Starry Night Pro FAQ - Extra Databases

What additional databases can I add to Pro?

Meteor Showers Stephen Hutson's terrific databases of meteor shower radiants (updated for 2001). Both IMO and RASC datasets are included. (Macintosh or Windows)	GCVS (Variable Stars) The General Catalog of Variable Stars was submitted by Marion Schmitz and includes over 31,000 variable stars. (Macintosh or Windows)
Local Group Bill Arnett's compilation of galaxies in the Local Group. (Macintosh or Windows)	UGC Galaxies Uppsala General Catalog of Galaxies, compiled by Bill Arnett. (Macintosh or Windows)
Planetary Nebulae Bill Arnett's planetary nebulae by Perek & Kohoutek. (Macintosh or Windows)	LX200 Alignment Stars The 33 stars used to align a Meade LX200 as compiled by Bill Arnett. (Macintosh or Windows)
SAC Doubles Bill Arnett's double stars from the Saguaro Astronomical Club. (Macintosh or Windows)	Supernova Remnants Leigh Palmer's Galactic Supernova Remnant catalog compiled by Dr. David Green of the University of Cambridge. (Macintosh or Windows)
Common Names Common names of Deep Sky objects compiled by Hartmut Frommert, revised by Bill Arnett. (Macintosh or Windows)	Extrasolar Planets Catalog of stellar bodies with planetary systems. Based on data from Alex Willman's Extrasolar planets. (Macintosh or Windows)
Extra-solar Planets Confirmed planets around main sequence stars, compiled by Ed Totman. (Macintosh or Windows)	Herschel 400 Compiled by Michael Desjarlais. (Macintosh or Windows)
GCVS (Variable Stars) Extracted from the General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS) Vol. IV and Hipparcos Catalog of Periodic Variables. Only stars brighter than 10th magnitude at maximum are included. Compiled by Ray Colley. (Macintosh or Windows)	Celestron AAM Alignment Stars Markers for the 28 primary alignment stars for the Celestron Advanced AstroMaster, compiled by Greg Miller. (Macintosh or Windows)

These files are in compressed format. After you have uncompressed them, you will find both the compiled databases and the text files which they were built from. Move the files ending in ".ssd" to the "Starry Night Pro\Starry Night Pro Data" folder. The next time you run Starry Night Pro, you should see additional options in the menus for these datasets.

The databases on this page are free to use but should not be redistributed without the author's permission. If you build a database that you would like to include on this page, please send us an email

Can I use my old Starry Night Deluxe databases in Starry Night Pro?

Maybe! We have changed the database format for Starry Night Pro, so the old databases will not work in their compiled form. However, if you have the original text files which the databases were built from, you can recompile these databases in the Starry Night Pro format by using the "File | Build Data File" command in the Starry Night Pro menu.

How do I make my own databases?

There is a folder called "Database Examples" on the Starry Night Pro CD. Inside this folder is a read-me file explaining how to build databases, as well as a sample database text file and the text file we used to create the NGC-IC database in Starry Night Pro, which will show you the format you need to follow when building your own databases.