User`s guide

Working With Files 151
Exporting Images
You may wish to capture a static image
from Starry Night, for example, one of the
spectacular eclipse images you viewed in
the exercise in the previous section. To
save a view from Starry Night as an image,
use Starry Night to set up the view you
want, then select
File->Export as Image from the menu.
This will bring up a familiar Save dialog
box. A dropbox near the bottom of this
dialog box allows you to choose the
format for your new image. You can
choose from jpeg, bitmap, pict, and many
other popular image formats.
The picture which is saved is an exact
duplicate of what you see on your screen
inside the main Starry Night window.
Tip: If this feature does not work properly,
you may not have installed QuickTime
correctly. Reinstall QuickTime from the
CD, and be sure to choose the
“Recommended Install” option.
Printing Colour Images: Recall that the
File->Print option in Starry Night prints
negative images - black stars on a white
background. If you want to print a colour
image, you can do this by using the
File->Export as Image command to save
your colour image. Then open this image
with a program such as Internet Explorer
and print the image using the File->Print
(Print Star Chart” in CSAP )command in
the Internet Explorer menu.
Making Movies
You can make spectacular movies using
Starry Night. You can record a graphically
intensive event (such as a planet flyby)
and play it back as a smooth animated
sequence. Movies are played back using
the QuickTime viewer, so you can send
them to your friends and colleagues. They
need not have Starry Night to view the
movies.
To make a movie, choose File->Make
Movie. A dialog box will open that allows
you to name your movie file and choose
where to save it. The first time that you
make a movie, the Compression Settings
dialog box will also open. See
“Movie Compression Settings
” on
page 153 to learn the meaning of the
options in this dialog box.
After you have named your file, a
rectangle appears on the centre of the
screen, which we call the Movie Box.
Tip (Pro and Pro Plus only): You can
change the size of the movie box (height or
width) by choosing Preferences from the
File menu (Windows) or the Starry Night
menu (Macintosh). and selecting
QuickTime from the dropbox on the upper
left of the Preferences dialog box.