comet data file, since it's bigger than it used to be. If you have a version of Starry Night that does not let you change the read-in number, you can edit the comet data file. Browse to your Sky Data folder and open the Comets.txt file in a text editor. Find the line for the comet you want (if it's a newly-discovered comet, it will be near the bottom of the file) and move it to the top of the file. Save the file and start Starry Night again, and it should force the program to load that comet first.
Brenda Shaw
Impact scar on Jupiter
On 19 July 2009 a new impact scar was discovered near Jupiter's south pole. If you're interested in observing or photographing the spot yourself, the file attached here will mark its location on Jupiter so that you can predict observing times for your location.
Save the Jupiter-E.txt file into your Sky Data / Locations folder.
Mac OS: Applications/Starry Night -> right-click the application and choose Show Package Contents -> Contents/Resources/Sky Data/Locations
Open Starry Night, locate Jupiter and right-click on it, and choose Markers & Outlines. Check the box for July 2009 Impact Scar. A marker will appear on Jupiter to show you the location.
For more information and to view the discovery images, please visit http://jupiter.samba.org .
Brenda Shaw
Star Data
Information on the star data in Starry Night
Can I add recently discovered planets around stars other than our sun?
No. A future version of Starry Night may add this feature.
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How do I search for stars in the various star catalogs?
Open the Find pane. For stars in the Hipparcos catalog, type "HIPxxxxx", where "xxxxx" is the star's Hipparcos catalog number. For stars in the Tycho catalog, type "TYCxxxx-xxxx-x", where "xxxx-xxxx-x" is the star's Tycho catalog number. For stars in the USNO Star catalog, type "USNOxxxx-xxxx", where "xxxx-xxxx" is the star's USNO catalog number.
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When I zoom far away from the earth, the stars all appear to group together in a ball around the sun. Is this the Miky Way?
No, this is a limitation of our star catalog. Starry Night has distances to about 100 000 stars from the Hipparcos Catalog (note: Digital Download is limited to 35, 000 stars). Most of the stars in this catalog are within a few hundred light years of the sun, so as you zoom out farther than this, they appear to cluster around the sun.
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Where does the star data in Starry Night come from?
Digital Download
Contains 35, 000 stars from the Hipparcos catalogue.
Enthusiast
The star data for the nearest two million or so stars comes from the Hipparcos/Tycho 2 catalogue, which is the result of a recent mission by the European Space Agency. Find out more about this catalog at the Hipparcos Project home page.
Pro and Pro Plus
Contains the Hipparcos/Tycho 2 catalogue, plus star data for dimmer stars from the USNO Star Catalog. Stars from this catalog are distinguished by the "USNO" at the beginning of their names. In total there are about 16 million stars on the CD. In addition, stars down to 21st magnitude can be downloaded via the StarDownload feature in Pro. That is over 500 million stars!
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Starry Night Discussion List
A free moderated forum for Starry Night discussion
How can I set up my e-mail account to place messages from the Discussion List in a special folder?
All messages from the Discussion List will have StarryNight@yahoogroups.com in the "To" field, and [Starry Night] in the subject line. You can use these facts to filter all mail from the Discussion List into a special folder. You may also wish to switch your user preferences so that you receive all the e-mails from the list in a daily digest, or receive no e-mail, but access the list through the web. Read on to learn how to filter your Discussion List messages in a special folder. The following instructions tell you how to do this using Microsoft's Outlook Express (Windows version). The procedure should be similar for most other e-mail programs:
(1) Open Outlook Express. The left side of the screen will list your mail folders. Right-click the mouse on your "Inbox" folder and choose "New Folder" from the popup menu. Name the new folder "Starry Night Discussion" and click "OK". This has created a new folder named "Starry Night Discussion" inside your Inbox.
(2) Choose Tools->Message Rules->Mail from the Outlook Express menu. Hit the "New" button in the window that opens. This opens a new window where you will choose the rules for your new filter. Under the heading "Select the conditions for your rule", check the box marked "Where the To Line Contains People". Under the heading "Select the actions for your rule", check the box marked "Move it to the specified folder". Under the heading "Rule description", click on the words "contains people". Type in the name StarryNight@yahoogroups.com. Click the "Add" button and then the "OK" button. Under the heading "Rule description", click on the word "specified". Click on the folder "Starry Night Discussion" from the list of folders and then click "OK". Under the heading "Name of the Rule", type "Starry Night Discussion Filter". Click "OK" twice to close the open windows.
After following this procedure, all incoming mail from the Starry Night Discussion List should be moved automatically to your "Starry Night Discussion" folder, so you can open this folder to browse through all Discussion List messages at the same time.
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How do I change my e-mail preferences to receive messages over the web or in a digest format?
To do this, you will need to have a Yahoo! ID. Visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/starrynight, sign in with your ID and password (or register for one if you don't have), and click the "Edit my membership" link on the right side of the screen. You can choose one of three message formats: individual e-mails, one daily digest with all the day's messages, or no e-mail.
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How do I download files that have been posted by Discussion List members?
To access these files, you will need to have a Yahoo! ID. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/starrynight, sign in and click the "Files" link on the left side of the screen. This will display an annotated list of all files that have been posted. If you are using Internet Explorer (Windows version), right-click on the file you are interested in and choose "Save Target as" to download the file to your hard drive. You can also post your own files to the group by clicking the "Add File" link.
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How do I post messages to the Discussion List?
Compose an e-mail message and send it to StarryNight@yahoogroups.com. Your message will automatically be forwarded to everyone on the Discussion List.
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How do I unsubscribe from the Discussion List?
To unsubscribe from this group, send an e-mail to: StarryNight-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. Please do not post a message to the entire group! If you have more than one e-mail account, it is important that you send this e-mail from the account that is subscribed to the Discussion List, otherwise you may get an error message telling you that you are not signed up for the Discussion List.
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Is there a moderator for the Discussion List?
Yes, the Discussion List is moderated, and messages sent by first time users are reviewed before they are posted. Occasionally you will receive a junk mail advertisement or other off-topic message. The best thing to do is ignore these messages. Several Imaginova employees and user moderators do monitor the list and will remove members who post objectionable messages.
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Is there an archive of previous messages?
Yes. To access this archive, you will need to have a Yahoo! ID. Visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/starrynight, sign in and click the "Messages" link on the left side of the screen. This will display a list of messages, sorted by date. You can browse the archive or use the search function to find messages related to a certain topic.
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What is a Yahoo! ID? Why do I need one?
A Yahoo! ID allows you to access certain web-only features of the group such as the message archive and the files database. It also allows you to view messages on the web, instead of in your e-mail. A Yahoo! ID is not needed if you only wish to receive e-mail messages from the group and post messages. To get a Yahoo! ID, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/starrynight and click the "register" link in the top right corner. This will link your e-mail address to a Yahoo! ID. The next time you visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/starrynight, click the "Sign in" link in the upper right corner. This will prompt you to enter your Yahoo! ID and password. There is also an option to "remember my ID". If you check this box, you will not be prompted for your ID and password every time you access the Starry Night Discussion List web page. Once you are signed in, all of the links on the Starry Night Discussion List web page will be active. For more information, see the Yahoo Registration Help page.
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Support
Where to turn for more help with the program
Are there any other support resources?
Yes, there is a Starry Night Discussion List for owners of Starry Night to share program information and ask other owners questions. Sign up for this list. The Usenet newsgroup "sci.astro.amateur" is also a good resource for general questions about astronomy and observing.
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My questions aren't answered in the manual or this FAQ. Who can I contact?
Updates for Starry Night Complete Space & Astronomy Pack, Pro, Pro Plus, Astrophoto Suite, and educational software are here!
Updates for Starry Night Digital Download will be available shortly.
New Features*
Apollo Space Missions – new models, trajectories and SkyGuide tours. (Available in Pro, Pro Plus, Astrophoto Suite and High School.)
Bug Fixes
Added moons Nix and Hydra to Pluto.
Fixed incompatibilities with QuickTime 7.4.1.
Fixed incompatibilities with on-board Intel Graphics chips on Vista.
Printing on windows fixed. Labels correct size, legend now prints on 1-pane printing.
Surface Feature Outlines / Location Markers user interface now correctly updates when new files are opened.
Google Maps links from right-click menu fixed.
Added ability to not apply nighttime shading to horizon panoramas.
Surface Feature Outlines now correctly save and read-in from files.
Problem with certain files saved with a locked selection not setting correct FOV, now fixed.
Export as QuickTime VR no longer crashes on OS-X.
Fixed crash with space missions saved in file but not loaded on startup.
*Some features might not be available in your version 6 product.
Brenda Shaw
Getting Started with Starry Night College
Make sure that your operating system is up to date:
Mac OS: Click the Apple logo in the upper left corner of your screen and choose Software Updates.
Windows Vista: Click the Start button in the lower left of your screen, and choose All Programs -> Windows Update. Follow the prompts to install updates.
Windows XP: Click the Start button in the lower left of your screen and choose Control Panel -> Windows Update. Follow the prompts to install updates.
Update your graphics card drivers: A driver is a piece of software that controls hardware in your computer. Updating drivers means keeping your computer working correctly with other programs.
If you have a prebuilt Windows computer (e.g. a Dell, HP, Gateway, or other off-the-shelf model) you can download driver updates from the manufacturer's support site.
If you have a custom-built or home-built Windows computer, you will need to identify your graphics card and visit its manufacturer's website for drivers.
On Mac OS this is not an issue, as the Software Update utility described above will update hardware drivers as well as operating system components.
Update other supporting software: When you install Starry Night College, you will be prompted to install or update any other required software by downloading it from the internet. Starry Night College may not function properly without these.
Installing Starry Night College on a student account: If you are an administrator installing the software on school computers to be used by students signing in under their own accounts, the students will need read/write access to the following folders.
Windows: My Computer/Local Disk/Documents and Settings/<user account>/Local Settings/Application Data/Imaginova Canada/Prefs ANDProgram Files/Starry Night College
Mac: Home/Library/Preferences/Imaginova Canada AND Applications/Starry Night College
Registering Starry Night College:
If you are a teacher or professor, you will be asked to register the software the first time you start it up. Follow the instructions and you will receive a username, registration number, and referral code. Use the username and registration number to activate your own copy of the software, and send the referral code to your students so that they can access their download software.
If you are a student with a downloaded copy, you will receive a four-digit referral code from your professor. You will need this code to download your software. Upon starting the software for the first time you will be asked to register your copy. Click the button that says "Get registration number" and follow the prompts. Use the username and registration number that you receive to activate the software in the startup screen.
Always copy and paste your registration number into the program to activate it. The username and registration number are case-sensitive and must be entered exactly as shown. Copying and pasting will avoid typing errors that will result in a failure to activate.
Brenda Shaw
Bug Fixes in 6.3.9 Update
6.3.6 to 6.3.9 Fixed Bugs
Updates:
Mac Updater download no longer incorrecty reads from system cache in case of re-download.
Windows Updater download now much faster.
CPU Usage:
Application correctly respects user defined maximum frame rate.
Application correctly throttles down frame rate when not focused/maximized.
Several fixes and enhancements to maintain respectable CPU usage.
Files:
Opens Starry Night Files at correct default FOV if none defined.
Printing:
Correctly prints legend in multi-pane printout.
Printing: Fixed crash under certain circumstances when printing 180 degrees.
Plugins:
Fixed incompatibility with setting FOV via a plugin.
Brenda Shaw
Time & Date
Time zones, daylight savings time, sunrise/sunset times, eclipse times, etc
Can I get Starry Night to show dates in the European format?
Yes. On Windows Starry Night looks to the Windows registry to determine the order in which to show dates. If it can't find a registry entry for regional date settings then it defaults to the US month, day, year. Unfortunately UK Windows does not automatically place the date format in the registry where Starry Night expects to see it. To work around this you should open the "Regional Settings" control panel, switch the date format to something other than the current setting, click OK, then reopen the "Regional Settings" control panel and switch to the UK day-month-year order. After restarting Starry Night it should be using the new date format. On the Macintosh you can reset the date format from the Date and Time control panel. After restarting Starry Night it should be using the new date format.
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Can I get Starry Night to show the time using the 24-hour clock?
Yes. On Windows Starry Night looks to the Windows registry to determine the time format. If it can't find a registry entry for regional date settings then it defaults to the 12 hour clock. Unfortunately UK Windows does not automatically place the date format in the registry where Starry Night expects to see it. To work around this, you should open the "Regional Settings" control panel, switch the time format to something other than the current setting, click OK, then reopen the "Regional Settings" control panel and switch to the 24-hour clock. After restarting Starry Night it should be using the new time format. On the Macintosh you can reset the time format from the Date and Time control panel. After restarting Starry Night it should be using the new time format.
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Do the sunrise/sunset times account for the refraction of light due to the earth's atmosphere?
Yes. The bending of light due to the Earth’s atmosphere is accounted for by simply lowering the horizon about 1/2 degree. This gives the correct rise and set times for the sun and moon but doesn’t affect the relative positions of the stars.
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Does Starry Night use the Gregorian or Julian calendar for old dates?
Starry Night uses the old Julian calendar for all dates before Oct. 15, 1582, and the Gregorian calendar for all dates more recent than this. The dates Oct. 5-Oct. 14, 1582 do not exist in Starry Night, to account for the ten days which were skipped when the new calendar was introduced.
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How do I find my Time Zone?
Time zones are in relation to London, England. People on Eastern Time are 5 hours behind London time, so they should put "-5h" for their time zone. Those on Central Time would enter "-6h" and so on. Visit the World Time Zone Map if you do not know the time zone of your home location.
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How do I find the time and date of eclipses and other events?
Opent the SkyCalendar Pane to bring up a list of eclipses and other astronomical events, sorted by date. Click on the one you want and select Homel View or Best View. Home View shows you the event from your home location, while Best View places you at the event's optimal viewing location.
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How does Daylight Savings Time work in Starry Night?
When you start up Starry Night, the program checks your computer's date/time settings to find out if Daylight Saving Time is in effect for the current date, and if so, automatically adjusts the sky to account for this. If Daylight Saving Time is "on" in Starry Night, the little icon of the sun immediately to the left of the time in the Control Panel will be coloured yellow. Click on this icon to turn off Daylight Saving Time (if Daylight Savings Time is already on, clicking this icon will turn it off). Note that Starry Night only checks to see if Daylight Saving Time is in effect when you open the program. This means that you may have to turn on or off Daylight Saving Time if you change the date from within the program. For example, let's say you open the program in June. Starry Night checks with the operating system and determines that Daylight Saving Time is in effect, so the icon of the sun in the Control Panel is lit up. However, you are interested in viewing a solar eclipse in December, so you change the date in Starry Night to sometime in December. Starry Night will not automatically turn Daylight Saving Time off. You need to click on the icon of the sun to manually turn Daylight Saving Time off.
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Starry Night doesn’t display the correct time when I start up. How do I fix this?
