planetarium software

[harry page]

Hi

I would like people views on the best planetarium software I can get , I would like it to drive my scope and be useful for planning imaging

So what are you using

Harry

 

[baggywrinkle]

Stelllarium comes well recommended.

http://www.stellarium.org/

[rob0971]

There is Carte due Ciel also.

http://www.ap-i.net/skychart/en/download

Not as nice looking as Stellarium, but not as resource hungry either.

[Kirscovitch]

+1 for Stellarium

[wxsatuser]

CdC for mount interface........Stellarium for general use.

[Scott]

exacly what wxsatuser has said. CdC for operating the mount and stellarium for browsing,,, if you want to operate your mount with stellarium, you'll need to download additional software

[stargazerslivingroom]

+ 1 For the above.

I have just added EQTOUR which links to EQMOD and in there you can create a series of targets. S @ N actually provide a monthly tour on their cover CD which can be taken in this way.

Alternatively, looking at some of the quality imager's signatures, there's Maxim DL but it ain't cheap.

Steve

[perfrej]

Stellarium for browsing and planning, nothing for controlling scope, but hey, that's just me

Sometimes TheSky X for planning mosaics and such, but letting it control your scope? Nope!

/per

[Squagnut]

I mostly use MyStars for planning. It's limited in that you can manipulate the view only in alt-az, though you can display alt/az and RA/Dec grids. What you can do is display the sky chart in real time animation, or animated at various speeds, which can make working out what's going on a very quick task. No telescope control, however, and for that I use CdC.

[andyo]

Stellarium coupled with stellarium scope for mount control be sure to check out settings- plug ins -oculars- configure and then enter the relevent info for your scope and camera then you can get an idea of how the dso will look on your sensor

[Ibbo!]

CDC or The Sky 6

Steve

[dkbender]

I got Stellarium 0.12.2 and Stellarium Scope ( the latest version for 0.12.2)  working tonight using my ASCOM driver for my mount.    It slews to objects from the laptop just fine now.

One thought I had was to get my scope and mount polar aligned, drift test it, fine tune it in, then use Stellarium to slew to the object I want to photograph, center it, fire up PHD and connect the AG camera and mount, let it sync and stabilize, then run the imaging sequence software and capture my images.   Sound reasonable?