Nightshade® Simulation Software

Nightshade is simulation and visualization software for teaching and exploring astronomy, Earth science, and related topics.
Our emphasis is on usability, realism, feature stability, and performance. Nightshade is largely backward compatible with scripts for Stellarium 0.8.2 and earlier using the StratoScript™ language developed and maintained by Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc.
Nightshade NG (Next Generation)
Digitalis leads development of Nightshade NG, which is run under an open model where any user can submit a bug report, feature request, and otherwise get involved. Our project site is: http://www.NightshadeSoftware.org.
Digitarium systems ship with Nightshade NG. Check out some feature highlights.
- Nightshade NG was a complete rewrite from the ground up which threw out the limitations inherited from earlier projects in favor of advanced features supported by cutting-edge simulation techniques.
- Commercially licensed editions for dome use are exclusive to Digitarium hardware:
- Nightshade NG Professional
- Nightshade NG Basic
Nightshade NG Basic is a budget version with more limited features, as shown below.
Feature | Basic | Professional |
---|---|---|
Supports add-on terrain data sets | ★ | ★ |
3D model support | Built-in models only. | ★ |
Travel within the Solar System | ★ | ★ |
Fly to stars |
|
★ |
Fly to volumetric nebulae models |
|
★ |
Travel outside the Milky Way Galaxy |
|
★ |
Volumetric Milky Way Galaxy model |
|
★ |
Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxy 3D dataset |
|
★ |
Data Console tab in the Universal Console with curated planetary and sky survey datasets. |
|
★ |
Soundscape adaptive soundtracks |
|
★ |
Required for digital audio support | ★ |


This is by far the best quality in which I have seen our shows projected on a portable system. All details of the content that were put in can be seen on the dome... you can conclude that for the first time portable systems have met the same quality standards as their large dome counterparts.— Robin Sip, Mirage3d, The Hague, Netherlands