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mojo
09-06-2005, 04:34 PM
A few reviews of some opensource astronomy software.
http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/05/24/2132229

Although I still think KStars (http://edu.kde.org/kstars/index.php) is great. Works extremely well with the LX200 as well.
[1ponders]
09-06-2005, 06:14 PM
hey Terry how do you load Kstars. I've unpacked it using winrar but end up with a file extensions .out, any suggestions?
[1ponders]
09-06-2005, 06:20 PM
Ok I removed the .out extensions and unpacked again using winrar. but the install file isn't recognized?
mojo
09-06-2005, 06:23 PM
It is a Linux application you realise?
[1ponders]
09-06-2005, 06:37 PM
No... I told you before Technical ungenious:P:doh::ashamed:
mojo
09-06-2005, 11:56 PM
heh. sorry. my fault. in my world, windows is not ubiquitous.
[1ponders]
09-06-2005, 11:57 PM
As soon as I saw "opensource" I should have known. :P Too excited about trying out a new planetarium program:D
MiG
05-07-2005, 05:50 AM
Sounds like it's source code, so it needs to be compiled too.
It's like getting sheetmusic when you actually want a recording.

As far as I know, the Knoppix livecd has Kstars on it. So you download the livecd, burn it to a cd, and boot your computer off it. You'll get a linux desktop and in the menus will be kstars. Reboot your computer and you're back to Windows.
Soldant
06-07-2005, 12:57 AM
Good reason for me to get back into kubuntu.
Looks like a nice substitute for Starry Night.

I love OpenSource software.
janoskiss
06-07-2005, 02:09 AM
If you're after high-performance free astro software, you can't go past Xephem. You can get it from clearskyinstitute.com (http://www.clearskyinstitute.com/xephem/). But it is not recommended for the trigger happy Windows user. Xephem is not a toy!

It is essentially UNIX software (includes MacOS/Linux) but also runs on Windows under Cygwin. If you're a Windows user who never heard of Cygwin, you probably should not bother... but you might want to check Cygwin out anyway just to see what you're missing.

One of the great things about Xephem is the library of objects available. It's pretty easy to download and work with all kinds of celestial objects, from space junk to asteroids to faint (~ mag 16) stars.

For semi-braindead look at what's up I prefer xplns (http://www.astroarts.com/products/xplns/index.html). The program is very fast and simple but you can still select the type of projection and what DSOs you want up to what magnitude.

Xephem tells me that Mars is up and visible and I have a little refractor waiting for me outside, so bye for now.