Starry Night® Times - September 2006
Starry
Night®
Times

If you have trouble viewing this newsletter, click here.

Welcome again to our monthly newsletter with features on exciting celestial events, product reviews, tips & tricks, and a monthly sky calendar. We hope you enjoy it!

   

A
Few
of
My
Favorite
Things

Starry Night® 6.0 has arrived with a long list of neat new features. I’ve had a chance to play with it for a couple of weeks, and would like to share with you the things I particularly like about this new version.

By way of background, I’ve been an amateur astronomer for decades, and a Starry Night® user since version 2.1 in 1999. I’m a very active visual observer, interested in every sort of object I can see in the sky: Sun, Moon, planets, asteroids, comets, double stars, variable stars, and deep sky objects. I have been a user of Starry Night® on a daily basis for the last 7 years, both to plan my own observations and to help others. When I started to work for Starry Night® last year, I discovered all kinds of things in the program which I’d never seen or used, despite heavy use. Like any powerful piece of software, Starry Night® is many-faceted and serves different functions for different users. For now, I’m going to concentrate on the new features which I’m particularly excited about, the ones that impact my own observing.

Event Finder and Reminder

The first thing I noticed when I first started up 6.0 was the Daily Event Reminder, literally in my face. This alerts you to events happening today. It proved its value that very first day. In the evening I had some friends over to observe, and I knew that Ganymede’s shadow was in transit across the face of Jupiter because Starry Night® had told me so that morning.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

[Top of Page]

   

Other
New
Features
in
Starry
Night®
Version
6

Pronunciation Guide
[Available in CSAP, Enthusiast, Pro, AstroPhoto, Pro Plus]

Some astronomical names can be a little difficult to pronounce. For example, the constellation Boötes is pronounced “boo-OH-tees” not “Boots” or “Booties”. In some cases careful pronunciation may be necessary to avoid embarrassment as in the case of Uranus, which is pronounced “Yoor-a-nus”, not “Your-anus”.

The pronunciation guide in Starry Night® will help you learn how to correctly pronounce the names of hundreds of celestial objects from different categories such as stars, constellations and planets. You hear the proper pronunciation of the object’s name through your computer speakers.

To pronounce an object's name, right click (Ctrl-click on the Mac) and select Pronounce from the object’s contextual menu. The Pronounce menu item will only be visible if a pronunciation file for the selected object exists in Starry Night®. An object’s name can also be pronounced in the "General Layer" of the Info pane by selecting Show Info from the objects contextual menu.

The Starry Night® pronunciation guide is a handy reference to help you win some friendly arguments at your next astronomical gathering.

Note: The correct pronunciation of names (even those with historical and mythological roots) can always be debatable.

For a QuickTime video demonstrating this new feature, please click here.

   

Moon Surface Feature Outlines
[Available in Pro, AstroPhoto, Pro Plus]

Turn on the outlines of craters, mountains, valleys and other prominent features on the moon’s surface to help you instantly recognize hundreds of geological features of interest.

Note: Surface feature outlines are only available for the Moon. However, location markers are available for Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth.

Starry Night® allows you to search for and identify thousands of predefined locations and features on the surface of the Earth or any other rocky planet or moon where surface data is available. For example, you can zoom in on the Moon and flag all of the Apollo Moon landing sites or display the location of all the astronomical observatories on Earth.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

[Top of Page]

   

   

   

Constellation
in
Focus:
Cygnus

Constellation
Map:
Cygnus

NGC 6960 & NGC 6992, the West and East Veil Nebulas, are part of the Cygnus loop, the remains of a supernova that exploded over 100,000 years ago. Two other sections, NGC 6995 and 6979 are close by.

M29 is an unimpressive open cluster, notable only in that it was one of the original discoveries of Charles Messier.

NGC 6819 is a small open cluster with about two dozen stars from 10th to 12th magnitude within a 5' circle. Its discovery in 1784 is attributed to Caroline Herschel.

Deneb, which marks the tail of the swan, is one of the 20 brightest stars in the night sky. Just three degrees away lies NGC 7000, the North American Nebula, so-called because of its obvious shape. This is an active star forming region and quite large, though it's difficult to see without the aid of astrophotography.

M39 is an open cluster, and is a nice binocular object with 30 or so stars spread over its seven lightyear diameter. It's also "pretty close" to Earth, at "just" 800 lightyears.

Finally, NCG 6826, the Blinking Nebula, gets its name from an odd phenomenon: its central star appears to blink on and off when you look toward and away from it quickly.

Sean O'Dwyer
Starry Night® Times Editor

[Top of Page]

   

gifspacer

Sept. 2006

New
Version
6
-
Save
$20
on
upgrades!
gifspacer gifspacer gifspacer
Free
Download
gifspacer

   
Starry Night® Version 6 Videos

Explore some of the valuable new features of Starry Night® Version 6 in this series of videos from our support site.