Starry Night reads the time from your computer's Control Panel. Make sure it is set correctly there. On Windows, you can access the clock by clicking the Start button on your desktop and choosing Settings->Control Panel, then double-clicking on “Date/Time” in the list which appears. On the Mac, click on the Apple menu, then select Control Panels->Date & Time. Also, make sure that you are starting Starry Night by running the Starry Night application itself, not a saved Starry Night file.
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The correct time is shown when I start Starry Night, but the sun rises and sets at the wrong time. How do I fix this?
Most likely you have entered the wrong time zone for your home location. Choose Set Home Location from the File menu (Windows) or the Starry Night menu (Macintosh) to see what the time zone is set at, and change the time zone in this window if necessary. Also double check to see if the red circle is over your approximate home location in the world map.
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When I view from off the Earth, the time reads "UT". What does this mean?
UT is short for "Universal Time". This is the same thing as Greenwich Mean Time, and is the time in London, England (not accounting for daylight savings time). Universal Time is used as a standard reference time for astronomical events by astronomers around the world. When you are viewing from a location off the Earth, your old "time zone" does not really apply, so Starry Night uses Universal Time.
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Why is 1700 A.D. a leap year in Starry Night?
The Gregorian Leap Year
In general every Gregorian Calendar year divisible by 4 is a leap year, except if it is divisible by 100 but not divisible by 400.
The Gregorian Calendar was adopted in 1582 by Rome and by other countries between 1582 to 1924.Britain and possessions however, only changed from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar in 1752.
“Therefore, RC & GB used the same Julian rules before 1600; different rules but with the same result in 1600; different rules with different results in 1700; and the same Gregorian rules thereafter. Only 1700 differed in Leapness between RC & GB; the historical Year 1700 was a Leap Year in Britain and possessions. Note that many otherwise reputable authorities have omitted to consider this point; but the differing Leapness of Historical 1700 is what is needed to reconcile the 10- and 11- day jumps of 1582 and 1752*. Therefore, the Gregorian date 29th February 1700 occurred here in GB, but on the civil date 29th February 1699 (the new year number then starting with March 25th).
The Thursday which was Julian (UK) 1700-02-29 was MJD -57959 and Gregorian (Rome) 1700-03-11.“
*Great Britain and Dominions: September 2 1752 was followed by September 14 1752.Eleven days rather than the 10 days when the Gregorian calendar was adopted in Rome (October 4 1582 was followed by October 15 1582)
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Updates/Upgrades
Updating to the latest version of Starry Night, or upgrading from/to another version of Starry Night
Are updates free to owners of an earlier version of Starry Night?
Bug fixes and minor feature updates to Starry Night will be available as free Internet downloads to existing owners. Major feature updates will be available for an upgrade price.
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How do I find out if I have the latest version of Starry Night?
First, retrieve your current version number by choosing About Starry Night from the Help menu (Windows) or the Starry Night menu (Macintosh). The version number will be shown on the bottom left corner of the window that opens. Then select LiveSky>Check for Program Updates. This will connect you to the updates page on our website, which lists the latest updates. If a newer version is available, click the appropriate link to download the updater file.
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I own an earlier version of Starry Night. Can I upgrade to Starry Night version 6?
Yes. Please visit the Upgrades Page for complete details.
Currently there are no reduced upgrade prices from version 2 and earlier, to version 6.
[] Onscreen info options
now exposed in the 'Options' panel (were previously unavailable).
[] Windows find pane no longer adds carriage return nto search term.
[] Graph tool now correctly plots all items for angular size (was limiting to
2).
[] Option to output graph data to text file added.
[] Find for Asterisms now correctly limits to asterims only (was adding some
constellations.)
[] Exporting all logs no longer causes crash.
[] Crash on quit if more than one window open fixed.
[] Couldn't see interface well in Night Vision mode fixed.
[] CTRL-V in text imput boxes on Windows (e.g. registration number) now works.
[] Couldn't access telescope pane on lower resolution monitors. Added Show/Hide
telescope panel to View menu.
[] Cursor now correctly changes over different interface elements on OS X.
[] Fixed comet and asteroid label drawing options.
[] LiveSky.com and other buttons in Info pane now draw correctly.
[] "Go There", "Centre" and "Magnify" now work in spaceship mode.
[] Prefs now stored on a per user basis on Windows.
[] "SN did not shutdown correctly last time..." dialog in non-adminstrator users
on Windows no longer shows every time.
[] Limit by telescope magnitude now works properly in planner.
[] 3D galaxy options now correctly labels bounding box setting for groups/filaments
as "highlighted groups" not "selected groups."
[] User can now click in the scene to switch focus away from the text input
box in the Find panel.
[] Holding the Ctrl key while pressing the arrow keys produces smooth (albeit
slow) pans in the scene instead of discrete jumps.
[] Rise / Set / Transit times now available as options in the Ephemeris Generator.
[] Raised maximum number of results in ephemeris generator from 2000 to 5000.
[] Half-hour timezones wrk properly again.
[] Changing timezone and DST info for a location now holds correctly.
[] Enthusiast no longer restricts elevation to 50000 ly.
[] Extra-solar planets now show their "Harvard" name as well as HIP/TYC name.
[] User FOV indicators now display at correct "astronomers" Az instead of mathematical
Az.
[] Find improved when searching for Flamsteed numbers and stars by constellation.
[] Planet grid latitude labels on grids now show correct values for 12h - 24h.
[] Can now edit the surface image of the Sun without altering its size irreversibly.
[] Log entries now correctly delete themselves.
[] Button bar on windows now correctly shows/hides itself.
[] Solar lens flare no longer visible when the sun is behind a planet.
[] FOV indicators now print on all charts.
[] Centering Earth and increasing elevation no longer causes zoom in.
[] "Go There" no longer causes shake when you get to the object.
[] Can now centre on zenith if FOV is over 100 degrees.
[] Magnifying object now correctly causes smooth zoom in all the way.
[] Enlarge Moon size switched off by spaceship now switched back on after.
[] Incorrect "length of year" no longer shows for moons.
[] Hour angle added to HUD options.
Calendar Related
[] SkyCalendar pane reorganized for better viewing at low screen resolutions.
[] Calendars on remote web-sites can now be updated/refreshed.
[] Calendar now has icon for user-specificied events.
[] Can use right-click mouse button for common calendar tasks.
[] Log entries in calendar updated when log is added/changed.
[] Can now specify single icon or multiple icons for calendar events.
[] Clicking on date in calendar gives detailed view of of every event on that
day.
[] Moon phases in calendar can now be toggled on/off.
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What changes were made from 5.0.1 to 5.0.5?
NEW FEATURES!
Pro Plus Only
-------------------
[] Added 'Nudge Telescope' feature to both Mac and Windows.
[] Added brightness slider to AllSky image options.
[] Added default equipment databases for CCDs, telescopes and binoculars. Can
now add equipment directly from this database.
[] Filters are now selectable using the "Settings" button (Maxim Plugin,
Pro Plus only.)
[] "Aquire Image" now inputs object name and Ra Dec into FITS header
of an image captured in MaxIm (Pro Plus, Windows only).
Other Products
-------------------
[] Improved accuracy of SGP4 and SDP4 orbital position and velocity calculations.
[] Improved accuracy of viewer's surface position calculation by using accurate
oblate spheroid mathematics (previous implementation was approximation).
[] Improved reported position of object viewed from Earth surface by including
atmospheric refraction correction.
[] Added ability to input dual-chip CCDs to equipment list (Pro, Pro Plus).
[] Dual-chip CCD FOVs now draw and are rotatable via slider interface (Pro,
Pro Plus).
[] Approximate satellite launch dates now shown in Info panel.
[] Option to hide satellites based on launch date now added.
[] Turn on/off local (Alt/Az) grid (Enthusiast).
[] User can now add basic FOV indicators (Enthusiast).
FIXED BUGS Pro Plus Only
-------------------
[] Improved All-Sky image fading transitions and eliminated inaccurate rendering
of mosaic under some transient conditions.
Other Products
-------------------
[] Fixed JavaScript issue on Mac OS X 10.3.9 (and 10.4) in SkyGuide. Links now
load correctly.
[] Corrected disconnection issues for most scopes (if physical connection is
broken, now fails politely.)
[] Corrected 2-star alignment on Intelliscope driver.
[] No longer aborts a slew in progress when clicking on the screen.
[] Park, slew, snyc buttons now disable correctly while a slew is in progress.
[] Text Increase/Decrease in SkyGuide tooltips reversed.
[] SkyCalendar no longer draws over toolbar when window disabled.
[] SkyCalendar groups now draw separator line correctly.
[] Files now open correctly when clicked from the desktop.
[] Planet shadows no longer appear filled-in in printouts.
[] Export Info now works for items with a slash in their name.
[] No longer crash on quit if files are "Calculating..." in Favourites
panel.
[] No longer crash if you close the Favourites panel while editing the name.
[] Only one window opens when opening a file from the desktop.
[] Improved SkyGuide interactivity when clicking on object for a centre or select.
[] Chosing another planet in location dialog now gives correct behavior in location
list.
[] Copy and paste now works in log entries.
[] Databrowser views no longer scroll back to the left when sorting.
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What are some of the new features in Starry Night Pro Plus 5? Why should I upgrade?
See the Sky as Never Before with the AllSky CCD mosaic
Weighing in at 6.44 billion pixels in size, the full-color AllSky CCD image mosaic of the entire night sky visible from Earth may be the biggest addition to Starry Night software since its inception. Named AllSky for its uniform coverage from pole to pole, it’s a single picture of the whole sky.
See the entire Milky Way in exquisite detail and then zoom in to explore dust lanes and nebulae. Instead of dots and circles, you will see an actual photo of a star or a deep sky object.
Smoothly and swiftly navigate this full color photograph of the entire night sky, to a limiting magnitude of 14-15. Five years in development, the AllSky CCD mosaic is comprised of about 20,000 individual images, originally imaged at a resolution of 12 arcseconds per pixel with a scientific grade, custom built AP9E CCD camera.
View on your computer screen what you would see if you were looking through a telescope. The overlay of the AllSky CCD image and data has been precisely mapped to Starry Night’s computer generated stars and databases.
Zoom in on any object in the AllSky image and see increasing detail as higher resolution images are loaded in. There’s more to explore in each of the 5 levels of the image resolution.
Create your own Astrophotography
For Windows users, we’ve added a plug-in to MaxIm DL/CCD Advanced Imaging software (sold separately). This innovative integration lets you find your target with Starry Night, capture the image with your telescope and camera, process the image with MaxIm DL and then import the pictures back into Starry Night.
Take advantage of the FOV pane to create customized field-of-view indicators for your CCD chips.
This integration requires Starry Night Pro Plus 5.0 and MaxIm DL version 4.0.7 or higher. For more information about MaxIm DL, click here:
Home Scope moves your scope to its home position for easier computer-to-star alignment.Sync Gaze synchronizes the scope’s internal gaze direction with Starry Night.
Park/Unpark lets you set the position of your scope when you’re not using it. This is ideal for scopes placed in a permanent location or in one position over several days. Simply unpark your scope and start observing immediately without having to perform a star alignment again or recalibrating.
Slew Limits prevents the telescope from moving outside a user-defined horizon in both altazimuth and equatorial configurations. This helps to protect your valuable equipment that would otherwise hit the mount or tripod of the telescope. Starry Night Pro Plus version 5.0 also allows you to display your slew horizon in the Starry Night sky.
Quick Center immediately centers Starry Night on the telescope position indicator.
For Macintosh users, we’ve also added a Telescope Handbox Simulator which allows you to push the direction arrows in the Starry Night interface to move your scope.
Compatible with More Telescopes
Starry Night Pro Plus 5.0 is now compatible with the Orion® SkyQuest™ Intelliscope® series (XT6, XT8, X10 and X12) in addition to these scopes:
o Meade LX200
o Meade LX200 GPS
o LX200 Compatible Scope
o Meade ETX Autostar
o Autostar V2.2 or later ((ETX, LX90, LXD55)
o Celestron NexStar 60, 80, 114 GT
o Celestron NexStar 5 or 8
o Celestron NexStar 8 GPS
o Celestron NexStar 11 GPS
See ASCOM web site for Windows support with telescopes.
Get Unprecedented Views of Earth and Mars
Zoom in and explore the surface of Mars and Earth in unprecedented detail with new higher resolution surface maps.
Mars
The Mars shaded color map in Starry Night Pro Plus version 5.0 is a 24-bit color map representing the Mars land mass topography above the sea. Map was enhanced by Mario Rossi.
Earth
Hover above Earth and take a quick dive into the atmosphere for a detailed surface map of 1 km (.6 miles) resolution.
Expand Your Knowledge and Experience of the Universe
More databases… more to explore.
· Principal Galaxy Catalog (PGC): with 1,000,000 galaxies brighter than magnitude 18.
· Zwicky Cluster of Galaxies Catalog: Contains 9134 clusters.
· Hubble Space Telescope image database: Contains 33 images from the Hubble image showcase.
· Chandra X-Ray Observatory image database: Contains 52 of the best images from Chandra.
· Spitzer Space Telescope image database: Contains 9 of the most spectacular Spitzer images to date.
· Location Database: Added observatory locations.
Deepen your explorations of the universe with the SkyGuide.
Delve into the fascinating science, history and mysteries of the cosmos with the SkyGuide’s interactive, multimedia tours. A whole new way to interact with Starry Night, SkyGuide acts as your guide to the night sky and Starry Night. SkyGuide provides you with an tips on using Starry Night; tours of the night sky for every season; Astronomy Dictonary; Record Holders of celestial phenomena; links to up-to-the-minute astronomy and space news; and much more.
With direct, down-home explanations and impressive visuals of all kinds of night sky phenomena, you’ll never be lost in space again.
Choose from over 30 Photo-realistic Horizon Panoramas
· 16 Earth horizons in all:
o NEW! Mountain Lake, Canyon DeChelly, Central Park, Charles River, Dusty Basin lake, Goblin Valley. Telegraph Float, Very Large Array, Vineyard.
o Cabezon Peak, Grass, Lake, Oppenheimer Mountain, Stonehenge, West Mesa, White Sands.
· NEW! Planet and planetary moon landscapes: Pluto; Venus; Phobos and Deimos (moons of Mars); Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede (moons of Jupiter), Tethys (moon of Saturn), Titania (moon of Uranus) and a new generic rocky moon panorama for all other moons.
· NEW! Hazy sky cloud panorama
Enjoy Exclusive Constellation Illustrations
88 new high-resolution constellation illustrations exclusive to Starry Night offer new interpretations and details on classical illustrations.
Fly around the universe with Spaceship Mode
Pilot your own spaceship to explore 800 Million light years of space. Plug in a USB joystick and pilot the old fashioned way. Go There, Center, and Magnify also work in Spaceship Mode.
Enhance Your Observing Experience with these Tools
SkyCalendar
Never miss a noteworthy celestial event. SkyCalendar displays monthly, weekly, and daily views of upcoming astronomical events and regional star parties. Starry Night now provides the ability to import, view and even create your own calendars (using the standard vCalendar format). Moon phases, your observing logs, star parties or even an observing club calendar can all be viewed and maintained through the Starry Night SkyCalendar pane. Check out the date of the next New Moon and plan your observing schedule around it.
