Open-source and currently in use by planetarium projectors, cross-platform 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. Be aware that it only runs 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 that 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 are a bit hard to find, but there is a nifty record feature to make your own planetarium shows. Some of the interface features could be revamped and improved, including the somewhat confusing options settings and the hard-to-see interface controls. 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, will be impressed with Stellarium. Fortunately, that could be any of us.
The way things have gone this week, you'd be hard-pressed to find a mention of anything not related to Google Chrome.
Now that we've gotten the obligatory nod out of the way, it turns out that cross-platform Stellarium is one of the coolest apps around.
Full sky view of the constellations, their boundaries, and the Milky Way.
(Credit: Stellarium)It won't report on your Web surfing habits, either.
Open-source and currently in use by planetarium projectors run by Digitalis Education, it brings astronomer-level features to star-gazers of all levels of interest. It's not quite as robust as Google Earth or Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope, but it's also a much faster program. It loads at--well, not quite the speed of starlight, but it doesn't suck away your RAM into a black hole when loading or running. Running a Web browser or e-mail client simultaneously won't crash your computer, either. However, to further the planetarium simulation experience, it only runs in full screen mode, making any other programs you're running inaccessible except for the ALT+Tab switcher.
On with the show. As I mentioned, the feature set is heavenly, and this is with the program still in beta. 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 my 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.
Search for a planet, nebula, constellation or a specific star. Press enter, and Stellarium centers on the object. This is Earth from the moon Phobos, orbiting around Mars.
(Credit: Stellarium)Some of the visualizations were pretty cool, too. Besides equatorial and azimuthal grids, users also get shooting stars when appropriate, eclipse simulation, and skinnable landscapes. Because this is a computer simulation, and not an observatory in the Andes, Stellarium incorporates star-views from the Moon. I'd like to see other objects in our solar system added as locations.
Along with being full screen, the interface de-emphasizes its presence. Controls live in the lower left corner and are transparent--some users might find them hard to see. When tweaking options, though, a standard Settings box opens. There's a nifty record feature in the interface, too, so that you can create shows that highlight specific constellations or other stellar objects. Labels appear when you mouse over a planet or star, and stay in view once you click on them.
Once I got the hang of the atypical navigation, I couldn't find much to complain about except that when you run the program for the first time it asks that you set your current location. Unless you know your exact coordinates, easy enough to look up on the Web, 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.
Google takes a gander at a galaxy.
Google just launched a new version of Google Earth (news, download) from which you gaze up from the surface of the planet, not just down on it. It's a good way to see which stars and planets are over your home, right now. You can also check out a rich database of Hubble Space Telescope images that is overlaid on the celestial map.
The new Google Earth has a lot of additional education and reference material linked to it, pulled in from the Net as needed. The program is a great way to learn about the night sky. It has two big limitations, though: your point of view is limited to Earth (you can't see the stars from other locations) and you have an extremely limited control of time. If you want to see where the planets were on your birthday, for example, you can't.
If your curiosity about the universe bumps into Google Earth's edges, I'd recommend also checking out these two applications:
Celestia (download) is a 3D simulation of the galaxy. Its special power is not its imagery (Google's is better, although Celestia does a good job with planets and asteroids in our solar system), but rather that you can zoom in on any object in the program's database and see the galaxy from that perspective. You can also see the position of stars at any point in time and can control the rate of time's passage to see how objects move over the millennia.
Stellarium (download) is a gorgeous planetarium for your computer. Its sky and star visuals are a lot more compelling then either Google's or Celestia's, although Stellarium does not have detailed Hubble overlays. Like Google, it's Earth-bound (you can't move your point of reference), but like Celestia, it gives you good control over time so you can see the heavens wheel about. My favorite feature is that it will also overlay constellation lines from other cultures (Chinese, Inuit, and so on); Google only shows the Western constellations.
There are also Web-based online planetaria. They have good data, but they don't give you the smooth visual controls that the downloadable applications do. See Sky-map.org, WikiSky (review), and YourSky. You can control a powerful stargazing telescope yourself via the Web at the pay site Slooh (review). There are also astronomy gadgets covered over on our gadget blog, Crave.
Finally, if the real galaxy doesn't appeal to you, check out the collaborative work of fiction called Galaxiki. Be advised that it was named one of the "Five stupidest start-ups of the summer" by Valleywag.
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