what planetarium program do you use?

[mch62 (Mark)]

I have just recently tried Stary Nights 4.52 and find it quite good , and after doing some research on the web see that Stary Nights and The Sky appear to be very popular , in the states at least .
Any one else using the Sky or another chart prgram down under like to share there views on it.
Mark

[Daring Dave]

Gday

Im currently using Star Explorer and Pocket Stars for PC.

Im one of the few that dont think much of Carte du Ciel ...



Im also trialling Astro Helper which is a proggy designed for dobs..

Cheers

DD

[iceman (Mike)]

I use Starry Nights occassionally, and CDC occassionally, but if i'm just after a quick peek at where the moon or planets will be at a certain time, I use the Interactive Sky Chart on the S&T website.

StarryNights is a fabulous program, but needs a beefy PC to run it well. CDC does the job, but I don't like it that much, it's user interface leaves a lot to be desired.

Dave, what's AstroHelper? Do you have a link? What makes it good for dob owners?

[gbeal]

I use SkyMap Pro, and Guide (7).
In the prehistoric laptop I have where I observe (hanger), I only have SkyMap Pro installed, but with self installed encoders it still allows DSC abilities, and of course as a general star chart it is very good.
Guide is more in depth, but to my mind can be intimidating, and more than is required.
Gary

[dsturnbull]

xephem!

[Mick (Michael)]

I use Sky Charts it's free and I can use it to drive my Lx90. I would buy SkyMap Pro if I had to buy a program, I have used the demo version and like it a lot

[Mick (Michael)]

Astro Helper is very nice Dave, I've just downloaded it and I like the print list option. I have a dob so this program will be an asset, thanks

Astro Helper http://casazza.net/astrohelper/

[rumples riot]

I use Autostar suite, mainly because it is for my scope, but found it to be quite good, however it does have a few defects, like crashing when doing guiding and sometimes when I am doing planetary imaging.

Paul

[Saturn%5 (Graeme)]

For Me its Starry night pro

[mch62 (Mark)]

Graeme it flies on the desk top but it sure slows down on the lap top . The laptop does not have open Gl support and that is were it is slowing down.
Still quite usable though.
Mark

[iceman (Mike)]

Mark that's what's stopping me from installing StarryNight on the laptop, it'll just slow to a crawl and I don't want all the processing power trying to run starrynights while k3ccd tools drops frames as a result!

Not to mention, it's > $200 and I've got better things I want to spend my money on, when as Jason said, there's some good free ones out there.

btw Hi Jason welcome to the forums! Nice to see you here!

[mch62 (Mark)]

Have been using Cartes du Ciel for a couple of years now as I have been to stinggy to buy a program , but came across a copy of Stary nights and quite like some of it features . Particualrly the FOV feature of your scope binos CCD eyepieces on the charts
Have now just got a copy of The Sky level one with my new refractor.
Have tried it and find it easier on the lap top , but a bit bland when it come to features .
Has any one got the next levals .
Are they any better?
Mark

[ving (David)]

i use Carte du Ciel on my desk top, but havent run the program for ages.

i use planetarium on my palm pilot most of the time.

[silvinator]

hi all, i use starry night pro 4.5. it's a great program that allows you to control the scope as well as being pretty to look at. but for all the prettiness to run well, you definitely need a more powerful system. Mark, I have the same problem: it runs fine on the desktop but i have to turn off openGL in order for it to run at all on my laptop. the new version 5 is out now but it will be too expensive to upgrade methinks and probably not much more worth it. i particularly like the FOV feature as well. otherwise, for a quick squizz at what's in the sky, it's S&T sky charts for me.

[Orion]

Hi,
I use Starry Night on the computer at home and a program called Astroplanner on the laptop when I'm outside with the telescope. It's a great program
Ed.