Ephemeris Generator
Know exactly where an object is and will be when you observe in the field. The Ephemeris Generator exports positional data for any object over a specific time span or interval. Options include: Rise / Set / Transit times for any object.
Satellite Positions
Track artificial satellite positions more accurately as predicted by the SGP4 model.
Even Easier to Use
Interface
Starry Night now has an updated look and feel. Darker interface elements and larger readouts aid usability and make for a better user experience.
Advanced find feature
More options in the find panel allow customizable object searching.
Variable Brightness Options (fading)
Control the brightness of almost every object, indicator line and image in the Starry Night sky with brightness sliders. Toggle items on and off.
Comparison Chart of Starry Night Pro Plus version 4.5 and 5.0
What are some of the new features in Pro 5? Why should I upgrade?
Pro 5.0 features at a glance
Interface
Starry Night now has an updated look and feel. Darker interface elements and larger readouts aid usability and make for a better user experience.
New Databases
Principal Galaxy Catalog (PGC): with 980, 000 galaxies brighter than magnitude 18.
Zwicky Cluster of Galaxies Catalog: Contains 9134 clusters.
Location Database: Added observatory locations.
Hubble Space Telescope image database: Contains 33 images from the Hubble image showcase.
Chandra X-Ray Observatory image database: Contains 52 of the best images from Chandra.
Spitzer Space Telescope image database: Contains 9 of the most spectacular Spitzer images to date.
Constellation Illustrations
88 new constellation illustrations exclusive to Starry Night. These are the best illustrations of the classical constellations you will see anywhere!
Spaceship mode
Fly freely through the universe up to 800 Million light years away. Plug in a USB joystick and pilot the old fashioned way.
SkyGuide Pane
A whole new way to interact with Starry Night, the SkyGuide pane acts as your guide to the night sky and Starry Night. SkyGuide provides you with an introduction to using Starry Night, tours of the night sky, tips on learning the night sky, a dictionary of astronomy, links to up-to-the-minute astronomy and space news, and much more. SkyGuide contains movies, images and hundreds of html pages.
SkyCalendar
Starry Night now provides the ability to import, view and even create your own calendars (using the standard vCalendar format – you can use your iCals) Interesting events, your observing logs, star parties or even an observing club calendar can all be viewed and maintained through the Starry Night calendar pane. Check out the date of the next New Moon and plan your observing schedule around it.
Ephemeris Generator
Now generate printable ephemeris tables for any object in Starry Night.
Advanced find feature
More options in the find panel allow customizable object searching.
Variable Brightness Options (fading)
Now control the brightness of almost every object, indicator line and image in the Starry Night sky with brightness sliders. Toggling items on and off now.
Satellite Positions
Starry Night now produces more accurate satellite position predictions using the SGP4 model.
Photorealistic Landscapes
Now includes16 Earth horizons in all! Grass, Lake, Stonehenge, West Mesa, Cabezon Peak, Oppenheimer Mountai, White Sands, Mountain Lake, Canyon DeChelly, Central Park, Charles River, Dusy Basin lake, Goblin Valley. Telegraph Float, Very Large Array and Vineyard.
New planet and planetary moon landscapes: Pluto, Venus, Phobos and Deimos, Io, Europa, Callisto, Ganymede, Tethys (moon of Saturn), Titania (moon of Uranus) and a new generic rocky moon panorama for all other moons.
Cloud Panorama: New Hazy sky cloud panorama
Milky Way panoramas (12 in all)
Visible Spectrum, Atomic hydrogen, Radio 2.4-2.7 Ghz, Molecular Hydrogen, Infrared, Mid-Infrared, Near-Infrared,Radio 408 MHz, Visible-Medium Resolution, Visible - High Resolution, X-Ray and Gamma Ray.
Telescope Support
Updated Macintosh and Windows Telescope control: Starry Night now supports more telescopes than ever. See ASCOM web site for Windows support, on the Mac, scopes supported now include:
Meade LX200
Meade LX200 GPS
LX200 Compatible Scope
Meade ETX Autostar
Autostar V2.2 or later ((ETX, LX90, LXD55)
Celestron NexStar 60, 80, 114 GT
Celestron NexStar 5 or 8
Celestron NexStar 8 GPS
Celestron NexStar 11 GPS
Orion SkyQuest IntelliScope
And much more…
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
I downloaded the 5.8 update but it still says version 5.0.5 or 5.7?
When you run the updater application, it must be in the SAME folder as the application itself. Move the updater into the "Starry Night " folder on your hard disk and run it again.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
New features and fixes in version 5.8
New features in version 5.8.2
It is time for another free Starry Night update with the usual mix of new features and fixes. We’ve been listening – hope you enjoy the improvements.
Note: For our Mac users, we’re happy to note the 5.8 update is a universal binary, so that Starry Night runs on both PowerPCs and Intel Macs.
Location Markers [All]
Location markers can now be assigned to any predefined location on Earth or any other rocky planet or moon where have surface data is available.
Adding a Location Marker
Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac) on the planets surface and select Mark “Location Name” On Surface from the contextual menu. Repeat to add additional location markers.
To unmark a location, Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac) on the location marker and select Un-Mark “Location Name”.
Searching Location Markers
Starry Night allows you to quickly find and label single or multiple locations. Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac) on the object of interest and select Show Info. This will open the Info Pane. Then expand the Location Markers layer.
By default, Show All Locations is selected. To add a location marker, check the selection box to the left of a locations name. You can mark all locations by clicking on the Mark All Shown button. Press the Unmark All button to remove all location markers.
To search for a specific location, click the Show radio button. To search for a specific location name, select Location Name from the dropdown menu and type in the name of the location in the adjacent text box.
To display a complete list by location type or feature, select Type from the drop menu and then narrow down your choice on the adjacent dropdown menu.
Saving Location Markers
Location markers you selected will not appear the next time you start Starry Night. Location markers can only be saved by creating a Starry Night File (SNF). Select File-Save or Favourites-Add Favourite to save your location markers.
Select Marked Locations from the Favourites menu to see a few pre-made SNF files showcasing this new feature.
3D object models can now display textured surfaces [All]
3D objects in Starry Night support textured surfaces. Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac) on the object of interest and select Edit Surface Image/Model. Then click on the Surface/Model tab. Alternatively, you can create a new object and add a model via the Orbital Editor feature.
Applescripting added (Mac only) [All]
Starry Night is now Applescript-able! We have added the ability to AppleScript a number of functions in Starry Night, including the ability to simply run a list of Starry Night files in sequence.
Click here to download a zip file with sample Applescripts. Don’t forget to submit any Applescripts you create and share them with other users.
You can run the sample scripts by double-clicking on them. For now, we have supplied you the scripts as text, so it will open the OS X Script Editor. All you should have to do is click Run and it should compile and run the script.
If the script does not work for you, it may be trying to reference the wrong version of Starry Night on your machine. If this is the case, simply open the script in the script editor and replace the tell application \'starry night\' with tell application \'.
Horizon panoramas can now be associated with individual planet locations [All]
This means that when you select New York from the location list, you will be greeted by a photorealistic landscape of Central Park. Where possible, our panoramas have been associated with their respective locations.
Associating a panorama to a location
Select Viewing Location from the Options menu. Select on the location you wish to associate from the list. Then click on the Select Panorama… button.
In the window that opens, select the thumbnail of the panorama you want to associate and click Select.
To select the default panorama that appears whenever your current location does not have an associated panorama, open the Options Pane, expand the Local View layer and click on Local Horizon to bring up the Horizon options window. From here, you can select your default horizon and cloud panorama.
Stars now show a spectral class [All]
Bug Fixes 5.7.x to 5.8.2
Asteroids positions tuned and now calculate more precisely. Graph presets now working correctly. Options Presets now save to user Prefs folder. Fixes wrong save location on Mac. Double-Click to open files now works on first run. Calendars can now be renamed properly after adding events and quitting/restarting the app. Undo now works for zoom and magnify. Strange characters no longer show in location names. ESC key now stops a pan. Tree shadows now appear in Custom horizon option
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
Starry Night 5.8 Update - Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do I know which version of Starry Night I have?
You can determine your current version number by choosing “About Starry Night” from the Help menu (Windows) or the Starry Night menu (Macintosh). The version number will be shown on the bottom left corner of the window that opens.
2. How do I get the 5.8 update?
I have Enthusiast, Pro, or Pro Plus version 5.7, 5.0.5, 5.0.2, or 5.0.1.
Great news! The 5.8 update is FREE – if you already have Starry Night version 5. Simply click Check for Starry Night Updates located in your Starry Night application folder to download the new features and fixes. Starry Night cannot be open while the updater program is running. See the screenshots below for the location of the updater.
Windows users should click on Start>All Programs>Starry Night (Enthusiast, Pro or Pro Plus) 5>Check for Starry Night (Enthusiast, Pro or Pro Plus) 5 Updates.
Macintosh users should click on Macintosh HD>Applications>Starry Night (Enthusiast, Pro or Pro Plus) 5>(Enthusiast, Pro or Pro Plus) 5 Updater.
When the update has completed, open your version of Starry Night and you will have version 5.8.
Note: This is an update within your version of the software. For example, if you had Enthusiast 5.0.1, you will now have Enthusiast 5.8.
To move from Enthusiast to Pro or Pro Plus, you’ll need to buy the upgrade pack.
I have Enthusiast or Pro version 5.0.0.
Starry Night releases regular updates to enrich your software experience. In the past, receiving these updates involved manually downloading a service patch, which then needed to be unzipped before you could run the installer application.
To serve you better, we have implemented a new automated update mechanism that will eliminate the need to manually download service patches, which can be time consuming and error prone. To experience the benefits of this new automatic software update feature, please download and install the Update Application Installer. The Update Application Installer will add the automated download feature to your current version of Starry Night.
After installing, you can check for available updates to Starry Night by simply running the “Check for Starry Night Updates” Application at any time. It will let you know if an update is available. If there is an update, it will automatically download the necessary files and install them for you.
PLEASE NOTE:
You are NOT DOWNLOADING A PATCH. You are downloading a helper application that will, when run, check for updates for you. It will work for all future updates as well.
To update Starry Night, you must run the updater application. (See instructions during the install on how to run the updater application.)
This updater application is for version 5.0.0 users only, if you have already downloaded and installed the automatic updater, please run “Check for Starry Night Updates” to get program updates.
Please download and install the appropriate updater application for your platform.
Once you have this program downloaded, you will have version 5.0.1 of the software. Please follow the directions above to move to version 5.8.
If you have Starry Night Pro Plus version 5.0.2, you do not need to download the Update Application Installer. Starry Night Pro Plus 5.0.2 shipped with the Update Application.
I have another version (lower than 5.0.0 or not Enthusiast, Pro, or Pro Plus).
If you do not have version 5.0.0 of Enthusiast, Pro, or Pro Plus, you must purchase an upgrade to version 5.0 of Enthusiast, Pro or Pro Plus. To find and purchase the upgrade appropriate for you, please use the Upgrade Wizard.
You must have Enthusiast, Pro or Pro Plus version 5 in order to receive the new features and data available in the 5.8 update.
3. How do I find the new features of Starry Night 5.8?
Can I download the 5.8 update as a single standalone file?
Yes, you can download the 5.8 update as a standalone updater file. This will allow you to save the update to a CD for example, and then install it later.
The updater will update Starry Night 5.x to version 5.8. Standalone updaters are only available for the products below. Size ranges from 20 MB to 32 MB in size.
1. Space Missions (Probe Paths) [Enthusiast, Pro, Pro Plus, Middle School and High School]
Follow the actual path of a space probe’s orbit through the solar system in Starry Night. The space probe’s past, current and future paths can be drawn onscreen.
Explore interplanetary space missions and relive some of the spectacular views seen by the following space probes:
Voyager 1 and 2 Pioneer 10 and 11 Galileo Cassini and Huygens Mars Express
SkyGuide Space Mission Tour
The best way to explore space missions is by taking a guided tour in SkyGuide. Open the SkyGuide Pane and click on either the “Guided Tours” or “Enter SkyGuide” link depending on which version of Starry Night you own. Then click on the “Space Missions” link to start the tour.
Finding Space Missions
Space probes are listed in the Find Pane under Space Missions. The info (i) button listed beside each space probe provides you with a brief overview of the probe’s mission.
Check the box to the left of an object’s name to label it. Check the box to the right of an object’s name to turn on its orbital path line.
Space Mission Options
To modify the appearance of a space probe’s path, click on the Options Pane and expand the Solar System layer. Then place your mouse cursor over the words “Space Missions” – the Space Missions Options button will come up - click on it.
Clicking the Space Missions Options button will bring up the Space Missions dialog box. From here you have several options:
Path Colour: Allows you to select the color of the probe’s orbit. Draw full path: Draws the past, current and future path of the object’s orbit. If left unchecked, only the past and current path is drawn. Dim future path: Dims the future path of the object’s orbit.
Note: Orbital paths are also depth queued, meaning that the further away a line segment is away from your “eye” the dimmer it will appear.
2. 3-D Object Models [Enthusiast, Pro, Pro Plus, Middle School and High School]
Starry Night now supports 3DS models, allowing for the display of irregularly shaped 3-dimensional objects such as spacecraft or small planetary moons and asteroids.
How are 3DS Models used in Starry Night?
Objects in Starry Night that have a 3DS model associated with them will draw using the model instead of the usual 2D image. You can associate a 3DS model you have downloaded yourself with almost any Solar System object (e.g. satellites, space probes, asteroids etc.)
Note: 3DS models in Starry Night 5.7 currently do not support texturing.
The following models are included in Starry Night:
Spacecraft
Pioneer 10 and 11 Cassini Huygens probe Galileo
Asteroids
Annefrank Braille Bacchus
How do I view the sample 3D models?
Open the Find Pane and expand the Space Missions layer. All the space probes available in Starry Night will be listed. Click on the contextual menu button to the left of Galileo for example and select Set Time to Launch Date. Then click on the contextual menu button again, but this time select Go There. Use the elevation buttons to get closer to the probe. Hold down the Shift key to rotate around the probe.
Where can I download additional 3DS models?
3DS models can be downloaded from several websites. A good place to start is:
Interesting models to check out range from the tiny moons of Mars to sci-fi models from your favorite movies and TV series!
Adding a 3DS Model via the Orbit Editor
Additional 3DS models can be added via the Orbit Editor feature in Starry Night – after you have downloaded the 3DS models. Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac) on the object you want to add your 3DS model to and select either Edit Surface Image/Model or Edit Orbital Elements from its contextual menu.
In the dialog box that opens, click on the Surface/Model tab and then on the Open Model button to add your 3DS model.
3. Advanced Telescope Control Panel [Pro, Pro Plus and High School]
Allows more precise control of robotic telescopes with \'nudge\' control and telescope slew limits.
