Free sky/planetarium software

[darkskybondi]

So far the most easily accessible program I've found is Skyglobe (http://astro4.ast.vill.edu/skyglobe.htm) (this link is just one of many - it is DOS-based and by an apparently defunct company so there are plenty of people distributing it on the web). It is great because it tells you precisely what's in the sky NOW. I'm new to the hobby and I located Orion with binoculars, confirming with Skyglobe. The only problem I have with it is when you switch to another window, Skyglobe seems to pause its keeping of time. A little annoying but otherwise an amazing app.

The only other one I've found worth noting so far is Stellarium (http://sourceforge.net/projects/stellarium/) but it is uber-buggy. It crashed my laptop, and before it crashed it, slowed it down heaps. Couldn't even dim the screen. But what it does (edit: when it's working) is simply excellent - check it out, if you haven't already.

Do you have any software that you can recommend for beginners? DOS-based stuff would be great. Perhaps you know of something better than these two. Sharing is caring!

Also, are the pro apps like Starry Sky and TheSky any good? ($$$)

- DSB

[Coen]

StarCalc: http://www.relex.ru/~zalex/main.htm
Easy to use, has most the features you'd want, can add a number of data bases.

Cartes du Ciel: http://www.ap-i.net/skychart/
This is an involved programme that is not always easy to use but can add many many catalogs etc. and print good maps.

CNebulaX: http://www.uv.es/jrtorres/index.html
More of a planning tool, learning curve but lots of great features.

HNSky: http://www.hnsky.org/software.htm
Hallo Northern Sky but actually goes south too. Similar to StarCalc as compared to CdC or CNX.

Virtual Moon: http://ap-i.net/avl/en/start
Focussed only on the Moon but handy for identifying things.

So far all Windows programmes. And there are plenty more out there.

Ricci's page: http://www.pierpaoloricci.it/download/downloadsoftware_eng.htm
Has lots of material to link too.

Already mentioned Stellarium - v0.10 is not as buggy as others; I have it running fine.

What are the specs of the laptop? Stellarium uses a high frame rate - turn that down in the options and you might find it work better for your machine.

No comment on the $ ones.

[darkskybondi]

I'm running a Centrino 1.7GHz with 1 gig of RAM, integrated graphics chip whose specs I don't know but it isn't great. I'll try doing as you suggested and let you know how it goes!

What I like about Stellarium and Skyglobe is that they are live simulation software... I'm running StarCalc now, for instance, and it doesn't seem to simulate the night sky so much as produce a star map. Which of the programs you suggest are simulations? Do you think star maps are better than simulations?

[Coen]

None are simulations (in the sense I think the word is being used) unless you count clicking an auto-update type feature (on StarCalc it is the bicycle button on the top left).

Simulations vs star maps - depends on what you are used to and what your personal preference is. Probably also depends upon whether you wish to drive a telescope with the software.

I am more comfortable with star maps myself as after a while the regular auto-updating just become annoying to me as the screen keeps moving.

There are that many tools out there, that many data bases and that many different approaches for the simple reason that there is no one size that fits all. Find something that works for you, improves your enjoyment of the hobby and there is bound to be software out there that supports some part of it.

[darkskybondi]

Tried Stellarium again. Switching to Firefox to read your post while I was in Stellarium was extremely slow. And then it froze and crashed the computer.

There seems to be no way to reduce the frame rate from within the program. I'm using 0.10.0. Some sites on the web state that Stellarium has a "frame rate limiter" but there seems to be no way to adjust the frame rate manually. Do you know how?

[Coen]

Nope. Sorry.

[Octane]

darkskybondi,

Starry Night Pro Plus is the bomb. I use it for all my astrophotography planning, framing and compositions. It's also just fun to fly around and check out what's in the sky.

The All Sky Image option in Pro Plus 6 is brilliant.

Nothing (that I've used, anyway) is better.

Regards,
Humayun

[bojan]

CdC rules... especially because it is free :-)

[darkskybondi]

Thanks for the advice, Octane and bojan. I will look into these. I still can't work out why Stellarium crashes and burns on me - such a good program but it just freezes my laptop dead.

Bojan - I tried CdC and it seems to be more sky-charting than planetarium. Can you confirm?

The thing I love about these Planetarium programs is, while I'm learning the night sky, I can go "Oooh, that's a bright object there, and I was expecting Saturn to come up around 1am, is it Saturn?" and a quick glance at that spot in the sky on the simulation software will confirm. Love it!

[bojan]

CdC is sky charting also... actually it started as such. But it calculates the orbits of planets (and comets and asteroids.. if you choose ). When you track the object it will "simulate" with time lapse as defined in the tracking control box. Position accuracy is standard for today's standards (which means, VERY accurate. But so are others.. they all use the same set of formulas, work by Jan Meeus). Mars and moon appearance (features as visible from Earth) is displayed accurately, for Jupiter you have to enter Red spot longitude..
All planet's moon's orbits are calculated as well and displayed.. so it is simulator as well, at least to my definition :-)
And to yours actually as I can see.. you only have to accept and get used to slightly different format of information at your desktop :-)
True, CdC does not display things on the sky quite as they appear to the eye.. but I can assure you, very soon you will not be after that :-)

If you really want simulation, try Celestia: http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

This is 3D simulator of space...very easy to play with . But somewhat clumsy as planetarium (or, sky-charting programme). The idea is to see how things look like from any position in space.. anywhere within our Galaxy (well, only in principle. because data exist only for nearby stars, as measured by Hipparkos). Of course, you will disregard optional model data related to Star Trek etc :-) they are there for those who are into this kind of stuff.

