To install Starry Night Basic‚Ñ¢ on your hard disk, double-click on "Starry Night Basic Installer". The installer will install a "Starry Night Basic" folder on your hard disk with the Starry Night applicaiton inside.
Note that Starry Night 2.1 looks best when your monitor is set to show thousands of colours or more. Also note that you will need to have Apple’s QuickTime™ extension installed to use Starry Night. If you don’t have QuickTime™ then please download it from Apple’s web site at
<http://www.apple.com>
Starry Night Basic‚Ñ¢ and Starry Night Deluxe‚Ñ¢
Starry Night Basic lacks many features found only in Starry Night Deluxe. Starry Night Deluxe comes on CD-ROM and can be ordered directly from Sienna Software at (800) 252-5417. Some of the many new features and enhancements that can be found in Starry Night Deluxe that are not in Starry Night Basic:
-over 19 million celestial objects (including the complete Hubble Guide
Star Catalog)
-photo-realistically rendered 3D planets for awesome sky views
-astro-photographs of all 110 Messier objects, beautifully scaled and
positioned in their actual locations
-illustrations depicting interpretations of every constellation
(constellations can be depicted with line diagrams, IAU boundaries,
and/or zoomorphic figures and drawings)
-comet tails that can be adjusted to be realistic and automatically grow
brighter and longer, and dimmer and shorter, as the comet proceeds on it
orbit
-hands-on Orbit Editor for adding newly discovered comets, asteroids and
other orbiting objects (graphically adjust an object’s inclination,
eccentricity, or any of its other orbital elements)
-put objects into orbit around other bodies, (eg. Earth-orbiting
artificial satellites such as Mir, the Space Shuttle, and the Hubble
Space Telescope can be simulated, or even add the Mars Global Surveyor
around Mars!)
-create personalized planets complete with their own surfaces (using any
picture you want)
-on-screen chart view for tweaking the display of customized, highly
accurate star charts that can then be printed out for your observing
sessions
-free DataMaker application for adding your own custom astronomical
databases (DataMaker can also be used to list objects for an observing
session which will then appear with their own distinctive symbol on the
screen. Imagine starting an observing session with a class by showing
them all the objects which will be looked at during the evening. Then it
becomes easy to explain why one wants to look at M13 before looking at
the Ring)
-horizon scenery sets for setting up realistic horizon views (including
trees, palm trees, dinosaurs, desert rocks, and aliens!)
-completely new info windows for every object in Starry Night's database
(small, independently controlable sky display windows appear with the
information window for any selected object. You can zoom on the object
while leaving your main sky display window unchanged)
-easily make QuickTime movies of any astronomical event for smooth
playback
-full on-line manual and printed quickstart manual included
-computer sound effects can give Starry Night the feel of the USS
Enterprise (great for getting kids interested in the sky!)
-hundreds of other enhancements!
**available on CD-ROM (now shipping!) $89.95 US
(also available in 5 and 10 packs for schools)
 
Example Files
The Example Files folder contains some files that will give you a taste of some of the things you can do with Starry Night. A tip for viewing files: you can drag a Starry Night file from the Macintosh desktop into an open Starry Night window and that window will take on the settings of the dragged file. These example files were created with Starry Night Deluxe. To order Starry Night Deluxe call (800) 252-5417.
 
Plug-ins
A free plug-in for controlling Meade LX-200 telescopes directly from your computer is available from the Sienna Software web site <http://www.siennasoft.com>. This plug-in was written by Casady & Greene Software as an interface between Starry Night and their InfoGenie‚Ñ¢ 2.0 personal information/database software. With this plug-in and InfoGenie (InfoGenie is available separately from Casady & Greene) you can record an evening's observing session and attach observation notes to any object in Starry Night for later reference. This plug-in will also control an LX-200 telescope (even if you don't own InfoGenie).
LiveSky‚Ñ¢
Also included free with Starry Night is the LiveSky‚Ñ¢ plug-in. Use the LiveSky plug-in to navigate the vast dynamic library of astronomical knowledge on the Internet using Starry Night. Call up images from the STScI Digitized Sky Survey from within Starry Night or attach bookmarks to any object by simply dragging them from your Internet browser and dropping them on the appropriate object. You can quickly organize all of your astronomical bookmarks this way. For instance drag your Hale-Bopp bookmarks on top of Comet Hale-Bopp and they become accessible to you whenever you are using Starry Night. You can even drag in aliases to files or textual notes. LiveSky is a new product from Sienna Software and for a limited time will be included with Starry Night Basic and Starry Night Deluxe at no cost.
We have added extensive Balloon Help to aid you in learning about Starry Night. You can turn Balloon Help on from Apple’s help menu at the top right of you screen. Balloon help can also be turned on temporarily by holding down the option key when clicking in a menu. It will remain on until the mouse button is released.
 
Shoes
To help orient yourself when looking straight down (towards your feet) we show a pair of large footed sneakers. You may want to turn the display of these feet off, if, for example, you have risen above the earth and want to look back down at it. To turn shoe display on and off, select "Feet" from the Guides menu.
Troubleshooting
If you have trouble starting Starry Night try these tips:
-throw out the "Sienna" folder located in the Preferences folder within your System Folder. This folder contains default settings for Starry Night as well as your option sets.
-start your computer with the shift key down (this turns extensions off) and see if the problem persists (It may be possible that there is a conflict between Starry Night and an extension or control panel on your system)
World Wide Web
Check out our world wide web site for updates, tips and general info.
Our URL is http://www.siennasoft.com.
How to Contact Us
If you have any comments or suggestions or if you just want to drop us a line you can reach us at contact@siennasoft.com. If you would like to order additional copies of Starry Night Basic or Starry Night Deluxe please email us at orders@siennasoft.com or call us at (416) 926-2174. You can also fax us at (416) 926-0370. You can email the authors of Starry Night directly at programmer@siennasoft.com.