4. Google Maps Integration (Internet connection required) [Enthusiast, Pro, Pro Plus, Middle School and High School]
Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac) on any location on Earth while hovering and select Google Map(Surface ...) from the contextual menu to open a Google Map for that precise location.
A web page will then open, showing you a map for the coordinates you selected.
5. Zip/Postal code look-up [Enthusiast, Pro, Pro Plus, Middle School and High School]
Find the latitude and longitude of your location by entering your zip code (US) or postal code (Canada). Open the Viewing Location window by selecting Viewing Location from the Options menu. Then click on the Zip/Postal Code tab.
6. Searchable Locations [Enthusiast, Pro, Pro Plus, Middle School and High School]
Locations are now searchable by country, province/state, and location type (e.g. observatory). Open the Viewing Location window by selecting Viewing Location from the Options menu. Then click on the List tab.
7. Planner [Pro, Pro Plus and High School]
Auto populate
Automatically fills the planner list with interesting, observable objects that can be viewed that night. Click on the Planner tab to access this feature.
Improved Planner Filters
Now you can filter objects using minimum altitude and visibility during observing window. In the Planner Pane, click on the Edit Plan button to edit or create a new observing list.
8. Clear Sky Clock (Internet connection required) [Enthusiast, Pro, Pro Plus, Middle School and High School]
Check out your local astronomical weather forecast when planning your observing session. Click on the Check Observing Conditions button in the Planner window, or open the Status Pane, expand the General layer and click on the Clear Sky Clock Online button to view astronomical weather forecasts for your area.
9. Computer Controlled Focuser Support (Windows only) [Pro, Pro Plus and High School]
Control your robotic telescope focuser (if supported) through the Telescope Pane in Starry Night.
Focuser support for:
AstroOptik telescopes Astrophysics GTO mount Finger Lakes focusers Gemini equipped mount JMI Smart Focus Meade LX200 and Autostar Optec TCF-S PCFocus
10. Nebula Outlines [Pro Plus]
Outlines and positional data for 1400 dark, emission, planetary and reflection nebulae have been added.
Open the Options Pane and expand the Deep Space layer. Then expand the Nebula sub-layer for a list of all available nebula types. Check the box to the left of “Nebula” to turn on the outlines.
11. Field-of-View-Indicators (FOV) [Pro, Pro Plus and High School]
Support for DSLR (digital) cameras
Digital cameras can now be added to Starry Night. A list of popular cameras has been added to the Equipment List database.
To access the Equipment List, select Equipment List from the Edit menu. In the window that opens, select “DSLRs” from the upper left drop down menu. Click on the Add button to select a DSLR camera from the equipment database or click the New button to add a new camera.
FOV Position Angle
FOV’s can now be rotated directly onscreen. Click-hold and drag the rotation (+) icon above “Position Angle”.
Other Features
Default Equipment Database [Pro, Pro Plus and High School]
For CCDs, telescopes, binoculars, and eyepieces added. Choose FOV indicators from a database of over 200 Orion, Meade, Celestron and Vixen scopes, binoculars, and SBIG, Apogee, FLI and Starlight Express CCD chips.
Improved Ephemeris Generator [Pro, Pro Plus and High School]
Now allows minimum altitude to be set.
Star Cluster Catalogs [Pro Plus]
With positional data for 1700 globular and open clusters.
Improved Toolbar [Enthusiast, Pro, Pro Plus, Middle School and High School]
Now shows Zenith button.
Improved Digital Setting Circles Support [Pro, Pro Plus and High School]
For non-motorized telescopes such as: Orion SkyQuest IntelliScope. Coming soon: NGCMAX, Lumicon Sky Vector, Discovery Digital Star Finder, Orion SkyWizard III, and Celestron Advanced Astromaster.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
Starry Night Deutsch 5.8 Update
Note: This update is ONLY for the German language version of Starry Night 5. English version updates can be downloaded from here.
Für die deutschsprachigen Benutzer von Starry Night 5 steht jetzt ein Update auf unserer Website zum Download zur Verfügung.
Das Update-Programm aktualisiert Starry Night 5.x auf die Version 5.8. Eigenständige Update-Programme stehen nur für die unten aufgeführten Produkte bereit. Die Größe der Dateien liegt zwischen 20 MB und 40 MB.
Hinweis: Dieses Update gilt NUR für die deutschsprachige Version von Starry Night 5. Updates für die englischsprachige Version könnenhier heruntergeladen werden.
Please see the table at the end of this article to find out which features are available for your edition of Starry Night!
NEW FEATURES
Event Finder
Appulse event searching alerts you when the Moon or the Pleiades is near bright planets.
Apollo Space Missions
Support for the trajectories of the Apollo spacecraft.
Other
Smooth window fading (Win XP and Vista) Transparent floating windows (Vista only)
NEW DATA
10 New Earth Horizon Panoramas
Feel what it's like to observe from a mountain top, the shores of the Dead Sea or the southern skies of the Winter Star Party. Version 6.2 adds additional photorealistic landscapes.
Tip: To view in Starry Night, choose Options->Other Options->Local Horizon from the main menu that runs across the top of the screen. In the dialog that opens, click on the Default button in the Horizons section.
Pond
Red Mountain
Canebrake
Winter Star Party
Dead Sea, Israel
Judean Desert. Israel
Metzada, Israel
Ubeydia, Israel
National Observatory, Bulgaria
Forest Top, Bulgaria
Apollo Space Missions
Utilize the new space probe visualization capabilities in Starry Night version 6.2 to explore the Apollo Lunar Program. Visualize the spacecraft, trajectories and landing sites as you follow the crews of Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
Tip: To view in Starry Night, open the Favourites pane and navigate to Space Missions > Apollo.
Apollo Saturn V Third Stage
Apollo 13 Damaged CSM
Apollo 11 Lunar Lander
Paleogeographic Maps of the Earth
Travel in time to Earth’s distant past, present and future and view how the Earth has changed over millions of years.
Set of 4 maps show how the Earth looked 200 million years ago before the continents were separated, 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid and 100 million years in the future.
Late Cretaceous – 65 million years ago
Tip: To view in Starry Night, right click on the Earth while hovering above it and select Surface Image/Model from the contextual menu that appears. In the dialog that opens, use the dropdown menu to select the various Paleo maps.
Shaded Moon Map
High – resolution shaded Moon surface map by Ralph Aeschliman provides the most realistic depiction of our closest neighbor.
Tip: To view in Starry Night, right click on the Moon and select Surface Image/Model from the contextual menu that appears. In the dialog that opens, use the dropdown menu above the Add Image button and select “Alternate”.
3D Asteroid Models
View over 65 new asteroid models in version 6.2. All models have been accurately generated from available research data.
Tip: To view in Starry Night, open the Find pane and type in the name of the asteroid in the search box. (see asteroid list below)
Follow the Dawn Spacecraft as it begins its trek to the asteroid belt on an unprecedented mission to explore the two largest asteroids in the solar system - Ceres and Vesta.
Tip: To view the Dawn Spacecraft in Starry Night, click the Find pane and type Dawn; or, open the Favourites pane and look in the Space Missions menu.
Constellation Descriptions
Updated mythological descriptions for all 88 classical constellations
Other
Equipment database updated with more accessories. Extrasolar planets database updated. Meteor Showers database updated.
Which new features are available for my edition of Starry Night?
Feature
CSAP
Enthusiast
Pro
Pro Plus
Appulse Event Searching
X
X
X
Smooth Window Fading (Windows XP and Vista)
X
X
X
X
Transparent Floating Windows (Windows Vista)
X
X
X
X
Apollo Space Missions (Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12, 13)
X
X
65 Asteroid Models
X
X
X
Earth Horizon Panoramas
2
4
6
10
Shaded Moon Map
X
X
Dawn Space Mission
X
X
X
Palaeogeographic Earth Maps (200 million BC, 56 million BC, present day, and 100 million AD)
X
Equipment Database (30 new accessories)
X
X
Meteor Shower Database Update
X
X
X
X
Extrasolar Planets Update
X
X
X
X
88 Constellation Descriptions
X
X
X
X
Brenda Shaw
Starry Night 6.0.6 worked on my computer, but 6.2.0 does not
Some users have reported that after updating to Starry Night 6.2.0, the program crashes on startup with an error message saying that OpenGL failed to initialize, even though they never had problems with OpenGL when using 6.0.6. This problem seems to be occurring with older ATI Radeon Mobility graphics cards on computers running Windows XP.
This is a bug and will be repaired shortly in a patch. To continue using Starry Night until that patch is released, uninstall and reinstall Starry Night from your discs, and download and install the 6.0.6 patch for your edition.
If you are experiencing this problem on a Windows XP computer, please confirm that you are using a Radeon Mobility graphics card. Right-click on your desktop background and choose Properties, then click the Settings tab. Below the picture of the two numbered rectangles representing monitors, there should be a line of text on a dropdown menu that describes your graphics hardware.
Updates for Starry Night Complete Space & Astronomy Pack, Pro, Pro Plus, Astrophoto Suite, and educational software are here!
Updates for Starry Night Digital Download will be available shortly.
New Features*
Apollo Space Missions – new models, trajectories and SkyGuide tours. (Available in Pro, Pro Plus, Astrophoto Suite and High School.)
Bug Fixes
Added moons Nix and Hydra to Pluto.
Fixed incompatibilities with QuickTime 7.4.1.
Fixed incompatibilities with on-board Intel Graphics chips on Vista.
Printing on windows fixed. Labels correct size, legend now prints on 1-pane printing.
Surface Feature Outlines / Location Markers user interface now correctly updates when new files are opened.
Google Maps links from right-click menu fixed.
Added ability to not apply nighttime shading to horizon panoramas.
Surface Feature Outlines now correctly save and read-in from files.
Problem with certain files saved with a locked selection not setting correct FOV, now fixed.
Export as QuickTime VR no longer crashes on OS-X.
Fixed crash with space missions saved in file but not loaded on startup.
*Some features might not be available in your version 6 product.
Brenda Shaw
Can I download the 6.2.1 update as a standalone file?
Yes, you can download the 6.2.1 update as a standalone updater file. This will allow you to save the update to a CD for example, and then install it later. If you currently have a later version of Starry Night and need to revert to 6.2.1, you can do so by uninstalling Starry Night from your computer, reinstalling from discs, and then installing the appropriate 6.2.1 updater from below.
The updater will update Starry Night 6.x to version 6.2.1. Standalone updaters are only available for the products below.
Note: Windows XP users, you will need Java VM installed on your computer in order for the update to install. If you receive the following error message - "Installer User Interface Mode Not Supported"- please download the Windows installer that includes the Java VM.
On 19 July 2009 a new impact scar was discovered near Jupiter's south pole. If you're interested in observing or photographing the spot yourself, the file attached here will mark its location on Jupiter so that you can predict observing times for your location.
Save the Jupiter-E.txt file into your Sky Data / Locations folder.
Mac OS: Applications/Starry Night -> right-click the application and choose Show Package Contents -> Contents/Resources/Sky Data/Locations
Open Starry Night, locate Jupiter and right-click on it, and choose Markers & Outlines. Check the box for July 2009 Impact Scar. A marker will appear on Jupiter to show you the location.
For more information and to view the discovery images, please visit http://jupiter.samba.org .
Brenda Shaw
Starry Night 6.3.3 Enhancements and Fixes
Starry Night 6.3.3 updates are now available for Pro Plus, Astrophoto Suite, Pro, Enthusiast, and Complete Space & Astronomy Pack. Click here to download your updater. Please note that Java is not required to run this update on either Windows or Mac operating systems.
Enhancements below apply to all Starry Night titles unless otherwise specified.
You can also read this article on how to use some of Starry Night's new features.
Enhancements
New minor planets and their moons have been added and updated.
Distance Spheres can now be added to any solar system body with any radius and color. (All programs except C.S.A.P.)
Shadow Cones can be displayed to show the shadows of orbiting bodies.
New update technology built directly into Starry Night. Will check for updates automatically if registered.
Animated trips between planets now use more visually appealing planet avoidance.
Tully galaxy rendering now implemented as particle systems.
Tully database improved to allow for more galaxy types.
Saturn's rings and ring shadows now draw even more precisely, and look much better.
Universal Time can now be displayed and edited in the toolbar. (Pro, Pro Plus, Astrophoto Suite only.)
The precessional path of the celestial poles can now be displayed.
The circumpolar region, based on your latitude, can now be displayed.
The value of DeltaT has been improved and can now be overridden by the user. (Pro, Pro Plus, Astrophoto Suite only.)
All planets now draw with softer edges.
Updated LiveSky links and images.
Some lines now draw thicker on high-DPI displays to maintain visibility.
Added more features that can help Customer Support track down issues.
Spaceship responsiveness dramatically improved.
Various space mission data sets have been broken into smaller, logical segments to improve rendering speed.
Added 5 new horizon panoramas.
Improved Find feature for multiple objects of same name.
Bug Fixes
Exported data of the sky view now contains a header row.
Galaxy types in several databases have been fixed.
Horizon drawing improved when looking at the nadir.
Spaceship speed controls now work when Starry Night time is stopped.
Telescope name now indicated in Windows 3-pane print settings dialog.
SkyCal. Adding event times between 12am and 1am now save properly.
Pluto now correctly classified as a Dwarf Planet in the orbit editor.
Satellite eccentricities now correctly imported from source file.
Moons can now be added to dwarf planets.
Adding/editing planet surface images or 3DS model assignments now works.
User-specified images are now correctly rendered on moons.
One-pane printing FOV fixed.
Print legend now shows correct size on all Windows machines.
Cardinal points can now be controlled independently of horizon using horizon layer labels.
Increased delay in Find search box autosearch.
Observing list filters fixed.
Comets are now correctly indicated on printed output.
Observing lists can now display the objects constellation.
Coordinates now export in the format selected in the preferences.
Peak times for Meteor Showers are now listed.
Ambient sound has been restored.
Brenda Shaw
"An error occurred while extracting files. Please contact support."
This error can occur when applying the 6.3.3 update patch to Starry Night on a Mac computer running OS 10.6.x. Snow Leopard. It is accompanied by a long list of files that it claims did not install. This error message is itself a bug, and the files did install correctly despite the error message. If you check the version number in the program it will have successfully updated to version 6.3.3.
Brenda Shaw
Bug Fixes in 6.3.9 Update
6.3.6 to 6.3.9 Fixed Bugs
Updates:
Mac Updater download no longer incorrecty reads from system cache in case of re-download.
Windows Updater download now much faster.
CPU Usage:
Application correctly respects user defined maximum frame rate.
Application correctly throttles down frame rate when not focused/maximized.
Several fixes and enhancements to maintain respectable CPU usage.
Files:
Opens Starry Night Files at correct default FOV if none defined.
Printing:
Correctly prints legend in multi-pane printout.
Printing: Fixed crash under certain circumstances when printing 180 degrees.
Plugins:
Fixed incompatibility with setting FOV via a plugin.
Brenda Shaw
Viewing Location
Setting or changing your home location or your viewing location, to places on and off the earth. Includes editing the horizon for your home location
How do I enter my home coordinates? It doesn't seem to work.
