animations in real-time movements of celestial bodies. View the heavens with scientific precision. More than 20 million cataloged celestial bodies. More than 200 images of the Hubble Space Telescope. excellent tool for learning astronomy.
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Customer Reviews
Don't waste your money on this!
I guess I was lucky that I had bought this planetarium software at a steep discount, because had I purchased it at full price I would have highly been disappointed. The graphics are poor, the voice (with CD inserted), narration, and new age music is done in terrible taste. I went through several other astronomy software before I finally found something I liked. About the only good thing that I have to say about this WASTE OF MONEY is that you can create your own screensaver (if you find that a positive).
This might be good for a first time user (maybe), but there is an alternative out there. My suggestion would be STARRY NIGHT, either Backyard, Deluxe, or Pro versions. Believe me, its worth the little bit extra!
Unprofessional, incompetent, illiterate. Disappointing.
This software rates as one of the most ridiculously unprofessional programs I've ever had the misfortune of installing on my innocent computer. It's not even good for laughs.
Where to start? The cheesy graphics, which remind me of the old EGA days, look like they were hand-drawn in stubby crayon by a bunch of hyperactive first graders. The "Hubble" photographs, for the most part, look like the pre-1970 (or whenever) fuzzy black-and-white photos in my grandfather's old encyclopedia set. The narration, which thankfully accompanies only a few of the segments, is sure to become legendary for the very slurred and incomprehensible babbling voice that is just barely audible above the background noise.
The spelling errors are far, far too numerous to count, and this alone makes the creators of the software look incompetent. Some of the names/designations of the celestial, Messier, and NGC objects have somehow become interchangeable (and I don't mean the Orion Nebula being both M42 and NGC1976). The "trivia", which is supposedly aimed at young children, is still so inane that a child can get better science education by watching a Rugrats cartoon.
You're better off just arming yourself with a paper starmap and a flashlight.
There was no paper documentation at all in this package, so it's not a good gift idea for a computerphobe. The Planetarium Gold Gift Set includes one paper-jacketed CD, one StellaScope, and one registration postcard. The StellasScope looks impressive, but be warned that the constellations are listed in their English names, so if you want to find Piscis Austrinus, you will have to look for Southern Fish. And that it's really just a skymap on microfiche in a tube.
In its favor I'll say the program lets you toggle between English and Latin names for the constellations, tracks the planets and phases of the moon, and gives you a general idea of what's in the night sky.
An expensive coaster, that's what it is. This software package was so lame it's insulting.
OK for casual use
This program is not state of the art and there are a few errors, but if used as a casual guide to the sky this product is not bad. It is easy to use after some practice. The relative location of stars and planets seem to be very accuate. However, there are errors in the geographical terms and measurements used. First, there is a feature where you can adjust your view of the sky which misuses the terms 'longitude and latitude' (turned around). Second, this program uses due South as the 0 degree starting point for the Azimuth directions (should be North). Also, there does seem to be some mispelled terms and other minor errors. I certainly would not recommend this product for serious astronomy work. But, to its credit, it seems to accurately display the sky as it would look from anywhere on Earth at pretty much any time, day or night, past or future. It identifies the objects in the sky and does have a few nifty features. So, for what that is worth, its a good choice. But for a more serious science, keep searching.
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