Planetarium/astronomy software: Stellarium

Every once and awhile, I like to head outside with the telescope and see what's out there - I took a general Astronomy class back in college with a friend of mine, and I used a program called SkyChart (which is also phenomonal). We had a lot of fun working out the assignments with the software giving us a little direction.

But, this blog is about freeware, right? So, I was alerted to Stellarium, an Open Source Planetarium software.

What can I say about this program: WOW.

I'm no astronomer, but from what I can tell - it has an easy to use interface coupled with beautifully rendered graphics and smooth transitions.

You can set up your geographic location via latitude & longitude, search for stellar objects, configure your display options (there's even one so you can project it on a domed ceiling for planetariums!).

There is also the ability to set the display to red (for night-time observations in the field).

Of course, you can speed up/slow down time and go to a specified date so you can view the skies as they were/will be during that time.

Planetary objects, moons, etc. are all beautifully rendered and you can view Nebula, galaxies, and more -

One request that I would have is that there would be an interface for the sky positioning add-on for Meade telescopes (but I see that is an open request) - hopefully that will be something that is added in the future.

Here are the program details:

in version 0.8.0

sky

• over 120,000 stars from the Hipparcos catalogue with info
• asterisms and illustrations of the constellations
• images of nebulae
• realistic Milky Way
• very realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset
• the planets and their satellites

interface

• a powerful zoom
• time control
• multilingual interface
• scripting to record and play your own shows
• fisheye projection for planetarium domes
• spheric mirror projection for your own dome
• graphical interface and extensive keyboard control

visualisation

• equatorial and azimuthal grids
• star twinkling
• shooting stars
• eclipse simulation
• skinnable landscapes, now with spheric panorama projection

customisability

add your own deep sky objects, landscapes, constellation images, scripts...