[Barrykgerdes]

The 0.10.0 beta release of Stellarium is only to show the new core platform and to sort out some bugs before the release of 0.10.1. The updated program still has some problems that are being sorted out now. and version 1.0.0 is still some distance off. Note: the FPS problem has been sorted out in later builds of the source code.

The most recent relatively stable version is 0.9.1 which may suit most people better. The program is getting quite intensive now as more features are added and as it is a real time program needs lots of video memory, main memory and powerful processors.

The new program has dropped the dependancy on SDL and now uses Trolltech's Qt as the main platform. This is a relatively new platform and is quickly evolving as the way to go however it is still under development and has had three major upgrades in the last year each allowing better operation of Stellarium. The five Qt dll's used with Stellarium have also been upgraded three times. Thus many features in the new builds require the latest version of the dll's as well.

To have a look at the latest developments you can download the beta version 0.10.0 then go to this site.
www.geocities.com/wendygblyde (http://www.geocities.com/wendygblyde)
and down load the current portions of the latest builds to upgrade the beta version to where the program was last week. Read the readme files and follow the instructions.

Barry

[Ford Prefect]

I'd be pointing the finger at your integrated graphics chipset, IMHO, such things often have very little VRAM. The freezing says to my inexpert ears "not enough memory".

I don't think CdC is quite so graphics intensive, in terms of VRAM needs, but that's just my impression (ie not based on any stated system requirements).

See if you can find out Stellarium's hardware requirements, and see if your grapghics card is up to scratch.

[Barrykgerdes]

These figures are based on XP SP2 and 3 or Vista SP1. Using Intel and Gforce graphics as well as the SiS. They should hold for Windows 2000 SP4 but earlier versions don't always work

Stellarium 0.10.1 runs quite steadily on a pentium 4 with 512 MB of main memory and an integrated SiS video card with 32MB memory. You do need openGl drivers for the video card. Make sure you have the latest versions. There are some problems with earlier OpenGl drivers.

With a 1024 x 768 display the frame rate on my installation is 14 Fps. Earlier versions of Stellarium ran at up to 25 Fps. At a screen size of 1680 x 1050 the display slows considerably down to 6 Fps and If I load star catalogues 7 or 8 down to about 4 Fps. More video memory should speed up the frame rate.

To load all 8 star catalogues even with mmap loading needs about 1.5GB of RAM

With the minimum RAM I have available the screen sometimes locks up if I click on some areas of the loading screen while the program is loading but once the program has loaded it is quite stable for me. This is a video memory problem.

Barry

[darkskybondi]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I am a bit surprised; as I said I'm running a Centrino 1.7GHz with 1 gig of RAM. It could indeed be the graphics chip which has only 64 megs. Nothing I can do about that, though!

Any way to limit the frame rate?

To be honest, all I want is a cleaner Windows-based version of what Skyglobe does... in fact, a DOS version would be fine, too.

BTW, Barry, are you saying that if I get version 0.9.1 it should run without crashing?

- DSB

[Barrykgerdes]

You did not say what graphics card you have. Version 0.9.1 should work OK. but so should version 0.10.1 particularly if you have 64MB of video memory. If you are getting crashes I would suspect the video drivers. I can run 0.9.1 on Windows 98 in one of my computers.

Barry

[darkskybondi]

It only seems to crash when I try to switch applications. So I switched off all the fancy stuff (ground, atmosphere, twinkle - everything but stars) and things till got extremely slow when I switched apps but I managed to get out of Stellarium before a total crash.

It's frustrating because it's such a great program.. where can I get 0.9.1?

- DSB

[Barrykgerdes]

Ah
That explains it. Stellarium takes most of the processor capacity. When you try to run another program as well there is not enough CPU or video capacity. Do you get an error saying that another surface can't be created or words to that effect.

I can run a word processor and even the internet but if I try to run photo shop it slows stellarium to a crawl .01fps so I do not run any background programs with stellarium. My computer is not powerful enough.

Barry

[darkskybondi]

Thanks Barry - I tried quitting everything and running Stellarium but same thing happens. Getting over 20fps but when I resize Stellarium, even clicking on a desktop icon takes seconds. So basically Stellarium will run great, even with Firefox running a dozen tabs, just so long as I stay inside Stellarium! Weird.

The desktop 0.01fps, with no other apps running, is inexplicable!

Nevertheless, thank you. I appreciate the assistance! And if your observatory has public viewing sessions or star parties, please tell me!

Kind regards
DSB

[Barrykgerdes]

I always start stellarium in a window. That often helps. Edit the config.ini file.

I don't have public sessions but the telescope is ready to run at any time and anyone dropping in gets to see whatever they want. It is surprising how many want to see the moon when it is not even above the horizon. You are probably a bit far away for the drop in though. Email me.

Barry

[darkskybondi]

Thanks Barry. Will do!

Merry Xmas! :)

[darkskybondi]

Gotta tell you guys - I've had a look at the commercial programs that my friends have, and I'd venture to say that Stellarium beats them all. Certainly does what I want it to do at an unbeatable price (ie zero). A phenomenal program. If only it were stable on my computer!

- DSB

[MrB]

One nice thing about CDC, it runs on almost anything.... I have it on an old 90MHz laptop with only 24meg RAM and Win98se and it runs fine.... never had a problem, a bit slow in 'animate' mode, but otherwise fine.