Observing Aids - Stellerium

[Keiran]

Hi all newcomers,

I thought that i would share with you, unless you already have it, Stellerium.

'Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.

It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.'

Quote from http://www.stellarium.org/

Visit the link above and download you free copy.

It was recommended to me by other users on SGL, and I was not dissapointed. You will learn so much more about the sky, and it is so easy to use.

I hope this helps you like it has helped me.

Thanks for reading,

Keiran.

Screen shots found here.

[great_bear]

- just thought I'd add that Stellarium is especially useful if you live in a heavily light-polluted area, since you can change its settings to match your abysmal skies, and then use it as a tool when you come back indoors to identify what you were looking at.

Carte du Ciel is a useful tool to "graduate" onto after Stellarium, as it helps you understand what's happening in the sky with regard to lunar and planetary motion. I'd recommend the older version first (2.76) because its "animation" feature is so cool - and this has yet to be implemented in 3.x

[Keiran]

Thanks Great Bear...

http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/download.html

Im just downloading it....

[Keiran]

I have just found another piece of software for learning the moon.

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

[great_bear]

Yes - in fact the Virtual Moon Atlas software's written by the same guy that does "Carte du Ciel"

I also use Lunar Phase Pro (although not free)

The main thing I don't like about Virtual Moon Atlas (and similar software) is the horrible moon imagery that doesn't do justice to the moon's beauty at all.

[argonaut]

I've used Stellarium for years.It is now on a SD card for my netbook.

I also use SkyVoyager,StarMapPro and MoonMapPro on my iPod Touch,these are very good apps also.

Glen.

[Keiran]

Thats a good point....

Im using pUniverse for my iPhone and its free.

Its very much like stellerium, but on the iPhone.

[argonaut]

Not come across that,I'll have a look,thanks.

Glen.