To be fair I only recently installed the Starry Night demo last night and have about a month of Cartes useage behind me. I would like to hear opinions from others that have or are currently using both. What do you prefer and why?

I feel like Cartes is a better program for Celestial navigation. Starry Night seems to be more encyclopedic. I have heard a lot of good things about Starry Night so perhaps I just haven't given it the chance it deserves. Lets not get wrapped up in the fact that one is free and One isn't, as this isn't an issue. I'll pay for the good stuff.

One of the things I like about Cartes is the fact that you can set the eyepiece setting for your particular setup. This is invaluable to me since I am using Binoculars. I am able to set multiple FoV circles around the area I am looking at and this helps a LOT with starhopping around a particular area. I also like the way you can print the area you are looking at with any notes you have made. It makes for easy planning for a nights viewing, since I do not have a laptop. Oh yeah, and there is that Night-vision mode in Cartes for those that do have a laptop.

Many of these things may be possible in Starry night and I just haven't discovered it yet. Some of the things I really like about Starry Night can add in Light Pollution, I love the way it will add in sattelites. Another great feature is that when you locate a planet, you can zoom in and see the Moons of that planet. This was particularly useful last night while looking at Jupiter. I also like the fact that Starry night moves in real time. Zoom in on an object and it will creep off your screen in real time.

Essentially, To me, Starry night is more of a "Virtual Telescope" than a tool, whereas Cartes Du Ciel is a tool I can use to plan a nights viewing. As I have mentioned, I haven't had Starry Night installed Very long, however, I did spend time looking for features, such as an eyepiece/FoV reticle setting, and was unable to find the setting or feature I was looking for.

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Eagle Eye Observatory

I've been using Starry Night Enthusiast for about six months, and upgraded to the Pro version about a month ago. Pro, but not Enthusiast, has the FOV feature, and a lot of other useful stuff for planning observing sessions. I especially like being able to draw graphs of objects' elevations.

In my opinion, Enthusiast is a good desktop planetarium, but Pro is worth the extra money if you want to go outside and look at the real thing.

My wife bought me Starry Night Backyard for Christmas a couple of years ago, then a year or so after registering it I received an offer to upgrade to Pro for a pittance (around $10, as I recall). I took the offer and am very happy that I did.

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that could be the problem, I am using the Free download 15 day trial. I will have to stick with cartes for the time being. $200 bucks for Pro Plus is a quarter of the cost of the telescope I am saving for.

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Eagle Eye Observatory

Cartes du Ciel does this also, you just have to zoom in far enough. It doesn't appear to model Jovian moon eclipses or shadow transits, though.

Really? This I did not know, I will check it out this evening.

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Eagle Eye Observatory

I have been using Starry Night Enthusiast for about 6 months and have really enjoyed it, but then again I haven't tried anything else. I thought it was great while getting ready for Messier Marathon night. I was able to do practice runs on finding all of the objects in the correct order.

I have also found it useful for confirming observations after a viewing session. The other night while observing Jupiter I was pretty sure I saw a shadow transit, and the GRS on the limb of the planet. I came inside and was able to confirm my visual observations and see which moon was which. Very Cool.

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I dont believe I can go pasts Cartes as an observing tool. Have been using it for 2 - 3 years now. Must confess never found any real short commings.

Another good progam to look at is Northern Hallo. This is designed more for deep sky work, so really a matter of taste I guess.

Glen Chapman

I can totally see how Starry Nights would be handy for practice runs. especially on night like tonight where the cloud cover is bad. I'll have to try using it like that.

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Eagle Eye Observatory