StarMaster - Enjoy Learning About the Sky!
StarMaster is your companion for learning about the sky and astronomy. Using the Windows environment, it lets you easily explore the sky from your location or from any point on Earth. You can find out about the constellations, the planets, plus thousands of stars and deep-sky objects.
Although it is a wonderful tool for learning, it is also an excellent resource for experienced sky watchers too since the level of detail can be set by the user. It will improve anyone's knowledge of the sky, a continuing source of wonder and discovery since earliest times.
Two of the strong resources of the program are the SkyNow! function and the Quiz function. SkyNow! will tell you, for your particular location (or any location), date and time, what planets are in the sky and where, plus which constellations are visible and the brightest stars to look for, presented as a narrative script. It's like your personal guide to the heavens for any night of the year!
The Quiz function is a fun and sophisticated way to learn about the sky. You can set the level of the Quiz from easy (Level 1) up to expert (Level 5). For example, at Level 1 you will learn to identify the 30 main constellations and the 80 brightest stars. At the expert level you will need to know all 88 constellations, plus hundreds of stars and deep-sky objects like galaxies, nebulas, and star clusters as well.
The Quiz uses several methods such as multiple choice questions for objects highlighted on the screen or has you use the mouse to click on the item being sought. StarMaster tracks your progress and focuses on items that you are having difficulty with. It's fun to learn and challenging, too. Think you know the sky? Try Level 5 with all the options on and the constellation lines turned off!
Besides being an excellent learning tool, StarMaster is also a good resource for astronomical information. You can use the Search and Identify functions to get information about the constellations (including classical lore), planets, stars and deep-sky objects. Just click on an object and a pop-up window will give you information such as the distance, magnitude, angular size, phase and sky positions (right ascension & declination, altitude & azimuth) for planets and Bayer letter, magnitude, luminosity, temperature, mass, diameter, sky positions, distance for many stars.
Similarly, get data for deep-sky objects. For special objects, get more details. For example see Saturn with an accurate display of the tilt of its rings, the Moon with the correct phase and the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter plotted for current date and time!
You can also choose from lists of objects (planets, stars, etc.) and then directly get information or click View to see the object displayed and highlighted in the sky. The List function lets you generate filtered lists of objects by type, magnitude, constellation or area of the sky, such as a list of the constellations currently visible and the objects they contain.
Your view of the sky with StarMaster is very flexible. You can select a direction on the horizon, the whole sky, the north or south polar areas, your local zenith, or an equatorial view. You can zoom in for more detail or use the mouse to draw a rectangle to select just the part of the sky you wish to view. Send the sky views to your printer.
The image can be normal or inverted or a mirror image so you can match views through a telescope. You have the option for lines connecting stars for the constellation figures and also boundaries of the constellation regions.
You can set your location by clicking on a city name, click your location on a world map or enter the exact latitude and longitude to use. Use any date from 1900AD to 2100AD. Let StarMaster be your personal guide to the sky!
IBM compatibles, Windows 2000/XP/Vista $39.95
