It also covers phases of the moon, something I've found particularly handy of late. I can fast forward the stars, days, weeks or years into the future (or the past if need be) to see what will be in the skies at any given date. What I do particularly like about it is the ability it gives me to plan my evenings viewing in advance. Once it's installed it's a breeze to use, which is probably why I haven't bothered to splash out on an astronomy book or any star charts yet, and has helped no end in developing my knowledge of the skies. I've got an old laptop running Xubuntu Linux (which is also recommended), and it's just a case of telling the OS that you want Stellarium installed and it does the rest. I've been using Stellarium for the past 4 months and I am extremely impressed with the software. and Dec knobs more in blind hope rather than judgement, I think it is a boon.įor those who haven`t tried it, I can thoroughly recommend it! You lucky bods with "GOTO" systems etc won`t need it, but for us skint fellows slowly turning R.A. This can only make the program even better as time goes on. It is an "Open Source" program which means that anyone can contribute to it and improve it. LX200, but again I haven`t really looked into this. ![]() It can also be set up to control various telescopes, I.e. I must point out that the procedure to do this seems quite "in depth" and I would suggest that a working knowledge of image programs and manipulation would be a very good thing.Ī full list of the many configurations available is here. So your house/garden/shed will be "superimposed" in front of the sky. I haven`t gone into this much yet but it seems that you can go outside to your normal viewing area and take a 360deg "panorama " and import it. It has a choice of "grounds" (or even none if you wish) and more can be imported, even the Martian surface! (Your lat/long stay the same of course.) but the best thing is you have the ability to import your "own" ground. It has "night mode" that turns all buttons and writing red.Īs I said earlier, your "home" is a generic ground. It also has a fast forward (click 2 or 3 times to really speed things up!) and rewind button. Leave the program running for a few hours and when you come back you will see that everything has rotated in time with what is happening in the "real" sky. You can also set up numerous "Home" locations if you wish.Īs noted, the sky revolves in real time. Your location is set using Lat/Long, or a small map appears and you can click on a nearby city to set reasonably accurate coordinates. ![]() You can add "atmosphere" which gives the sky that "milky" glow it has on certain nights, and in the evenings. You can set the constellations to show, even constellation art superimposed over it to show why they thought it was a Bear, for instance. You can set a "twinkle" rate for the stars, and even add "x" meteors an hour! This means that you can have a very scant sky with only the very bright objects showing, right up to a very crowded sky that is choc a bloc with objects! Brilliant!Īll the stars, galaxies, planets etc are customizable so they only show up depending on the "brightness" parameters you input. Once you have got your required object, click "Find" and the sky whizzes round to where the object is. Add the "l" and it will narrow down to all objects that begin with "Al" etc, etc. At the first "A" it`ll bring up all objects that begin with "A". The scroll wheel zooms in and out on a feature, and clicking on the feature will bring up it`s details.īring up the "Search" and start typing "Aldebaran" for instance. It gives a 360deg view from where you are (using a generic "ground", more later) and you just use the mouse to move it around and up and down. But for sheer simplicity and ease of use, plus the ability to customize it to a huge degree, I think it takes some beating. Of course, the `net is full of 2D star charts and there are plenty of software progs out there, and no doubt many are very good. Welcome to Stellarium! (Download it here) Well, there is, it`s fantastic and best of all it`s TOTALLY FREE!!! ![]() I got to thinking, "Wouldn`t it be great if there was some program that would give a planetarium type view of the sky, at THIS precise time and THIS precise place?" Now as a newbie, I of course wouldn`t know my Elnath from my elbow, or my Butterfly Cluster from a moth or more importantly, where they are in the sky!
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