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Starry Night Backyard Starry Night Backyard User’s Guide FOR MACINTOSH AND WINDOWS SPACE.com Canada Inc. 284 Richmond St. E. Suite 300 Toronto, ON M5A 1P4, Canada [email protected] www.starrynight.com ©2002 Space Holding Corp All rights reserved. Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Apple, Macintosh, Mac, and QuickTime are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. OpenGL® is a registered trademark owned by Silicon Graphics, Inc. Printed in Canada. Table of Contents Getting Started Welcome ..................................................................... 7 Outline Of This User’s Guide ..................................... 8 Starry Night Companion ............................................. 8 Special Fonts............................................................... 9 Installing Starry Night Backyard ................................ 9 Running Starry Night Backyard................................ 10 Data Updates............................................................. 10 Setting Your Home Location .................................... 11 Registering ................................................................ 12 Starry Night For the First Time................................. 12 Getting Help.............................................................. 13 Program Updates....................................................... 13 Starry Night Website................................................. 13 Basics 10 Important Features ............................................... 15 Using The Controls ................................................... 16 Changing Your Viewing Direction........................... 16 Changing The Date And Time.................................. 17 Identifying Objects In The Sky................................. 18 Labelling Objects ...................................................... 18 Displaying Constellation Figures.............................. 18 Finding Objects......................................................... 19 Zooming In On Objects............................................. 20 Learning More About Objects .................................. 22 Printing Star Charts................................................... 23 Appearance of the Sky View Options ............................................................ 25 Light.......................................................................... 27 Displaying Celestial Objects..................................... 27 Labelling Celestial Objects ....................................... 30 Celestial Object Display Options.............................. 31 Star Display Options ................................................. 31 4 Starry Night Backyard User’s Guide Star Brightness, Contrast & Colour .......................... 32 Planet Display Options.............................................. 32 Comet, Asteroid & Satellite Display Options........... 33 Bright Objects Display Options ................................ 34 Milky Way Display Options ..................................... 34 Label Options............................................................ 34 Constellations............................................................ 35 Guides ....................................................................... 37 Field of View Indicators ........................................... 38 Heads-Up Display (HUD) Options........................... 38 OpenGL Options....................................................... 39 Saving Your Settings ................................................ 40 Astronomical Data Movies....................................................................... 42 Astronomy News....................................................... 42 Upcoming Events...................................................... 43 Observation Planner.................................................. 44 View Info .................................................................. 45 SETI@Home Plug-in................................................ 46 Specific Object Information...................................... 47 Find Pane Info........................................................... 48 Object Contextual Menu ........................................... 48 Info Pane ................................................................... 50 LiveSky Internet Database........................................ 56 Automatic Database Updates.................................... 57 Manual Database Updates......................................... 58 Modifying Images..................................................... 64 Bending Space & Time Time Flow................................................................. 65 Time Flow Modes ..................................................... 67 Changing Your Viewing Location............................ 67 Changing Elevation................................................... 69 Location Scroller....................................................... 70 Orbits......................................................................... 71 Working With Files What is a Starry Night Backyard File? ..................... 73 File Features.............................................................. 74 Sample Files - The Go Menu .................................... 75 Creating Files - An Example..................................... 75 Exporting Images ...................................................... 76 Making Movies ......................................................... 77 Movie Compression Settings .................................... 78 Playing Back QuickTime Movies............................. 78 Frequently Asked Questions QuickTime ................................................................ 79 5 Registration Number................................................. 80 Installation Questions................................................ 81 Support...................................................................... 81 Updates/Upgrades ..................................................... 81 General Run-Time Problems .................................... 82 OpenGL..................................................................... 82 Time & Date.............................................................. 83 Viewing Location...................................................... 85 Internet Database & Digitized Sky Survey............... 86 Printing & Making Movies ....................................... 86 Telescopes................................................................. 87 Constellations & The Zodiac .................................... 87 Solar System Bodies ................................................. 88 Stars........................................................................... 89 Keyboard Shortcuts .................................91 Index..........................................................93 6 Starry Night Backyard User’s Guide Chapter 1 Getting Started Welcome Welcome to Starry Night Backyard, the perfect tool for discovering the wonders of astronomy for the first time, or enhancing your observing pleasure and knowledge if you are already a convert to this wonderful pastime. With this book as your guide, you have at your fingertips the power to manipulate your view of the sky in almost any way you can imagine, and instant access to large amounts of data previously available only to the professional astronomer. You can see how the sky will look tonight, tomorrow, or far into the past or future. You can view the stars as they appear from your own backyard, from a country on the other side of the world, or from another planet. You can witness a total eclipse from the Moon, watch the Sun set from the surface of Mars, or even ride a comet. You are limited only by your curiosity. Thank you for purchasing Starry Night Backyard. Enjoy the program! 8 Starry Night Backyard User’s Guide Outline Of This User’s Guide images and make QuickTime videos using Starry Night Backyard. All users of Starry Night Backyard should read chapters 1 and 2 of this User’s Guide Appendix A: “Frequently Asked to get a basic understanding of how to use Questions” answers the questions most the program. After this, you may want to commonly asked by users of Starry Night explore the program on your own and only Backyard. refer to the User’s Guide if you have questions about a specific feature. Alternately, you may wish to read the Starry Night Companion entire User’s Guide. Below is a brief This User’s Guide will teach you how to summary of each chapter in the User’s use Starry Night Backyard. The second Guide. book included with your package, Starry Chapter 1: “Getting Started” tells you how Night Companion, is a guide to learning to get Starry Night Backyard up and more about astronomy and the night sky, running for the first time. with the aid of Starry Night Backyard. This 200+ page book, written by Chapter 2: “Basics” covers the most astronomer John Mosley, uses dozens of important features in the program. example files from Starry Night Backyard to explain astronomy concepts. You will Chapter 3: “Appearance of the Sky” shows find Starry Night Companion more helpful you how to modify the onscreen if you are already familiar with the basics appearance of Starry Night Backyard. of using Starry Night Backyard. Chapter 4: “Astronomical Data” shows you how to get more information about any celestial object. Chapter 5: “Bending Space & Time” takes a detailed look at the features of Starry Night Backyard that let you visit other locations in the universe, view the sky from
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