I do a lot of imaging and find the integration between theSky, pinPoint, MaxIm and CCDAutopilot suits perfectly. I mainly use theSky to perform coordinate lookups and mount control; theSky never crashes and whilst large, it hasnt let me down yet.
There are lots of choices and, like most folk here, I've just about tried them all, but the only one I always come back to - in fact, never stop using - is Cartes du Ciel.
Another good one is HNSky (or 'Hallo Northern Sky'). It's free, and will run on just about any old piece of junk computer.
Then there's XEphem, for those who like things Linuxy/Unixy, although there is a Windows version also.
The huge and relatively expensive apps like Starry Night and TheSky are fine, but for me the freebies such as CdC, HNSky, Stellarium and XEphem are also the "besties".
Thanks Zaps, a few more for me to download including the Linux ones........