There are several way to enter your coordinates into Starry Night. The two most popular are discussed below.
1. (Degrees:Minutes:Seconds)
xxd xxm xxs (N, S, E, W)
d represents degrees m represents minutes s represents seconds
When you enter your coordinates in the Set Home Location window, Starry Night will always change your coordinates to the following format:
xx° xx.xxx'
Don't be alarmed. Although your coordinates are in a different format, they are identical to the ones you entered. Only the format as changed.
As a double check, ensure the "red x" is over your approximate location in the world map.
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How do I go to a star or Galaxy?
Right-click (Ctrl-click on the Mac) on the star you wish to go to. Choose Go There from the menu which appears. This will take you to the star or galaxy, from which you can look back at the Sun.
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How do I go to Mars or another planet?
Open the Find pane to see a list of planets. Double-click on the name of the planet you wish to visit, to centre on this planet. Then right-click (Ctrl-click on the Mac) on the planet and choose Go There from the planet’s contextual menu.
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How do I remove the feet or spacesuit in Starry Night?
Select View-Feet, to toggle them on or off. You will no longer see the feet when looking down from the surface of a planet with the horizon turned off or the spacesuit when above a planet and looking down.
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I have tried changing my home location, but everytime I restart the program, it reverts to the old location. How do I change my home location?
You have to change your home location by selecting Set Home Location from the File menu (Windows) or the Starry Night menu (Macintosh) and changing your location from this window. Do not change your information by clicking on "Viewing Location" in the Options menu. This just changes your current viewing location, not your permanent home location.
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My city is not in the list of cities in Starry Night’s location window, and I don’t know my latitude and longitude. Where can I find this information?
Just click the Lookup Lat/Long On Internet button in the Latitude/Longitude tab of the Viewing Location dialog box to visit a website with information on finding your latitude and longitude.
See “How do I find my time zone?” on your User's Guide if you do not know your time zone.
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How do I open Starry Night so that it is facing in a direction other than south?
In Starry Night Pro and higher:
Select File-Preferences and choose "General" from the dropbox on the upper left corner of the Preferences window. Move the "Default Viewing Direction" dial to the cardinal direction you want Starry Night to face at startup.
In Starry Night Enthusiast/Digital Download:
You can change the startup viewing direction by editing the text file \"Prefs.txt\" which is in the following folder on your hard drive: "C:\\Documents and Settings\Local Settings/Application Data/Imaginova Canada/Prefs" (Windows) \"Library-Preferences-SPACE.com-Enthusiast (Macintosh) There is a field in this file called "DefaultAzimuth" which has a value of "180.00". Change this value to \"0\" if you want Starry Night to open facing north, "270.00" to face west, or "90.00" to face east.
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Ordering and Upgrading
Questions and Answers regarding ordering and upgrading Starry Night Products
I have lost or can't find my registration number.
(Your registration number is needed if you intend to purchase an upgrade)
If you own Starry Night, your registration number was emailed to you at the time of purchase. If you do not have your original email or did not register your product, please select Registration from the Help menu in Starry Night. Click the Get Registration Number button to obtain your information.
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Where do I find information on purchasing an Upgrade?
If an upgrade option for your product and version is not listed, you must purchase the full boxed product.
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How do I find out if there is a retailer that carries your products near me?
For a list of retailers near you, please click here. If your local Astronomy or Hobby shop does not carry Starry Night products, you can ask them to contact Sales.
This article contains instructions on how to purchase, download, and register your Starry Night College download. Read on or scroll down to the needed subject.
2. Click one of the round buttons to choose whether you want the trial or unlimited version. The trial program is $24.95 and will last for one year. The unlimited program costs $49.95 and will not expire.
3. Enter your four-digit referral code. This code will have been given to you by your instructor and is required for you to get this student edition.
4. Enter your name so that your username for the program can be generated.
5. Click the button that says ADD TO CART. You will then be taken to the shopping cart page. Click the PROCEED TO CHECKOUT button when you are ready to make your purchase.
6. Checkout Method: You will have a choice of whether you want to login as a customer (or register if you don't have an account), or simply make your purchase as a guest.
7. Billing Information: Enter your name, address, and telephone number as they appear on your credit card statement. Please be sure to enter your email address carefully, as the email with your links to download the program will be delivered to that address.
8. Payment Information: At this time only credit cards are accepted. You may use Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express. Enter your credit card number, expiration date, and card verification number. Click CONTINUE when you have completed this step.
9. Order Review: Check to make sure all information is correct, and click PLACE ORDER to make the payment.
How do I receive my purchase?
After your order has been placed, you will receive two emails. One will contain a confirmation of your order, and links to download the software. The other will contain your product registration.
If you completed the order but one or both of these emails are missing, do not go through the purchase process again, as this will cause you to be charged twice. These emails should be delivered within fifteen minutes or more often sooner. Check your email spam folder, as some filters discard order emails. If they're not in the spam folder, contact technical support by following the instructions at this link, or by calling 1 877 644 4875 x229 between 9 am and 5 pm Eastern time.
Once you have the order email, click the link corresponding to your operating system. Windows users will receive an .exe file, while Mac users will receive a .dmg file. After it has been saved to your computer, double-click and follow the installation instructions.
How do I register my software?
When you start the program for the first time, a box will appear with fields for you to enter your username and registration number. Copy and paste them from the email into these fields, to avoid typing errors (such as mistaking a number 1 for a letter l, for example). When you have entered them correctly you will see a green checkmark and you will be able to continue into the program. If you see a red stop sign or are unable to start the program, you have entered either your username or registration number incorrectly. Check to make sure you have copied them accurately. Remember that they are case-sensitive.
Still having problems?
Get in touch with Starry Night technical support by sending an email through our support site or by contacting starrynightedu on Yahoo! IM.
Brenda Shaw
Starry Night Pro and Pro Plus
Frequently asked questions and help files specific to Starry Night Pro and Pro Plus
There are no articles in this category.
Extra Databases
Additional databases which you can add to Starry Night
Can I use my old Starry Night Pro version 5 databases in Starry Night Pro 6?
Yes! Your old version 5 (and also version 4) databases will work in version 6. Simply place them in the "Sky Data" folder and they will appear in the "Other" layer of the Options pane.
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How do I make my own databases?
You will find a copy of the NGC-IC database attached to this answer. It contains step-by-step instructions on how to build databases, as well as a sample database text file we used to create the NGC-IC database in Starry Night Pro, which will show you the format you need to follow when building your own databases.
After you create your custom database text file select File>Build Data File from the Starry Night main menu.
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What additional databases can I add?
Meteor Showers Stephen Hutson's terrific databases of meteor shower radiants (updated for 2001). Both IMO and RASC datasets are included. (Macintosh or Windows)
GCVS (Variable Stars) The General Catalog of Variable Stars was submitted by Marion Schmitz and includes over 31,000 variable stars. (Macintosh or Windows)
Local Group Bill Arnett's compilation of galaxies in the Local Group. (Macintosh or Windows)
GCVS (Variable Stars) Extracted from the General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS) Vol. IV & V and Hipparcos Catalog of Periodic Variables & Unsolved Variables. Only stars brighter than 10th magnitude at maximum are included. Compiled by Ray Colley. (Macintosh or Windows)
AAVSO Variable Stars The 5641 variable stars in the AAVSO catalog, compiled by Mike Fikes. (Macintosh or Windows)
Planetary Nebulae Bill Arnett's planetary nebulae by Perek & Kohoutek. (Macintosh or Windows)
LX200 Alignment Stars The 33 stars used to align a Meade LX200 as compiled by Bill Arnett. (Macintosh or Windows)
SAC Doubles Bill Arnett's double stars from the Saguaro Astronomical Club. (Macintosh or Windows)
Supernova Remnants Leigh Palmer's Galactic Supernova Remnant catalog compiled by Dr. David Green of the University of Cambridge. (Macintosh or Windows)
Common Names Common names of Deep Sky objects compiled by Hartmut Frommert, revised by Bill Arnett. (Macintosh or Windows)
Extrasolar Planets Catalog of stellar bodies with planetary systems. Based on data from Alex Willman's Extrasolar planets. (Macintosh or Windows)
Extra-solar Planets Confirmed planets around main sequence stars, compiled by Ed Totman. (Macintosh or Windows)
Herschel 400 Compiled by Michael Desjarlais. (Macintosh or Windows)
UGC Galaxies Uppsala General Catalog of Galaxies, compiled by Bill Arnett. (Macintosh or Windows)
Celestron AAM Alignment Stars Markers for the 28 primary alignment stars for the Celestron Advanced AstroMaster, compiled by Greg Miller. (Macintosh or Windows)
Finest NGC objects A subset of the NGC catalog which only includes those objects in the RASC's List of the Finest NGC objects. Compiled by Richard Weatherston. (Macintosh or Windows)
Nexstar Alignment Stars The 40 alignment stars for the Celestron Nexstar 5/8, created by Brandon Beretta. (Macintosh or Windows)
Hubble Observations A Starry Night database showing the position of each HST image in the sky. The data shows which camera took the image and provides a link to the actual image on the internet along with links to more information. There are two different versions of the database. Use the smaller file if you have a limited amount of RAM (less than 32-48MB). The larger data file contains information about the intended target, the date and time the image was taken, the exposure length, etc. You can still get this data using the smaller file but you will have to link out to the internet to get it.
Nexstar 5/8 Catalog All 10384 numbered stars in the Nexstar 5/8 hand controller's database. Created by Alan Touchberry. (Macintosh or Windows)
Lumicon NGC-SkyVector Digital Setting Circles Stars from the SkyVector catalog (most are variable or multiple stars). Created by Alan Touchberry. (Macintosh or Windows)
Sky Commander Alignment Stars The 39 primary alignment stars and Pseudo North used to align the Sky Commander DSC. Compiled by Allan Keller. (Macintosh or Windows)
SkySensor 2000 Alignment Stars The 35 alignment stars and Polaris used to align the SkySensor 2000. Compiled by Bob Hillier. (Macintosh or Windows)
Caldwell Catalog Patrick Caldwell-Moore's list of 109 non-Messier deep-sky objects. Created by Charles Gagné. (Macintosh or Windows)
Quasars and Active Galaxies Catalog A catalog containing more than 18 000 quasars, BL Lac objects and active galaxies. Compiled by Ulf Teräs. Please check author's webpage for details. (Macintosh or Windows)
Globular Clusters Catalog A catalog of 147 globular clusters in the Milky Way. Compiled by Ulf Teräs. Please check author's webpage for details. (Macintosh or Windows)
Planetary Satellites Database A catalog containing all known moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Compiled by Mike Parkes. (Macintosh or Windows)
Covington Objects Database A database of 200 interesting stars and deep-sky objects from the book "Celestial Objects for Modern Telescopes". Compiled by Michael A. Covington. (Macintosh or Windows)
Urban Deep Sky Database The Astronomical League’s Urban Observing list comprised of 87 deep sky objects deemed suitable for urban locations affected by light pollution. Converted to Starry Night format by Pedro Braganca. (Macintosh or Windows)
Astonomical League's Double Stars Club The Astronomical League's list of 100 double stars for their Double Stars Club. Compiled by Mike Benson and formatted for Starry Night by Gene Nickel. (Macintosh or Windows)
These files are in compressed format. After you have uncompressed them, you will find both the compiled databases and the text files which they were built from. Move the files ending in ".ssd" to the "Starry Night <product name>/Sky Data" folder. Macintosh users will have to Ctrl-click on the Starry Night application and select Show Package Contents to see the Sky Data folder. The next time you run Starry Night, you should see additional options in the menus for these datasets.
The databases on this page are free to use but should not be redistributed without the author's permission. If you build a database that you would like to include on this page, please send us an email.
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Internet Database & Digitized Sky Survey
Starry Night\'s interactive Internet features
How do I add an image from the Digitized Sky Survey (or somewhere else) to Starry Night?
Image Editor
Starry Night Pro, Pro Plus, High School and Astrophoto Suite lets you add images of any area of the night sky. You can use your own images, or download them from the Digitized Sky Survey. The Image Editor allows you to resize and orient the image to integrate it seamlessly with your Starry Night view.
Adding Your Own Images
If you use a CCD camera for taking photos of the night sky, or if you have astronomy pictures you received from friends or downloaded from the World Wide Web, you can extend Starry Night Pro by adding the pictures using the Image Editor.
Download or acquire the image file you want to add to Starry Night.
Open the image in your favourite image-editing application and copy it to your clipboard.
In Starry Night, right-click (click and hold on a Macintosh) the object or area of the sky where you want to add your image.
Choose Add Image from the contextual popup menu.
The Image Editor window comes up. Click on the Details button. Name your image for future reference. Optionally, you can record a picture source, notes, the kind of object, its magnitude, and its distance.
Click Ok to go back to the main Image Editor window.
7. All near stars appear in green, making it easier to visually align your image with any stars that might be in it. 8. Align the image using the controls available in the Image Editor. There are controls for sizing, shifting, flipping, and rotating the image as needed. 9. When you are satisfied that your image is correctly aligned, click Save.
Adding Images from the Digitized Sky Survey
You can use Starry Night's Web link to the Digitized Sky Survey on to download and paste in images of galaxies, nebula, or any other object.
To add an image using the Digitized Sky Survey:
Select and right-click (click and hold on the Macintosh) a galaxy or NGC/IC object of which you would like to download a photograph.
Note: It's fun to browse around the sky looking for interesting objects. Turn on all Galaxies and NGC-IC objects and look for clumps of stars.
Choose Add Image from the contextual popup menu.
The Image Editor opens. Name your image for future reference. Optionally, you can record a picture source, notes, the kind of object, its magnitude, and its distance.
Starry Night will have automatically guessed at the size of the image you wish to download, based on the original object you selected. In most cases you should accept the default size, but you can enlarge, shrink or shift the image bounds as needed.
Both Digitized Sky Survey images and the Image Editor are oriented equatorially. Do not rotate the image boundaries before requesting the DSS image.
Request the DSS image by pressing "From DSS". The program begins downloading the DSS image for that area of the sky. This may take a few minutes, depending on the server load.
Align the image using the controls available in the Image Editor. There are controls for sizing, shifting, flipping, and rotating the image as needed.
When you are satisfied that your image is correctly aligned, click Save.
Replacing Messier Images:
You can also replace the image of a Messier object with one of your own images.
Right-click (click and hold on the Macintosh) the image of the Messier object you want to replace.
Choose Edit Image from the contextual popup menu.
The Image Editor opens.
Paste in your new image ("From File") and position it using the Image Editor's controls.
Click Save to permanently replace the Starry Night Pro Messier image with your own.
Note: Use caution when replacing Starry Night's Messier images. Once you replace an image, you cannot return to the original image without reinstalling Starry Night.
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Sometimes the "Digitized Sky Survey" option in the menu is greyed out. Why?
The Digitized Sky Survey option is only available when you have a field of view between about 1.5 arcminutes and 45 arcminutes.
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The Internet features in Starry Night only work the first time that I use them. After this, nothing happens. Why?
