Best Free Astronomy Software

Hi everyone just to say I will be taking over this article. I will be adding a few new applications in due coarse. Please if anyone has any suggestion or comments please do not be shy.

Coming next: Cartes du Ciel

Much depends on your need and skill level. Here are two that merit a look.

Home Planet - http://www.fourmilab.ch/homeplanet/homeplanet.html

Your Sky - http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/

Shooting stars 11, 12, 13 August

Check out the Perseid meteor shower for the next 3 nights, peaking on Wednesday night.

This is the biggest display of the year and comes round every August. It's the dust trail from the Swift-Tuttle comet.

The shooting stars can be seen in any part of the sky, but the central point is to the north-east in the region of the Perseus and Cassiopiea constallations.

Cass. is easy to find, it looks like a big W (or M) in the sky, with one side flattened, to the north-east as it rises.

Astronomy software - QuikReview

I've used (or tried to) 5 astro apps - Stellarium, Celestia, SkyOrb, Asynx, and the commercial benchmark/s, StarryNight Backyard & Basic.

My experience and user profile: I'm a long-distance solo sailboat cruising enthusiast who occasionally uses a sextant and astronav just for fun - to see if the GPS is working. And if I lose power then the sextant is gonna keep me off the beach :)

I know very little about anything here except some solar system basics and star IDs - but I prize app USABILITY above all else.

Stellarium - runs at 100% CPU load on the system I tried it on, so not much use. Have to assume it works OK on some PCs. Tried another PC but it would not install. Good star maps, easy to use, not as nice as Starry Night but fine for planet and star ID work. A heavyweight app, too much for low-resource machines ie old laptops used in boats. Takes ages to start up, longer than any other app I ever saw, including mega CAD apps or whatever. In contrast, StarryNight starts immediately and has the same or more info (but runs on the hated QuickTime).

Celestia - runs at 100% CPU load on the system I tried it on, so not much use. Have to assume it works OK on some PCs. Can't work out how to view star maps, very hard and non-intuitive to use, gave up and uninstalled it. NFG as far as I am concerned.

Asynx - has a whole-sky view of all stars viewable from any point on earth (?). No idea how to create skyview / starmaps from my location so it's no use to me. Uninstalled.

SkyOrb - would not install on the ATA-era PC I use for this stuff. Error message was "Needs at least a Pentium3 processor", which the PC has, so the error message is faulty. No use to me.

Conclusion: unfortunately the freeware apps have a million bugs unless you are on the latest whizzo machinery no doubt. But some people who want to use freeware have older PCs and/or only install non-work apps on their backup PCs, not their latest work machine - or use older hardware for remote locations, which is kind of applicable to astronav-type apps yes? Stellarium would be usable if you don't mind the faulty coding that means it runs at 100% CPU, and if it always installed. It doesn't.

I'll have to go back to StarryNight (payware) - does the job, runs on any machine, no hassles, does not go to 100% CPU load, ideal for star maps, excellent display of Feet. It just works. Only drawback is installing spyware eg QuickTime.

stellarium is user friendly too, asynx needs to be friendlier

Asynx Planetarium

Product Description:

Asynx Planetarium allows to enter any date between the year 1600 and 9999 and any location on earth and can see the planets from 3 different views. It has simple, fast and efficient controls with keyboard and can print every view to paper (hardcopy) or PDF (softcopy). Turn on and off stars, constellations and switch West to the left side of the screen.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/94826

And

SkyOrb:
SkyORB is a 3D planetarium,
star gazing and epheremis, based from V3X.net engine.
It features a modern 3D interface, search engine, a large catalog of
stars, planets, moons and updatable comets
satellites and asteroids database,
and let you choose see the actual sky from any point
on Earth or from any planet from the solar system.

http://www.realtech-vr.com/skyorb/

Don't forget

Sky Charts
Free program to draw sky charts
For use with Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP

http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/

In addition to Celestia and Stellarium.

I agree, Stellarium is the most comprehensive and well-laid out program I have seen around. Mind you, I've only really looked at Stellarium... :P it's great though!

Hi, could you take a look at Celestia and Stellarium?
They look very promising, but I haven't tried them out yet.