Good astronomy programs used to show you what the sky looks like from any place on Earth at any time. A newer breed, exemplified by RedShift 2 from Maris Multimedia, lets you leave Earth and view objects in space from anywhere in the solar system. In addition, RedShift provides scads of photographs and movies and even an astronomical dictionary; all in a nicely integrated package.
At the heart of RedShift is a sky simulator that shows 250,000 stars, 40,000 deep-space objects, and all major solar-system bodies (including more than 5000 asteroids and comets). The sky simulator comes complete with constellation names and outlines, a selection of coordinate grids, and filters to display only the kinds of objects you want to see. The software's accuracy is exceptional; for example, it faithfully reproduces the ultraclose conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in 2 B.C, that is often identified with the Star of Bethlehem. Twenty tutorials offer intriguing places to launch explorations.
Useful subprograms include Conjunctions Finder and Eclipses Finder, which find and simulate planetary conjunctions or eclipses within a range of dates that you specify. Planetary Reports charts the planets' visibilities (distance, illumination, magnitude, diameter, and elongation from the Sun) over the course of a year. And the Movie Recorder lets you easily generate a QuickTime movie of planetary motions or an eclipse.
The real excitement begins when you leave Earth. You can view objects from any place on the surface of any planet or from any moon, asteroid, or comet. I wondered what the NASA spacecraft Pathfinder would see when it lands on Mars on July 4, 1997. So I went to Maps, selected Mars, searched the list of named features to find the landing site — Ares Vallis — and set it as my observing location. I entered the date, and saw Earth in Pisces between Jupiter and Saturn. You can also view from orbit or from a moving asteroid or comet. I especially enjoyed riding comet Hale-Bopp, which is expected to become quite bright next year, and seeing the planets pass by from its perspective as it rounded the Sun,
An extensive suite of photographs and videos — alone worth the price of the package — complements the sky simulator. Ten short movies effectively explain basic principles of astronomy (although the narrator could pick up the pace). An extensive, we11-curated photo collection, gathered from NASA and the world's great observatories, has 500 full-screen photographs of planets, moons, comets, eclipses, stars, star clusters, nebulae, galaxies, telescopes, and more. The 20 short astronomy videos (30 minutes total, many narrated) are worth watching once.
The inclusion of the authoritative and illustrated Penguin Dictionary of Astronomy is a nice touch. Throughout RedShift, hypertext links words to the dictionary, photo gallery, movie gallery, and tutorials. Astronomy students should find the dictionary and links particularly useful.
My only complaint is that the controls are cumbersome and un-Mac-like. It can be awkward to do some things that should be simple, such as adjusting your viewing direction. But once you learn this unconventional interface, it works.
The Last Word
A powerful planetarium program integrated with an extensive image collection results in a strong package. The only drawback is the awkward interface. Any Mac owner seriously interested in astronomy should own RedShift 2.
Mosely, John. (May 1996). RedShift 2. Macworld. (pg. 71).
Maris Multimedia
Applications
out of 10 (0 vote)
4 / 
2015-06-04 / 
573020bcdbea4bc3c3ddd78e9ae2ab38315db254 / 
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RedShift2_Ger.toast_.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Basilisk II