   

gifspacer
gifspacer

   
Pedro Braganca
Content Director,
Starry Night®

   

gifspacer
Free
Download
gifspacer gifspacer gifspacer
Tips
&
Tricks
gifspacer

   
Starry Night® Support Center

View Starry Night® movies, download manuals and other files from the Starry Night® download area of our support site.

Pedro Braganca
Content Director,
Starry Night®
   

gifspacer
Tips
Tricks
gifspacer gifspacer gifspacer
Sky
Events
gifspacer

   
Sunday, Sept,3

SMART-1 Impact on Moon; see this site for details of a call for ground-based observations.

Tuesday, Sept. 5
7:00 PM – Venus passes less than 1° north of Regulus.

Thursday, Sept. 7
Full Moon and partial lunar eclipse for observers Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.

Thursday, Sept. 14
Last Quarter Moon.

Thursday, Sept. 21
H. G. Wells' 140th Birthday (1866)

Friday, Sept. 22
New Moon and, for observers in South America and Africa, an annular solar eclipse.

Saturday, Sept. 23
12:03 AM – Autumnal Equinox.

Saturday, Sept. 30
First Quarter Moon

All times shown are U.S. Eastern Time.
   

gifspacer
Sky
Events
gifspacer gifspacer gifspacer
Feedback
gifspacer

   
Send us your feedback

Do you have a question, comment, suggestion or article idea to pass along to Starry Night® Times?

Click here to get in touch with us.
   

gifspacer
Feedback
gifspacer gifspacer gifspacer
Subscriptions
gifspacer

   
Starry Night®
is the world's leading line of astronomy software and DVDs. Visit starrynight.com to see all the great products we offer for everyone from novice to experienced astronomers.

You have received this e-mail as a trial user of Starry Night® Digital Download or as a registrant at starrynight.com.

Starry Night® is a division of Imaginova™ Corp, formerly Space Holdings.

To unsubscribe, click here.

To subscribe, sign up here.

Imaginova™ Corp.
470 Park Ave South
9th Floor
New York, NY 10016
   

gifspacer
Subs

   

   

Astrophoto
of
the
Month

Astrophoto
of
the
Month

Bridge Mountain Moon

This month’s winning photo, taken by Michel Hersen, shows the moon rising over Bridge Mountain in Zion National Park. Canon EOS Digital Camera with a Sigma Zoom Lens using an ISO of 800 and an exposure of 1/1600th second.

PHOTO OF THE MONTH COMPETITION: We would like to invite all Starry Night® users to send their quality astronomy photographs to be considered for use in our monthly newsletter. Featured submissions (best of month) will receive a prize of $25 USD. Please read the following guidelines and see the submission e-mail address below.

  • Format: Digital images in either JPG, GIF or TIFF format.
  • Size: 700 pixels wide maximum.
  • File size should be less than 2 MB.
  • Include a caption: Your full name, location where photo was taken and any interesting details regarding your photo or how you took it. Please be brief.
  • Important notes: We may edit captions for clarity and brevity. We reserve the right to not use submissions. In submitting your image or images to Imaginova, you agree to allow us to publish them in all media -- on the Web or otherwise -- now and in the future. We'll credit you, of course. Most important, you'll have the satisfaction of sharing your experience with the world!
  • Send images, following the above guidelines, to photo@starrynight.com (by sending an image you agree to the above terms, including Imaginova’s right to publish your photos). Please do not send .ZIP files as they will not reach us.

[Top of Page]

   

Pre-order
version
6
for
a
Free
Planisphere!

   
Details about Special Offers

*Save $20 off Version 6 Upgrades!

To redeem your $20 instant savings on your Starry Night® Enthusiast version 6 upgrade, Pro version 6 upgrade, Pro Plus version 6 upgrade or AstroPhoto Suite (2006 edition) upgrade, you must enter coupon code sn20v6 in the coupon code field of the Starry Night® shopping cart (the coupon code field appears on the Payment Page of the shopping cart. ) The discounted price will only appear in the Starry Night® shopping cart but not on the product detail page. Minimum purchase of $45.00 USD is required. Offer expires September 30, 2006 11:59 pm EST. Not valid on previous purchases.

**Pre-order Starry Night® Version 6 by August 22, 2006 for a Free Planisphere!

To receive your FREE Orion Star Target Constellation and Celestial Object Finder with your pre-order of Starry Night® Complete Space and Astronomy Pack (2006 edition), Starry Night® Enthusiast version 6, Starry Night Pro version 6, Starry Night® Pro Plus version 6 or AstroPhoto Suite (2006 edition), YOU MUST ADD the FREE Orion Star Target Constellation and Celestial Object Finder from the "May we also suggest" section of your shopping cart before Checkout. Offer expires August 22, 2006 11:59 pm EST. All prices are quoted in USD.

© 1999-2006 Imaginova Corp. All Rights Reserved.
You can read our privacy statement and terms of service.

You have received this e-mail as a trial user of Starry Night® Digital Download
or as a registrant at starrynight.com. To unsubscribe, click here.