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. Our project site is NightshadeSoftware.org.
Nightshade G3
Digitalis develops Nightshade under an open model where any user can submit a bug report, feature request, and otherwise get involved. Digitarium systems ship with our latest software generation, Nightshade G3. Check out some feature highlights.
- Nightshade G3 offers advanced features supported by cutting-edge simulation techniques.
- Commercially licensed editions for dome use are exclusive to Digitarium hardware:
- Nightshade Professional
- Nightshade Basic
Nightshade 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 |
|
★ |
Scientifically acurate volumetric Milky Way Galaxy model |
|
★ |
Scientifically accurate volumetric Local Group Galaxy models (M31, M33, SMC, LMC) |
|
★ |
Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxy 3D dataset |
|
★ |
Data Console tab in the Universal Console with curated planetary, sky survey, and point cloud datasets. |
|
★ |
Soundscape adaptive soundtracks |
|
★ |
Required for digital audio support | ★ |

