Voyager for Mac

User Reviews

• Excellent Program

  lindemann1May 29, 2010

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />As an amateur astronomer, I've used Voyager since Version 1.0. It is an excellent program full of features, every feature someone interested in the heavens would want. And the recent upgrades tailored to the Intel machines make for a very responsive product. I use it every evening before I take my telescope outside for an night of viewing. Thanks Carina!

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• my review.

  ajmainFebruary 1, 2008

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />"I've had a pretty good time with this software. I used it while taking Astro 10 at UC Berkeley, and I found that it really helped me out on some of the projects. It's a lot of fun to play with, and I've actually spent hours just "wasting time" with it. But hey.. I'm a nerd. :) Also, I really like the horizon panorama feature. My partner created a whole bunch of panoramas that showed the stars as it actually looks from our location. This was definitely nice when it was the middle of the day, the assignments due in an hour, and we hadn't looked at the sky last night. Hehe. In conclusion, I'm not an expert in astronomy... but I was able to figure out what all the buttons did, and it helped my grade for sure.

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• A biased review

  timmyd--2008January 20, 2008

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Before I comment, a disclaimer: I'm the author of SkyChart III (and now Voyager 4). Let me say that the vast majority of the feedback we recieve on the program is strongly positive - the comments below are atypical. Voyager 4 has so many more features than SkyChart III - a database ten times the size, hugely improved graphics, far more detailed charting options, a completely reworked (and faster, and much more accurate) computing engine - that calling it an "upgrade" is factually incorrect. It's an entirely different program. That's true both literally and figuratively. Regarding development and support, since we launched Voyager 4 in 2006, we've released eight patches, a Windows version, a college edition (SkyGazer 4, which was selected by a major textbook publisher to be bundled with its astronomy textbooks). Voyager 4.5 (and Voyager 5) are in development as I write this. We've hardly been standing still. Compared to the alternatives - yes, there are many other astronomy software/shareware programs out there. Some of them are free. None of the free ones have the range of features that we do - e.g. Celestia can't show you night sky from the Earth; Stellarium can't show you the night sky from space. Neither can control the wide selection of telescopes that we do; none of them have a database as large or as deep. Compared to commercial alternatives with similar feature sets, Voyager is significantly less expensive - something like $100 less than Starry Night Pro, and $250 less than the "serious" version of TheSky - which doesn't exist at all on the Mac as of yet. To be fair, there are areas where we could stand some improvement. Indeed, Carina's tech support had been lacking in the Voyager III days before they absorbed us - things are much improved since the merger. The program's UI - in many ways still the best in the business - can stand some updating. Of course we've had bugs. And of course we've fixed them. All of these are areas we're working on. We're a small company that has been around for many years. Voyager was the first astronomy software program written for the Mac - It pre-dates Starry Night; it pre-dates the internet; it pre-dates Microsoft Windows. We've maintained the program and grown it in spite of much larger and better-funded competition. It will continue to grow for many years. Voyager 4 is a great program, and it deserves a far higher rating than it's gotten on this site.

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• This used to be known as SKYCHART lll (3.6.4)

  Gennx30April 11, 2006

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />and for a full service CD-ROM-Southern Sky charged $50, and if you looked online-sometimes as low as $40; I liked the look/format of SKYCHART; But it looks like these guys Carina, mucked it up-if I wanted 'photorealistic' sky images, I would buy an Astronomy book, for even greater detail and quality; Greed seems to drive some of these companies these days-they will pay via diminishing returns, $200 for CD-ROM?? $150 w/o book? $80 upgrade? no student upgrade/discount? Lazy Tech support-Had to email 3 tiimes before I got an answer these guys are friggin' out of their minds.

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• Another Great Upgrade from Carina!

  lindemann1January 7, 2006

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />I've been using Voyager since version 1.2 and it has been a primary tool in my observing. Have checked out this demo. This version is a significant upgrade but keeping the familiar controls. Am looking forward to the actual upgrade!

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