- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.3
- Date added: September 12, 2007
- Total Downloads: 4,534
- Downloads last week: 44
- See full specifications
A newer version of Stellarium (OS X) is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 10 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff
Open source and currently in use by planetarium projectors, Stellarium brings astronomer-level features to stargazers of all levels of interest. It's not quite as robust as its competitors, but it's also a much faster program. It doesn't suck away your RAM into a black hole when loading or running. It does run only in full screen mode, making any other programs you're running inaccessible except for the ALT-Tab switcher.
The default catalog includes 600,000 stars, with upgrade modules that can push the count up to 210 million stars. The constellations of 10 different cultures are included, as well as illustrations and asterisms to help you visualize what the ancients saw. There's a full Messier catalog of nebulae, too. The dawn, dusk and atmosphere backgrounds were good, but not great on our monitor. They probably look better on a planetarium dome, which is why it's useful that Stellarium also includes a fish-eye view for curved surfaces. Besides equatorial and azimuthal grids, users also get shooting stars when appropriate, eclipse simulation, and skinnable landscapes. Stellarium incorporates star-views from the Moon.
The controls live in the lower left corner and are transparent--a bit hard to find. The nifty record feature is somewhat hampered by the dark interface. When you run the program for the first time it asks that you set your current location, but the mouse-over map of the world was too small to use easily. Stellarium should appeal both to users who need something more academic and less distracting than Google or Microsoft's offerings, as well as those who have a need for an open-source planetarium. Fortunately, that could be any of us.
Publisher's description
From Stellarium :Stellarium renders 3D photo-realistic skies in real time. With stellarium, you really see what you can see with your eyes, binoculars or a small telescope. Version 0.9 adds Various bug fixes and enhancements.
What's new in this version:
Version 0.9 adds Various bug fixes and enhancements.
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User reviews of Stellarium (OS X) 0.9
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Version: Stellarium (OS X) 0.9
Pros: It's great being able to check out the night and day skies with lots of flexibility.
Cons: Originally did ver 0.8, worked great. Just did 0.9 and it opens but the clock stays at open time and does not run like ver 0.8, must be a bug. Also ver 0.9 won't let me change settings, button is unresponsive. I also wish this ap (either ver) could be minimized or scaled like other Mac aps, can't, you have to shut it down to do anything else.
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