Starry Night opens a new Internet browser window the first time that you use one of Starry Night’s Internet features. You need to keep this window open, for as long as Starry Night is running. If you close it, the Internet features will not work properly the next time that you try to use them.
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When I choose "Online Info" for an object in Starry Night, it opens using Internet Explorer. How do I get it to use Netscape?
Starry Night uses your "default Internet browser" to access our Internet database. If you want to use Netscape, you must make it your default browser.
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Photorealistic Landscapes
Add photorealistic horizons of your own backyard and favourite observing sites
I change the horizon to another landscape but then when I start Starry Night again I still get the old one.
To make your landscape change permanent, please select Save Current Options as Default from the Options menu.
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How do I create my own photorealistic horizon?
Photorealistic Horizons
One of the exciting features of Starry Night is the ability to simulate your local landscape by adding 360º photos of your own backyard and favorite observing sites. By default Starry Night comes with several photorealistic horizons that you can use when viewing from the Earth. This section will help you learn the basics on how to add your own custom horizons! Not only can you make your own photorealistic horizons for Earth, but also for any planet and many moons in the solar system.
If you’d like to share your own photorealistic landscape with other Starry Night users, you can submit your final work to us (no .zip files please).
Note: Photorealistic horizons require an OpenGL capable graphics card. If you want to replace or edit one of our existing horizons, you need to remove both the "cache" folder and the related "dds" folder found under Sky Data/Horizon Panoramas.
Horizon Panoramas Folder
The photorealistic landscapes are stored in a folder named “Horizon Panoramas”. In Windows you can find this folder under Starry Night <product name>\Sky Data on your local hard drive. On a Mac, Ctrl-click on the Starry Night application and select "Show Package Contents" from its contextual menu. Open the Contents-Resources-Sky Data-Horizon Panoramas folder.
This folder contains a number of images and text files. Notice that each image has a corresponding text file. The image is the completed panorama image and the text file describes how this image will be inserted in Starry Night along with a number of options that will be described below (See Text file Considerations).
Your custom image with the occupying text file must be placed in the “Horizon Panoramas” folder in order for them to be loaded into Starry Night.
We will use the Earth_01Grass.psd and Earth_01Grass.txt files, located in the “Horizon Panoramas” folder, as examples in this help file.
Taking 360º Landscape Images
Instruction on how to take images to construct a 360º panorama image is beyond the scope of this help file. Briefly, you take a series of single overlapping images to get a complete coverage of the horizon around you. You them stitch these images together to form a 360º image. Some digital cameras have panoramic modes that guide you through the process, making them quite handy in taking images to construct panoramas.
Image Considerations
Your panorama image must have certain properties in order to work well in Starry Night.
Must be a 360º degree panoramic image
8:1 aspect ratio: no less than 2048x256 pixels; recommended is 4096x512 pixels
Image is in PSD (Photoshop) format
Image Processing Tips
The following tips for image processing make use of Photoshop, although other image editing programs can be used.
Step 1. Your raw images will look something like the ones below. The first step is to stitch them together to form a continuous panorama image whose ends match exactly. This is an important step and special care must be taken, otherwise seams will be visible in your final image. Several commercial packages are available to help you.
Step 2. The image below shows a stitched 360º panoramic image. This is the most challenging step in creating your own custom landscapes for use in Starry Night.
Step 3. After the image is stitched, use the eraser tool - or a skillful hand with the magic wand and delete key - and remove the sky from your image. The sky is not required because Starry Night will simulate it.
Step 4. The next important step is to add an Alpha channel. Select your 'solid' horizon and add an alpha channel. The black represents 'no transparency' (so that your foreground is opaque) and the white represents '100% transparency' (so that your horizon's sky is transparent and Starry Night can fill it in for you.) Consult your image editing software's manual on how to add an alpha channel to an image. Although optional, the Alpha channel allows you to only see the horizon in your final image.
Turning only the alpha channel on, results in the image below. Ensure that the white area represents the sky.
Step 5. When you save the image, save it in “PSD” format and ensure the Alpha Channels and Layers boxes are checked. The final image looks something like the image below.
Text File Considerations
The second component required to add your photorealistic landscape to Starry Night, is the accompanying text file. For this example, you can use the Earth_01Grass.txt files as a template. Make the appropriate modifications to this file and then save it with a different name.
When you open the Earth_01Grass.txt file, you will see numerous lines with the general format: <SN_VALUE name="XXXXX" value="XXXXX">. These lines allow you to change a number of properties for your photorealistic landscape. The most important lines are mentioned below. You only need change these to successfully add your image. You may leave all other lines and values as they are.
<SN_VALUE name="PanoName" value="Grass">
Change value="Grass" to a name that describes your image. For example value="MyHorizon".The name you choose will appear in the drop box in the Horizon Options window.
The name of the image you made and placed in the Horizon Panoramas folder. For example if you named your image "MyHorizon.psd", change it to value="MyHorizon.psd". Both the image and text file must be located in the Horizon Panoramas folder.
Think of ImageCentreDec as degrees Up and Down. A value of -11.0 means that the centre of your image lies 11 degrees below Starry Night's formal horizon line. (SN's formal horizon line lies at 0 degrees Altitude as you may expect.) Use this value to adjust your panorama until it looks right against the sky. (You can even set this precisely by recording the actual rise or set time of a certain star/planet over a given obstacle in your panorama -e.g. a mountain peak- and set the ImageCentreDec so that it appears the same in SN.)
Adjusts the brightness of your horizon. The panorama brightness will be scaled with this value, up to a maximum of 1.0 (100%). If you want your panorama to appear half as bright, use a PanoBrightness value of 0.5 (50%).
Used during liftoff. Defines the RGB values for the color drawn behind the horizon.
<SN_VALUE name="Preload" value="Yes">
Preloads the image when Starry Night Starts.
Tip: You can have multiple images preloading when the program starts. However, this will increase the time that it takes for Starry Night to load. Ideally you only want one image to have a preload value of ‘Yes’, the one you use most often.
In addition, when Starry Night loads, the horizon that is displayed by default is the one whose accompanying text file was read first in alphanumeric order from the Horizon Panoramas folder. For example, by default when you run the program the Earth_01Grass.txt file is the first file that gets read and the Earth_Grass.psd image (specified in the text file) is the one used for the horizon when the program starts. If you wanted your panorama image to load first, give it a preload value of ‘Yes’ and name the text file so that it is listed first in alphanumeric order, such as Earth_00MyHorizon.txt.
Dimming the Starry Night display for night time use (Mac only)
A trick for Mac users when using Starry Night in the field at night.
In Starry Night, switch to a flat horizon and turn White Sky mode on. You might also want Night Vision Dimming on from Starry Night's Brightness/Contrast Preferences panel.
Open the System Preferences and choose Universal Access. Pick Switch to White on Black. Everything onscreen will then be inverted.
Your display should then look like the image below.
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Do I need any extra hardware to control my telescope?
You need a cable that connects the serial port on your computer to the appropriate telescope or handbox port. Cables for the most popular telescopes can be ordered for both the Mac and PC from this website. If your computer does not have a serial port, you will also need to purchase an adapter which converts your USB port to a serial port. Most computer stores will sell these adapters, and you can also purchase one from a vendor such as keyspan.com.
How do I add an outline for my telescope or CCD to my screen and printouts?
Enter your telescope, eyepieces and accessories in the Equipment List (Edit-Edit Equipment List). From now on, your accessories name will appear in the FOV Indicators pane, and you can click on its checkbox to turn the outline on or off.
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I installed Telescope Support (ASCOM) but it still says no telescope plug-in is installed? (Windows)
It is possible the telescope plug-in file was not placed in the correct folder during installation. Do a search for "AscomScope.plug". When you locate the file, copy and paste it in the Starry Night Pro 5/Sky Data/Plug-ins folder.
Note: The newest ASCOM platform can be downloaded from:
When I choose "Connect" from the Telescope menu, I get an error message about the COM port.
This can mean one of four things:
You have not chosen the correct COM port. You can change the COM port by choosing "Configure Connection" from the Telescope Pane and pressing the "Properties" button.
Another application is commanding the serial port. The most common culprit is the Palm HotSync application.
The telescope cable is defective.
The computer's serial port is defective. We have received reports from several users that Dell laptop serial ports do not function properly, giving a voltage output far lower than other models. If this appears to be the problem, you can try connecting to the telescope using the computer's USB port. You will need to purchase an adapter which converts your computer's USB port to a serial port. Most computer stores will sell these adapters, and you can also purchase one from a vendor such as keyspan.com.
Please note: You must do your star alignment in the telescope before pressing the Connect button in the Telescope pane. Otherwise, Starry Night will not know where your telescope is pointing and will give you a "There doesn't appear to be anything connected to your COM port" error message.
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What telescopes can I control with Starry Night Pro?
There are different telescope controller plug-ins available for Windows and Macintosh. Please note that the ASCOM plug-in for Windows was not written by Imaginova, and you should contact the maker of the plug-in for more information. If you are interested in writing your own telescope controller plug-in for Starry Night Pro, a new Plug-in SDK for version 6.x will be available soon.
Windows
ASCOM Platform. On Windows computers, Starry Night Pro controls telescopes with the aid of the ASCOM telescope driver. It can be downloaded here. The download is a zipped file that includes a read-me file with complete instructions on installing the ASCOM Platform and using the plug-in. The ASCOM Platform installs the plug-in which allows users to control the following telescopes from within Starry Night:
Orion SkyQuest IntelliScope.
Orion Atlas and Sirius mounts (select Nexstar 5).
Meade LX-200 and Autostar-equipped robotic telescopes (such as the ETX 90/125 and LX200 GPS).
Celestron Ultima 2000, Nexstar 5, Nexstar 8, Nexstar 11 GPS, NexStar CPC and Nexstar 114 GT telescopes (will not work with other Nexstar models).
Generic LX-200 Type Scopes. The Generic LX-200 driver uses the absolute minimum of the LX-200 control protocol, and is thus compatible with a wide variety of amateur type telescopes and mounts that use so-called LX200 emulation. The following telescopes and mounts support the generic LX200 protocol (there may be others): Astro-Physics AP series, Astro-Electronic FS-2, Losmandy Gemini, Mel Bartels Controllers.
ACL Based Telescopes. This includes many types of research-grade telescopes controlled using Astronomy Command Language. Any telecope controlled by either of these packages is accessible via the ACL-based Telescope driver. This includes most Optical Guidance, DFM, Optomechanics Research, SciTech and Merlin research telescopes and mounts.
Vixen SkySensor 2000.
Astro-Physics 1200 GTO.
AstroOptik research telescopes.
Astrometric Instruments SkyGuide TCS.
Telescope Simulator (for testing)
*Digital Setting Circle computers that recognize the Meade LX200 generic protocol - such as the Argo Navis
Macintosh.
On the Macintosh, Starry Night Pro controls telescopes with its own telescope plug-in. Telescopes currently supported:
Meade LX200
Meade LX200 GPS
LX200 Compatible Scope
Meade ETX Autostar
Autostar V2.2 or later ((ETX)
Celestron NexStar 60, 80, 114 GT
Celestron NexStar 5 or 8
Celestron NexStar 8 GPS
Celestron NexStar 11 GPS
Celestron NexStar CPC
Orion SkyQuest IntelliScope
Orion Atlas and Sirius mounts (select Nexstar 5)
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I can't connect to my Orion Atlas or Sirius Mount using Starry Night.
If you are running Windows XP, please select the telescope type as Nexstar 5. You can do so by Opening the Telescope Pane in Starry Night and pressing the Configure button.
If you are running on a Mac, please select the telescope type as Nexstar 5. DO NOT select the telescope type as "Orion Atlas EQ-G" as there was an error in this driver in earlier versions.
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Can I use my Argo Navis with BlueStar?
Yes. You may use the Argo Navis with the Starry Night BlueStar Adapter.
It is very important that when you select the Orion Intelliscope cable (#7309) when ordering your BlueStar. Other cables will not work. Even though the unit uses the LX200 protocol to communicate with the computer - do not select the LX200 cable.
However, please note that although our 7309 cable has the right wiring, the connector end is not wide enough to fit snuggly into the Argo Navis serial socket. One has to carefully center plug into the serial socket.
At this time we don't have an Argo Navis specific cable, but the above will work. Alternatively, we have provided an Argo Navis Cable schematic in the attachments area below for those who want to make their own cable.
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Starry Night Deutsch 5.8 Update
Note: This update is ONLY for the German language version of Starry Night 5. English version updates can be downloaded from here.
Für die deutschsprachigen Benutzer von Starry Night 5 steht jetzt ein Update auf unserer Website zum Download zur Verfügung.
Das Update-Programm aktualisiert Starry Night 5.x auf die Version 5.8. Eigenständige Update-Programme stehen nur für die unten aufgeführten Produkte bereit. Die Größe der Dateien liegt zwischen 20 MB und 40 MB.
Hinweis: Dieses Update gilt NUR für die deutschsprachige Version von Starry Night 5. Updates für die englischsprachige Version könnenhier heruntergeladen werden.
This update is for anyone experiencing a problem slewing to M objects on OS X when using Starry Night Version 6.
Download the file and place under Sky Data/Plug-ins (Mac). To locate this folder, Ctrl-click on the Starry Night Application icon and select "Show Package Contents". Navigate to Contents-Resources-Sky Data-Plug-ins (Mac).
Version 1.5 is required to use a BlueStar device with a Windows Vista PC or Intel Mac. Please see below to download the correct version for your computer if your BlueStar came with version 1.0 on disc.
You will need to unzip the plugin and place .bundle package into Sky Data/Plug-ins (Mac). You have to replace the plugin already there.
If your version of Starry Night is higher than 6.3.9 then ServoCAT support is already included.
Marko Kudjerski
Starry Night College
Frequently asked questions and help files specific to Starry Night College
Getting Started with Starry Night College
Make sure that your operating system is up to date:
Mac OS: Click the Apple logo in the upper left corner of your screen and choose Software Updates.
Windows Vista: Click the Start button in the lower left of your screen, and choose All Programs -> Windows Update. Follow the prompts to install updates.
Windows XP: Click the Start button in the lower left of your screen and choose Control Panel -> Windows Update. Follow the prompts to install updates.
Update your graphics card drivers: A driver is a piece of software that controls hardware in your computer. Updating drivers means keeping your computer working correctly with other programs.
If you have a prebuilt Windows computer (e.g. a Dell, HP, Gateway, or other off-the-shelf model) you can download driver updates from the manufacturer's support site.
If you have a custom-built or home-built Windows computer, you will need to identify your graphics card and visit its manufacturer's website for drivers.
On Mac OS this is not an issue, as the Software Update utility described above will update hardware drivers as well as operating system components.
Update other supporting software: When you install Starry Night College, you will be prompted to install or update any other required software by downloading it from the internet. Starry Night College may not function properly without these.
Installing Starry Night College on a student account: If you are an administrator installing the software on school computers to be used by students signing in under their own accounts, the students will need read/write access to the following folders.
