[sutekh (M)]

Merlin66,

UCAC4 would add missing stars and improve my sample chart. I haven't installed UCAC4 yet because maybe I'm misreading the ambiguous comment on the UCAC4 download page:

"You can get only the stars visible for you. i.e. a northern hemisphere observer can get only the North and Equator files."

Sounds like this means, "You can choose to get only the stars visible to you..."

But getting back to the main thread: my experience is that CdC has the best display of stars -- the other freebie programs show the stars as tiny pixels that are difficult to distinguish from each other. (Check out screenshots of HNSky for the most obvious example.) Most planetarium programs have contrast/brightness settings to change the appearance of the stars, though, so the verdict is still out on the planetarium program that "best" displays stars.

-- sutekh