Starry Night Backyard 4.x

There are many enthusiastic amateur astronomers and in the past 50 years they have made a number of important discoveries. Starry Night Backyard 4.x is a CD-ROM package that is targeted at this audience and adds greatly to the tools at the amateur astronomer's disposal.

The package is extraordinarily eclectic--one moment you're viewing the sky as it now is in Abidjan or Rio de Janeiro, and the next you're visiting Mars or any location within 20,000 light-years (surely enough for most of us). This range is supplemented by some excellent visual effects: the moving graphics, for example, as you travel through the solar system and past the edges of planets and moons are quite otherworldly.

The software is designed so that you can select your home geographical coordinates and then explore the constellations as you perceive them from home. However, what really distinguishes this CD-ROM is the scope it offers in terms of interstellar travel. With the range of viewing locations on offer, you can experience the fearful darkness of Pluto and the searing heat of a sunny day on Mercury. You can also turn to interesting events in the past, including many solar and lunar eclipses, and experience the passage of comets and asteroids.

This broad, comprehensive scope is what will really attract people to this package. Among the consolations for the freezing winter temperatures suffered by those who live in northern Europe and the northern part of North America are the crisp wintry nights, when the stars are as clearly visible as at any other time in the year; now, with the help of Starry Night Backyard 4.x, we can all go out and discover the mysteries of the heavens for ourselves. --Toby Green

Brilliantly realistic, Starry Night Backyard 4.x is designed for anyone with an interest in the night sky. See the sky from anywhere on Earth, or visit any solar system or location up to 20,000 light-years away. View up to 2,500,000 stars and 170-plus deep-space objects like galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae. Travel 15,000 years in time, check out the view from the International Space Station, or see Jupiter from one of its moons.

Starry Night Backyard 4.x's more than 90 minutes of multimedia video offer compelling visualizations of the solar system and beyond. Print out star charts, learn about the movement of the planets, watch the phases of the moon, and even see what the stars looked like when you were born. A 200-page guidebook and the Atlas of the Sky CD-ROM are also included. Plus, Starry Night Backyard X adds access to LiveSky on the Internet for additional online astronomy resources.