Windows: My Computer/Local Disk/Documents and Settings/<user account>/Local Settings/Application Data/Imaginova Canada/Prefs ANDProgram Files/Starry Night College
Mac: Home/Library/Preferences/Imaginova Canada AND Applications/Starry Night College
Registering Starry Night College:
If you are a teacher or professor, you will be asked to register the software the first time you start it up. Follow the instructions and you will receive a username, registration number, and referral code. Use the username and registration number to activate your own copy of the software, and send the referral code to your students so that they can access their download software.
If you are a student with a downloaded copy, you will receive a four-digit referral code from your professor. You will need this code to download your software. Upon starting the software for the first time you will be asked to register your copy. Click the button that says "Get registration number" and follow the prompts. Use the username and registration number that you receive to activate the software in the startup screen.
Always copy and paste your registration number into the program to activate it. The username and registration number are case-sensitive and must be entered exactly as shown. Copying and pasting will avoid typing errors that will result in a failure to activate.
Brenda Shaw
Downloading Starry Night College
This article contains instructions on how to purchase, download, and register your Starry Night College download. Read on or scroll down to the needed subject.
2. Click one of the round buttons to choose whether you want the trial or unlimited version. The trial program is $24.95 and will last for one year. The unlimited program costs $49.95 and will not expire.
3. Enter your four-digit referral code. This code will have been given to you by your instructor and is required for you to get this student edition.
4. Enter your name so that your username for the program can be generated.
5. Click the button that says ADD TO CART. You will then be taken to the shopping cart page. Click the PROCEED TO CHECKOUT button when you are ready to make your purchase.
6. Checkout Method: You will have a choice of whether you want to login as a customer (or register if you don't have an account), or simply make your purchase as a guest.
7. Billing Information: Enter your name, address, and telephone number as they appear on your credit card statement. Please be sure to enter your email address carefully, as the email with your links to download the program will be delivered to that address.
8. Payment Information: At this time only credit cards are accepted. You may use Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express. Enter your credit card number, expiration date, and card verification number. Click CONTINUE when you have completed this step.
9. Order Review: Check to make sure all information is correct, and click PLACE ORDER to make the payment.
How do I receive my purchase?
After your order has been placed, you will receive two emails. One will contain a confirmation of your order, and links to download the software. The other will contain your product registration.
If you completed the order but one or both of these emails are missing, do not go through the purchase process again, as this will cause you to be charged twice. These emails should be delivered within fifteen minutes or more often sooner. Check your email spam folder, as some filters discard order emails. If they're not in the spam folder, contact technical support by following the instructions at this link, or by calling 1 877 644 4875 x229 between 9 am and 5 pm Eastern time.
Once you have the order email, click the link corresponding to your operating system. Windows users will receive an .exe file, while Mac users will receive a .dmg file. After it has been saved to your computer, double-click and follow the installation instructions.
How do I register my software?
When you start the program for the first time, a box will appear with fields for you to enter your username and registration number. Copy and paste them from the email into these fields, to avoid typing errors (such as mistaking a number 1 for a letter l, for example). When you have entered them correctly you will see a green checkmark and you will be able to continue into the program. If you see a red stop sign or are unable to start the program, you have entered either your username or registration number incorrectly. Check to make sure you have copied them accurately. Remember that they are case-sensitive.
Still having problems?
Get in touch with Starry Night technical support by sending an email through our support site or by contacting starrynightedu on Yahoo! IM.
Brenda Shaw
Is your computer ready for Starry Night?
Starry Night 6 requires that certain prerequisite programs are installed on your computer. You can download the prerequisites from the external links below. These are all free downloads.
If you are using Windows:
1. Run your Windows Update utility. This can be found in the tray in the lower right corner of your screen, or in your Control Panel. This will ensure that Windows has all the latest patches and bug fixes.
3. Visit your computer manufacturer's Support or Downloads website and update your video card drivers. This will make sure that your graphics hardware is working at full capacity. If you have a home-built computer, visit the graphics card manufacturer's website to update the drivers.
4. If you are using Windows XP or Vista, install Microsoft's Visual C++ Redistributable Package. If you are using Windows 7 it was included with your operating system, so you already have it.
6. Visit our Software Updates page to see if there are any new patches and bug fixes for your Starry Night program.
If you are using a Mac:
All of your system software updates can be installed by clicking the apple logo in the upper left of your screen and choosing Software Update. Install everything it suggests.
If Starry Night prompts you for other prerequisites during installation, you can follow the instructions to install them, or uncheck the boxes so that those components do not install.
If you still encounter problems after installing these updates, please contact Starry Night software support. You can also contact us by Yahoo instant messenger under the username starrynightedu .
Brenda Shaw
Windows 7 and Starry Night College
Starry Night College 6 is fully compatible with Windows 7. If you have trouble installing or running Starry Night College on your Windows 7 computer, try the following steps.
A. Before Installing Starry Night College
Make sure your computer meets the minimum requirements
Requires Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
1GHz or higher processor
512 MB RAM
1 GB of hard disk space
64 MB OpenGL capable graphics card
Minimum recommended monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels
Make sure Windows 7 is up to date
Click the Start button in the lower left of your screen, and choose All Programs -> Windows Update. Follow the prompts to install updates.
You can also check for updates by clicking the Action Center icon in the taskbar and then selecting Check for Updates.
B. Installing Starry Night College
StarryNightCollege6.exe is not a valid Win32 application
When installing Starry Night for Windows, the installation may not complete and Windows may display the following message: "StarryNightCollege6.exe is not a valid Win32 application." Download Starry Night College again from the link found on your order confimation email and check that the size of the StarryNightCollege6.exe file you downloaded is about 551 MB.
If the problem persists, downloading Starry Night College using a different web browser may resolve this issue. If you do not have another web browser and use Internet Explorer, follow these steps to remove temporary Internet files which may be preventing the Starry Night College installer from downloading properly:
1) Open Internet Explorer. 2) Chose Tools > Delete Browsing History. 3) In the "Temporary Internet Files" section of the resulting window, click Delete files. 4) Click Yes. 5) Click Close. 6) Quit Internet Explorer and open it. 7) Download and install Starry Night College again. The download links are provided in your order email.
C. Running Starry Night College
Do not run in compatibility mode
Make sure you are not running the program itself in compatibility mode. Starry Night is Windows 7-compatible, and running it in XP or Vista mode may create errors. To make sure, right-click on your Starry Night desktop icon (the one you use to start the program) and choose Properties. Click the Compatibility tab and make sure the box for 'Run in compatibility mode' is not checked. You may need to leave the box for 'Run as administrator' checked.
Update your graphics card driver
If Starry Night College gives you an error message or crashes before loading the sky images then install the latest Windows 7 graphics card drivers. A driver is a piece of software that controls hardware in your computer. Updating drivers means keeping your computer working correctly with other programs.
You can update your video card driver by visiting your computer manufacturer's support website. Look for the Drivers or Downloads section. You will probably be asked for the model number or serial number of your computer and will be given links to download the appropriate drivers. Download and install anything related to Video or Graphics. This will make sure that your graphics hardware is working at full capacity.
Here are some links to common computer brands' driver download sites.
If you have a home-built computer, you will need to identify your graphics card. To do this, click Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Personalization > Display Settings.
If you are unable to identify your graphics card, find drivers for it, or find drivers for your computer, please contact technical support.
Starry Night College stops working after or during Home Location selection
Right-click the program icon on your desktop and choose Run as Administrator. This will ensure that Starry Night has access to all the folders where it needs to create files. You may be asked for your system password.
Still having problems?
Get in touch with Starry Night technical support by sending an email through our support site or by contacting starrynightedu on Yahoo! IM.
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Windows reports that StarryNightCollege6.exe is not a "valid Win32 application"
Symptoms
When installing Starry Night for Windows, the installation may not complete and Windows may display the following message: "StarryNightCollege6.exe is not a valid Win32 application."
Resolution
In some cases, downloading Starry Night College using a different web browser may resolve this issue. If you do not have another web browser and use Internet Explorer, follow these steps to remove temporary Internet files which may be preventing the Starry Night College installer from downloading properly:
1) Open Internet Explorer.
2) Chose Tools > Delete Browsing History.
3) In the "Temporary Internet Files" section of the resulting window, click Delete files.
4) Click Yes.
5) Click Close.
6) Quit Internet Explorer and open it.
7) Download and install Starry Night College again. The download links for both PC and Mac are provided in your order email.
If the issue persists, check the size of the Starry Night College Installer. For Windows, the size of the StarryNightCollege6.exe should be ~551 MB and for Macintosh it should be ~451 MB in size.
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" Starry Night has encountered a problem and needs to close" or "Starry Night application has stopped working"
Symptoms
When launching Starry Night College you receive an error message that Starry Night has encountered a problem and needs to close or alternatively has stopped working.
1) Run your Windows Update utility in your Control Panel to make sure you have all the latest patches from Microsoft.
2) Visit your computer manufacturer's website and update your graphics card drivers.
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Starry Night Enthusiast
Frequently asked questions and help files specific to Starry Night Enthusiast
There are no articles in this category.
Telescopes
Controlling your telescope with Starry Night
Can I control telescopes with Starry Night Enthusiast?
No. The following programs support telescope control.
Starry Night Pro Starry Night High School Starry Night Pro Plus Starry Night Astrophoto Suite
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Enthusiast: Digital Download
Frequently asked questions and help files specific to Starry Night Enthusiast: Digital Download
Planets appear black in my Starry Night Digital Download version 6 after upgrading from Digital Download version 5
The following patches fix an issue in the Starry Night Digital Download 6 upgrade where some planet surface images appear black:
Starry Night Enthusiast Digital Download Data Modules
There are no articles in this category.
Download & Installation Problems
Problems downloading Starry Night Digital Download to your computer and installing
I want to move my copy of Starry Night Digital Download to a new computer. How do I retrieve my registration number?
Choose About Starry Night Digital Download from the Help menu (Windows) or the Starry Night Digital Download menu (Macintosh). Your name and registration number should be in the bottom left corner of the window which opens.
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I lost my Digital Download files.
The download link in the email that was sent to you when you purchased your software should still work. If you did not keep this email, please visit our download link retriever and enter the email address you used to order your software. You will be given your Digital Download link(s) and corresponding registration number.
If you had an older version of Digital Download (i.e. earlier than version 6), it may no longer be hosted on our servers, in which case you won't be able to retrieve it through either of the above methods. Please see the Digital Download order page for information on replacing your version with a newer one. Please note that the Upgrade option is only available if you have the version prior to the current one already installed (for example, to upgrade to version 6 you need to have version 5 installed); if this is not the case you will need to purchase the new version at its full price.
Brenda Shaw
Registration Number
The registration process which allows users to use Starry Night
Why doesn't my registration number work?
There are two distinct error messages the program can give. If the message says "the registration number you entered was incorrect", then either your name or registration number was typed in wrong. Check that both the name and number match the name and number sent to you via e-mail (the registration number is uniquely tied to the name, and will not work with another name). Also, make sure that you are copy and pasting the number (instead of typing it), to avoid mixing up '1' and 'l' or '0' and 'O'.
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I am trying to install QuickTime, and it asks me to enter a registration number. Why doesn't my Starry Night registration number work?
When you install QuickTime, a window will come up which allows you the option of entering a registration number for QuickTime Pro, which is a more advanced version of QuickTime not included with Starry Night. You should leave all fields in this window ("Registered to", "Organization", "Number") blank and hit the "Next" button to continue with the QuickTime installation. When you run the Starry Night program itself for the first time, a different window will pop up asking for your name and registration number. You should now enter your Starry Night registration number and it will will work fine.
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I lost my Digital Download files.
The download link in the email that was sent to you when you purchased your software should still work. If you did not keep this email, please visit our download link retriever and enter the email address you used to order your software. You will be given your Digital Download link(s) and corresponding registration number.
If you had an older version of Digital Download (i.e. earlier than version 6), it may no longer be hosted on our servers, in which case you won't be able to retrieve it through either of the above methods. Please see the Digital Download order page for information on replacing your version with a newer one. Please note that the Upgrade option is only available if you have the version prior to the current one already installed (for example, to upgrade to version 6 you need to have version 5 installed); if this is not the case you will need to purchase the new version at its full price.
Brenda Shaw
Telescopes
Controlling your telescope with Starry Night
Can I control telescopes with Starry Night Digital Download?
No. The following programs support telescope control.
Starry Night Pro Starry Night High School Starry Night Pro Plus Starry Night Astrophoto Suite
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CSAP
Complete Space & Astronomy Pack and Constellation Adventure
I have CSAP 5.0.0 and the SkyGuide links don't work (Mac only)
If you are running Starry Night CSAP 5.0.0 and Mac OS 10.3.9 or higher and the links in SkyGuide do not work, please download, unzip and run the following application:
Note: Only for users who have Complete Space & Astronomy Pack (CSAP) version 5.0.0 and not other versions.
Frequently asked questions and help files specific to Starry Night Astrophoto Suite
How does MaxIm DL Lite compare to MaxIm DL and MaxDSLR?
The AstroPhoto Suite combines
essential features of Starry Night Pro astronomy software with MaxIm
DL Lite digital imaging software in one comprehensive, easy-to-use
package.
MaxIm DL Lite is "lighter" than MaxDSLR.
Both control the same equipment, but Lite does not have bulb cable support for
DSLRs.
Lite does not autoguide or control focusers.
It also does not have the
following commands: Batch Save and Convert, Edit Pixels, Clone Tool, Bin 2x2,
Bin 3x3, Information Window, Zoom Window, FITS Header Window, Command Sequence
Window, Animate, Equalize Screen Stretch, Remove Bad Pixels, Remove Bloom, Double
Size, Half Size, Curves, Pixel Math, Digital Development, Flatten Background,
White Balance, Adjust Saturation, and Color Adjust. A couple of the commands
are simpler, mainly the calibration and alignment tools.
Support for MaxIm
DL Lite is provided by Cyanogen - for Tech Support, click
here.
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I own Starry Night Pro Plus, can I upgrade to Astrophoto Suite?
Yes. You can upgrade to Astrophoto Suite from our upgrades page.
Your AstroPhoto Suite upgrade only contains MaxIm DL Lite for Windows via Internet download.
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What cameras does MaxIm Dl Lite support?
The current release supports Canon EOS 1D, 1Ds, 1DmkII, 10D, 20D, 20Da, 300D (Rebel), D30, D60, 1DsmkII, 350D (Rebel XT), 5D; Nikon D70, D70s, D100, D200; Olympus E-1, E-300, E-500; plus the Meade DSI series, Orion StarShoot Deep Space Imager, Lumenera, and video/webcams.
Additional cameras -- including the new Canon 30D and 400D (Rebel XTi) -- will be added in a new release due out in December 2006.
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Starry Night Middle and High School
Frequently asked questions and help files specific to Starry Night Middle School and High School
Starry Night Education FAQ
What do I get with my single user Middle School or High School purchase?
You'll receive a copy of the Teachers\' Guide, Starry Nightt Education software, the SkyTheater DVD, and a Quickstart Guide.
