Free Software - Astronomy Programs
Reviews and ratings of quality, hand-picked, websites
Stellarium
• http://stellarium.sourceforge.net
Prgram Type: Free open source 3D planetarium software.
With Stellarium you get realistic skys in real time - what you see is what you see! You can also move the time on or go back. Use the mouse left button to move the view around and click on the icons bottom left to see what the program will do. Features include over 120,000 stars from the Hipparcos catalogue with information, asterisms and illustrations of the constellations, images of nebulae, realistic Milky Way, very realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset, the planets and their satellites. Very good. We would recommend this software to anyone, beginners included.
Platforms Supported: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
HNSky
• www.hnsky.org/software.htm
Prgram Type: Planetarium Program
Free planetarium program for windows. There are 2 downloads to choose from, the small 4 MB basic package or the large 40MB basic package. The larger download includes a large TYCHO2 star database, deepsky help file, planetary images and deepsky images. Additional star databases, images and other supplements available to download. Easy to navigate around with this program and you can zoom in and out with ease.
Platforms Supported: Windows
Skyorb
• www.realtech-vr.com/skyorb
3D planetarium and star gazing software. 100% free. Skyorb is one of several free programs from Realtech. Stylish graphics. This is another realistic real time view of the sky. You can move around the sky with the mouse but the movement is a little counter intuitive and also very sensitive. We like the
Features of this software:
3D interface, search engine, a large catalogue of stars, planets, moons and updatable comets and asteroids database.
Choose to see the actual sky from any point on Earth or from any planet from the solar system.
Platforms Supported: Windows, Mac, BeOrb, Others
Cartes du Ciel
• www.stargazing.net
Prgram Type: Planetarium Software
Excellent free atronomy software. The program allows you to draw sky maps or just browse the sky on your computer. Full help sections included with the program. Download the complete package and then the later update. Additional catalogues and search indexes are also available for downloading.
Platforms Supported: Windows
Open Universe
• www.openuniverse.org
Program Type: Solar System Simulation
Solar System simulation in real time. View all the planets, moons etc, move along their paths, follow them and orbit them. The downloaded file comes with its own extractor and you should extract OU to where ever you want the program to reside as there is no installation file.
Platforms: Windows, Linux/UNIX
Please Note: Firefox will not open the download page - you should use Internet Explorer if you have windows.
Star Calc
• www.relex.ru/~zalex/main.htm
Program Type: Planetarium & Star Mapping
View star positions from any geographical location, zoom in and out, choose the brightness threshold for astronomical objects, print off star maps - and more. Click on an item to get information. We are impressed with this freeware program. It's easy to manipulate and fast.
Platforms: Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP
Home Planet
www.fourmilab.ch/homeplanet/homeplanet.html
Program Type: Astronomy / Space / Satellite-tracking
Here are some of the features of Home Planet:
An earth map
Detailed position and phase data for the Sun and Moon.
Positions of planets and a selected asteroid or comet,
A sky map
Databases of the orbital elements of 5632 asteroids and principal periodic comets
A telescope window which can be aimed
A horizon window which shows the view toward the horizon at any given azimuth.
Object Catalogue allows archiving images, sounds, and tabular data about celestial objects.
Chart catalogues
Orrery
Satellite tracking panel
View Earth From panel
Satellite database
DDE server permits export of real-time Sun, Earth, and Moon information to any DDE client.
Computerised telescope pointing
Catalogue look-up
Observing site selection
Animation
Time and date can be set to any moment from 4713 B.C. into the distant future.
An optional screen saver
Platforms: Windows 95/98/Me and NT 4.0/2000/XP
Orbiter
• http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html
Program Type: Space Flight Simulator
Launch the Space Shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to deploy a satellite, rendezvous with the International Space Station or take the futuristic Delta-glider for a tour through the solar system. Beware, it is a 48MB download. Create a folder to unzip the files to - there are a lot of them!
Platform: Windows
Distant Suns
• www.distantsuns.com
Program Type: Planetarium
As well as the paid for version, you can also download the Distant Suns Special Edition Free Version. Personally I don't like it and much prefer some of the other astronomy programs listed on this page. But there again, what do I know? I'm probably not using it properly! The only way to find out if its for you is to download it and have a go.
Platform: Windows
Mars Simulation Project
• http://mars-sim.sourceforge.net
Program Type: Mars Simulation Project!
Ever wondered what future settlements on Mars might look like? XML configuration files allow the user to modify the simulation properties.
Platform: OS independant
Night Vision
• http://home.att.net
Program Type: Planetarium
This is a very simple and fast Java program that can display the night sky from any location on earth. You can control the look of the display by choosing colours, fonts and which objects to display. You can also run the program at various speeds.
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, Other
Google Earth
• http://earth.google.com
Program Type: Earth Imaging
To switch between the sky and earth images just click the little button on the top toolbar:
Use the mouse to drag the view around the screen. Currently this is fairly basic as astronomy programs go with a simply view of the celestial sphere, but there is lots of information and pictures which you can access just by clicking with the mouse.
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