Coeli - Stella 2000

Complete talking astronomy software suite with encyclopedic reference

Coeli - Stella 2000  Review

Complete astronomy suite comprising a full-featured planetarium, observing log and list builder, Coeli Time Line, Live Orbits (orrery), location browser, Sky Quiz, and sophisticated searches embracing planets, comets, asteroids, DSOs, and up to 300,000 stars. Planetarium effects include scintillation, extinction, refraction, and precession in point source, photo plate and spotlight display styles; along with the complete Messier catalog in image icons. An integral HTML guide to the solar system, a 1000-term astronomical dictionary, and the 2nd revised and enlarged edition of Aspects of Astronomy -- a book-length primer covering topics such as "What are the Stars?", "Choosing a Telescope", "Cosmology", "Dark Matter", "Eclipses", and "The History of Astronomy", to name but a few -- are closely coordinated with the sky display and picture windows. Stella 2000 talks and teaches aloud. With complete incorporation of Microsoft Agent speech technology, animated characters guide you painlessly through the pronunciation of a myriad of arcane star names and lore, and even read aloud from Astrogloss and Aspects of Astronomy, not to mention offering that most immediate form of program help: spoken guidance. Stella's Drag Mode brings complete plasticity into all your interactions with the planetarium display. Dragging the mouse auto-scrolls sky quadrants smoothly and quickly into view from three selectable planes of reference: Horizon (local), Equatorial (atlas), and Ecliptic / Heliocentric. Stella provides direct links to extensive DSO and planetary information on the Web, all tightly unified with the Sky display, Reports, and the Coeli Solar Guide. Auto-Search instantly updates readouts and reports on any object your mouse pointer scrolls over. You may even slew your Meade ETX/LX200 telescope to the object selected in Stella's sky.