What does the Teachers’ Guide Contain?
The Teachers’ Guide is 350 pages for Middle School and 415 pages for High School. They contain detailed lesson plans to help teachers easily and thoroughly cover topics from their Earth Science, Space Science, Physics, and Astronomy courses. Each lesson plan is correlated to grade level and national and state/province standards so that teachers can choose the ones most appropriate to their specific class and lesson. Within each of the lessons, there are student worksheets, hands-on activities, software integration into Starry Night™, and short DVD clips.
Can I buy the Teachers’ Guide separately?
No. The Education Line products were built specifically to run with custom configured software. Using the Teacher’s Guide with other versions of Starry Night™ or without the software at all would not adequately explain the lesson plans.
What is the difference between Starry Night™ Education software and other Starry Night™ software?
Since the Starry Night™ Education software was designed specifically for a classroom setting, student exercises are integrated into the software. Students will have tasks to follow and questions through the SkyGuide interface. This feature is not available in our consumer level product lines.
Can I upgrade from an older version of Starry Night™EDU or other Starry Night™ software product to Starry Night™Middle School or Starry Night™High School?
Installing Starry Night on a computer lab or network
Why is each student asked to register the product?
Starry Night preferences, including registration, are saved for each unique user account. For a managed environment such as a computer lab, this means that each non-admin user can have their own settings without affecting the settings of another user that logs onto the same computer. However this applies to the registration number as well, meaning that each non-admin user on a computer will be asked to register Starry Night.
There are two possible solutions.
Solution A (Recommended - Version 6 only)
Make sure that your Starry Night program is up to date by visiting our updates page. Then find the Resources folder in your Starry Night installation. The location is as follows:
On Windows: Browse to C:/Program Files/Starry Night/Sky Data/Resources/
On the Mac: Browse to Applications/Starry Night -> right-click on the program icon and choose Show Package Contents -> Contents/Resources/Sky Data/Resources/
In the Resources folder there will be a file with a single-letter name and an .ssd extension, such as y.ssd or p.ssd . Open this folder in a text editor (Notepad on Windows; or Text Wrangler on Mac). Copy the following two lines into the file:
Replace the text that says Username with your own Starry Night username, and replace the text that says Registration Number with your own registration number. Save this file. Any user of that program on that computer will no longer be asked to register the product each time.
Solution B (version 5)
Register the software on an admin-account and then copy and paste the Registration File onto each non-admin users account.
On the Mac, the registration file can be found in <admin user> - Library - Preferences - Space.com - <product i.e. "Pro"> - Registration File. Copy the Registration File and place it on the users account under the same path.
On Windows, the Registration File can be found in My Computer - Local Disk- Documents and Settings - <user account> - Local Settings - Application Data* - Imaginova Canada - Prefs - <product i.e. "Pro">.
*Note that the Application Data folder may be hidden from view. To see hidden folders select Folder options from the Tools menu in the File Explorer window. Then in the window that opens, click on the "View" tab and select "Show hidden files and folders" in the Hidden files and folders section of the Advanced settings box.
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Cannot run Starry Night from a non-administrator account or the SkyGuide pane does not appear when running Starry Night with a non-administrator account
This issue can occur when installing any Starry Night application (most frequently Middle School or High School) on a computer with a non-administrative account.
To correct this issue, download and run the following application. Please note that you need administrator privileges to perform this update.
Yes. However, performance will depend on the speed of the network and the number of simultaneous users running the software.
This solution involves installing Starry Night on a server and then providing network shortcuts on each students computer that point to the program on the server.
We suggest you move the Prefs folder so that individual students don't have to register the product. See Solution A for instructions.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
Starry Night Bluestar
Frequently asked questions and help files specific to Starry Night BlueStar
BlueStar drivers for Windows Vista and Intel Mac
Version 1.5 is required to use a BlueStar device with a Windows Vista PC or Intel Mac. Please see below to download the correct version for your computer if your BlueStar came with version 1.0 on disc.
Windows XP and PowerPC Mac users can use either version 1.0 or 1.5.
Brenda Shaw
Installation
Installing and configuring the BlueStar device
Do i need to install the BlueStar drivers from the CD?
For wireless connections using bluetooth, you do not need to install the BlueStar drivers from the CD. However, if you are running a wired connection via USB, then you will need to install the BlueStar drivers that came in the Starry Night BlueStar CD.
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I've lost my Starry Night BlueStar manual.
You can download the manual in PDF format by clicking here.
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BlueStar Installation Tutorial
Here are some tutorials to get you started with your BlueStar device. Please click the appropriate link below for frequently-asked questions, troubleshooting tips, and (for Windows users) a demonstration video.
No, BlueStar can not connect to your USB Camera - the device is designed to control your telescope. The USB connector on BlueStar can only be used to establish a physical link between the telescope and computer.
A future or enhanced version of BlueStar might be able to wirelessly perform all the tasks that an enthusiast would want to do remotely.
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I can't "pair" the BlueStar adapter with my computer.
Please ensure that BlueStar has not already been "paired" with another computer. You can clear BlueStar's memory of any such "pairings" by resetting it. (To reset BlueStar, use a paper clip to press the button located in a small hole on the bottom of the device - the device must be on in order for the reset to work)
If the light on the BlueStar is flashing rapidly (3 times per second), it means the unit is not paired. Once the unit is paired with your computer it will flash slower (1 time per second). You know you have a successful BlueStar to telescope control software connection when the light goes off.
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I don't see BlueStar in the list of devices in Bluetooth Setup Assistant.
Please ensure that BlueStar is within range of bluetooth signal reception (about 30 feet) and that its batteries are not empty (before it is "paired", BlueStar's LED flashes rapidly).
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My Bluestar connection link drops or I have to pair the device often.
If the Bluestar Adaptor connection drops frequently or is unstable, please note the following:
1. Remove the software that came with your Bluetooth dongle. Instead, run the Windows XP Bluetooth Setup Assistant found in the Control Panel. The Assistant will identify the bluetooth dongle and install the proper software for it. We have found that some third party bluetooth software to be unstable - causing the connection to drop.
2. Some Bluetooth dongles don't work that well with BlueStar and drop their connection. For example, the Kensington dongles seem to give poor results. We recommend the purchase of a new dongle - these usually run for about $20.
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You have successfully installed the drivers and paired your BlueStar to your computer, but are still having trouble connecting and communicating with your telescope.
If using a wired USB connection, ensure you have installed the BlueStar drivers from the CD that came with your device. In wireless mode, ensure you have successfully paired BlueStar with your computer (See: Driver Installation and Pairing in your BlueStar Manual).
Please note the following:
1. Ensure you know the COM port you need to use when configuring your telescope control software.
2. Perform the telescope star alignment using the telescope hand controller first. The telescope must be aligned before connecting to your telescope control software. Also, as in the case of some Celestron telescopes, you may need to place the telescope hand controller in RS-232 mode.
3. Ensure you select the correct telescope type when configuring the telescope control software. For example, in the case of the Orion Atlas and Sirius mounts, select the "Nexstar 5" telescope type.
4. If your device is still not communicating correctly, there may be a problem with the serial cable. Are you sure that the cable you have is the correct one for your telescope? Check the number on the white label on your cable and refer to the table below:
Once I connect BlueStar I don't see it in the list of devices in my telescope control program.
Windows:
If you are running in wire mode via a USB cable, please ensure that you have properly installed the driver CD that came with your BlueStar and that you have restarted the computer once the drivers have been installed.
Your telescope control program will ask you for the COM port BlueStar is using. If you are using a wired connection via USB, please click on the Start Button and select Programs->BlueStar Adapter->Detect BlueStar USB Connection. A small dialog window will come up letting you know the COM port BlueStar is using.
In wireless mode using bluetooth, you can determine the COM port by doing the following:
1. Right-click on the "My Computer" icon on the Desktop and select Properties.
2. In the window that opens, click on the Hardware Tab and then click on the Device Manager button.
3. From the menu at the top of the window, select View - Show Hidden Devices.
4. Expand the node marked Ports (COM & LPT) and examine the current COM port assignments. One should be listed for your BlueTooth device.
5. Double-click on the port the bluetooth device is using. This brings up the Properties dialog.
6. Select the Port Settings Tab and then click on the Advanced button. This brings up the Advanced Settings dialog.
7. See COM Port Number to find out the COM port your bluetooth device is using. Using this COM port when configuring theCOM port in the telescope control software.
Note: In addition, please ensure that your application supports both modem and serial devices (if you are using Starry Night, please update your software version to 5.7 or above).
Mac:
If you are running in wire mode via a USB cable, please ensure that you have properly installed the driver CD that came with your BlueStar and that you have restarted the computer once the drivers have been installed.
Your telescope control program will ask you for the COM port BlueStar is using. If you are using a wired connection via USB, the Communication Port will be listed as BlueStar in your telescope control software.
In wireless mode using bluetooth, the Communication Port will be listed as BlueStar-SPPslave-1 or similar.
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My telescope control software doesn't list the COM port number BlueStar is connected to.
The operating system automatically assigns a COM port number to the BlueStar device. This COM port number might be fairly high, such as COM 11. A problem can arise if the telescope control software you are using only allows you to select between a limited range of COM ports, for example, COM 1 through 8.
Due to this limitation, you might not be able to select the COM port for BlueStar and hence not be able to connect to the device.
The solution is switch to a lower COM Port that is not in use. If all low numbered ports are "in use", you will need to free up some ports on Windows XP so that BlueStar is on a lower COM port number that you can select in your telescope control software.
Assigning and freeing unused reserved COM ports in Windows XP
Issue A:
How to switch to a lower COM Port number in Windows XP.
Solution:
1. Right-click on the "My Computer" icon on the Desktop and select Properties.
2. In the window that opens, click on the Hardware Tab and then click on the Device Manager button.
3. From the menu at the top of the window, select View - Show Hidden Devices.
4. Expand the node marked Ports (COM & LPT) and examine the current COM port assignments. One should be listed for your BlueTooth device.
5. Double-click on the port you want to change. This brings up the Properties dialog.
6. Select the Port Settings Tab and then click on the Advanced button. This brings up the Advanced Settings dialog.
7. Set the COM Port Number to the desired setting. From example change from COM21 to COM6. (If the port that you want to select is marked as "In Use", you must free that port - see Issue B below)
Issue B:
How to release COM ports that Windows XP has reserved from previous installations of COM port drivers that are no longer in use.
Solution:
It is possible that the COM port used by Bluestar is too high (and thus cannot be selected through your telescope's connection selector). In this situation it is possible to release COM ports that Windows XP has reserved from previous installations of COM port drivers that are no longer in use and assign them to BlueStar.
1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
2. At a command prompt, type the following command , and then press ENTER:
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
3. Type the following command at command prompt, and then press ENTER:
start devmgmt.msc
4. Click View > Show hidden devices. This will display devices that are not connected to your computer but Windows XP still reserves space for them.
5. Go to Ports (COM & LPT) and expand that section.
6. Remove all devices in the list of ports that are grayed out but have a specific COM port number assigned to them. (You can do this by right clicking on the grayed out device and choosing Uninstall and then OK in the dialog box that appears).
7. When you are finished troubleshooting, close the Device Manager.
8. Type exit in the Command Prompt
Note: It is critical for Device manager to be accessed in the particular fashion outlined above for Issue 2. Accessing it through Control Panel->System and then clicking on Show Hidden Devices will NOT result in the same list.
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I can't connect to my Orion Atlas or Sirius Mount using Starry Night.
If you are running Windows XP, please select the telescope type as Nexstar 5. You can do so by Opening the Telescope Pane in Starry Night and pressing the Configure button.
If you are running on a Mac, please select the telescope type as Nexstar 5. DO NOT select the telescope type as "Orion Atlas EQ-G" as there was an error in this driver in earlier versions.
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Can I use my Argo Navis with BlueStar?
Yes. You may use the Argo Navis with the Starry Night BlueStar Adapter.
It is very important that when you select the Orion Intelliscope cable (#7309) when ordering your BlueStar. Other cables will not work. Even though the unit uses the LX200 protocol to communicate with the computer - do not select the LX200 cable.
However, please note that although our 7309 cable has the right wiring, the connector end is not wide enough to fit snuggly into the Argo Navis serial socket. One has to carefully center plug into the serial socket.
At this time we don't have an Argo Navis specific cable, but the above will work. Alternatively, we have provided an Argo Navis Cable schematic in the attachments area below for those who want to make their own cable.
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BlueStar device RJ11 pinout
BlueStar device RJ11 pinout schematic.
Simulation Curriculum Corporation
The Layered Earth
Frequently asked questions and help files specific to The Layered Earth.
The Layered Earth network installation
Aside from the program folder residing in
C:\Program Files\The Layered Earth
(or C:\Program Files (x86)\The Layered Earth for 64-bit Windows installations)
the following folder also needs to be present on all networked systems:
Vista or Windows 7: C:\ProgramData\Simulation Curriculum\The Layered Earth
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Simulation Curriculum\The Layered Earth
If you wish to register the software once and have it pre-registered on network machines, then you may install it on one system, activate the license there and then copy the shared folder above across different systems.
In order to minimize program's need for map data from Internet (The Essential Layered Earth Data) you need to ensure that the additional 2 discs of data have been installed (their contents is installed in the shared directories above). Then you may disable network connection of The Layered Earth by going to File->Preferences->General and unchecking "Stream data from internet when available". You don't have to do this for every system as TLE properties are located in
Vista or Windows 7: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Simulation Curriculum\The Layered Earth
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Simulation Curriculum\The Layered Earth
Therefore, once you set it up on one machine, you could propagate program preferences to accounts on all other systems.
There are different ways in which you could share The Essential Layered Earth Data (satellite imagery and topographic data) across different systems. One method is to copy
Vista or Windows 7: C:\ProgramData\Simulation Curriculum\The Layered Earth\CacheData
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Simulation Curriculum\The Layered Earth\CacheData
to a network drive and then go to File->Preferences->Advanced-> "Set Aux. Data Store" and set the new location of CacheData (this is equivalent to modifying tle.properties file by changing the remoteFileCache option).
There are more flexible method for doing this on a network setup.
You could have the entire C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Simulation Curriculum\The Layered Earth folder live on a network by either using Microsoft's Folder redirection which is something similar to file/folder soft links on Linux (and would have to be supported by your Windows OS, mostly restricted to professional and server editions).
Another, more widely supported, method is to use simple Windows shortcuts. If you copy the entire C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Simulation Curriculum\The Layered Earth (note that Windows XP default folder is referenced here, the equivalent for Vista/7 is at the beginning of this article) to a network drive and then create a shortcut to this mapped network drive folder in the same location and name it "The Layered Earth", The Layered Earth will simply use the network drive's location for files (including CacheData, Favorites and license file). This would be a simple method for sharing all of this essential files without having to modify TLE properties (you'll get automatic activation for all systems as well). Note that on startup, TLE will create The Layered Earth folder right beside the shortcut but this folder will contain no data as all data will come in through the shortcut itself.
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