night sky / star exploration software on Windows

[jojo77m]

Hi
Can anyone tell me if there is a Windows software package that would allow me to zoom in to a specific area of the sky and print out the view as a high res image so that I can blow it up when printing.
The image I am looking for would include the cancer constellations (this view of the night sky would remind my girlfriend of our 1st picnic and prepare her for my proposal...she  thinks she saw a shooting star zooming across, I think it was a firefly....it's an on going joke).

I am sure there is, but a recommended package is always better than a random search

thanks
Jo

[Gutross]

there are two that come to mind for zooming in, as for printing im not so sure

Carte Du Ciel

http://ap-i.net/skychart/en/start

and stellarium

http://stellarium.org/

hope these help,

and it was likely a shooting star, ladies are always right when it comes to romantic settings

[Cornelius Varley]

Hello and welcome to SGL. There is an on-line skymap by Google http://www.google.com/sky/or you could download Stellarium  http://www.stellarium.org/ or Carte du Ciel (CdC) http://www.ap-i.net/skychart/en/start . Both Stellarium and CdC are free and I believe both have the facility to print out star maps.