I am investigating different software offerings for a unique need we
have. I am a part of a museum that will have a planetarium and need a
list of companies that provide first rate software that will display
astronomically correct "fly bys", "fly tos" and the like. We also need
the software to be editable or programmable for creating different
simulations.. The only one i know of is Evans & Sutherland Digital
Theater Division's offerings. It is expensive software so if I could
get a list of
competing companies with perhaps a few of them with more competitive
pricing, it would be most beneficial. Please be sure not to give me
any that are noticeably lower quality.

Thanks,
RJ

Hi, 

The highest quality one I know of that is programmable for fly bys,
and fly tos, with the largest most accurate database of stars and
systems is Celesta. --"It doesn't just show you the sky as it can be
seen from earth as most planetarium software does, but allows you to
move to and view the universe from any point between the planets and
the stars."

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/

Of course you are probably looking for hardware solutions as well as
software, which Celesta fails to offer, as it is just software.

SkyVision
Sky-Skan, Inc.
http://www.SkySkan.com

ElectricSky?
Spitz, Inc. 
http://www.spitzinc.com

VisionDome?
Alternate Realities Corp.
Durham, NC USA 
http://www.virtual-reality.com


Those are three other comparable packages to StarRider, and lucky
enough for you there is a review posted on the web comparing all four
of these from a systems administrator's point of view:
http://www.griffithobs.org/ipsfulldome.html

A good list of other planetarium software packages which may be of
interest to you can be found here (though these are more on the level
of Celesta):

Planetarium Software
http://astro.nineplanets.org/astrosoftware.html

Thanks for the question and if you need further clarification please
feel free to use the Clarification function.

webadept-ga

Thanks. This helped greatly.