Starry Night

Starry Night Small Dome:

Starry Night is the best astronomy software available. Countless students have gotten a perfect view of the universe through their computers using this tool. Now, this incredible platform is usable inside a planetarium dome! Using a version of the software called Starry Night Small Dome, we are able to project stunning and highly accurate astronomical simulations right inside your very own planetarium.

The planetarium version of Starry Night is also fully compatible with the desktop version. If your student does a project using a regular computer, he can then display it in the dome for the whole class to see. No other portable planetarium integrates as neatly with the classroom.

Below are a selection of videos showing how Starry Night can revolutionize your astronomy teaching.


Starry Night Small Dome Features

  • Complete 3D Hipparcos, Tycho 2 and database of 16 million stars
  • Thousands of famous deep space objects with detailed descriptions from Messier and Caldwell catalogs, Herschel catalog of 400 deep sky objects, and corrected NGC/IC catalogs with over 13,000 deep sky objects
  • Comprehensive database of known satellites, comets, asteroids, meteor showers, and extra-solar planets
  • Display of planets and all known solar system moons as quality textured, accurately placed 3D objects
  • Accurate annual motion of planets, sun and moons over a +/- 100,000 year span
  • Constellation overlays, equatorial, galactic and ecliptic grids
  • Automatic navigation to any selected planet, moon, comet, asteroid or satellite
  • Customizable high-resolution 360-degree panoramas
  • “Find” command to locate any celestial object
  • Software will “speak” the names of hard to pronounce bodies
  • Can use the Internet to interface with Live Sky, Google Earth, and automatically update positions of bodies.
  • Split menus, allowing the program to run on the projector while the computer is used for other things. For example, you could start a simulation, then use the Internet to look up the answer to a question a student might have posed. The teacher is the only person aware of this process
  • Compatible with Starry Night desktop versions


Starry Night Screen Shots:

Known Dwarf Planets: Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake

Earth with Satellites

Moon with Pleadies