Shareware
Stella Theatre Pro V1.5e - This is the only English version to date, later renamed to Planetarium Pro (sold in cd-rom). It's an easy to use planetarium with several hot keys. Some odd terms used as the author is Japanese but otherwise very good. Very realistic and pretty representation of the stars. You can print your own starcharts with this too and it's only 1442kb.
SkyGlobe V3.6 - This planetarium is tried and tested and highly rated among many astronomers. Small DOS program. It's a shame the author seems to have stopped updating it. Useful tip: press 0 to save your present settings.
Skymap Pro - This is not just a planetarium but a more powerful software with many sophisticated features. Visit the official website for details on its features and download the latest evaluation copy.
LunarPhase - Graphically displays phases of the moon on any given date, current phase, info of major phases, calculates circumstances of lunar eclipses etc. Nice interface.
JupSat95 - Displays the position
of Jupiter's satellites and displays and prints satellite tracks diagrams
and GRS times. Full timezone support and northern/southern hemisphere
switching is provided.
Moonrise - Compact, simple to use program that displays moon phases, setting/rising times from any location you want.
Freeware
Homeplanet - There are 2 versions, lite and full and both are available free. Description of full features and differences are listed at the website.
StarCalc - Nice-concept software that allows plugins to enhance or add features to the planetarium. For eg, you can display stars in respective colours. Nice display & interface.
Hallo Northern Sky - Select the catalogues you want like SAO, PPM, Tycho2. Able to show occultations, positions of jupiter's moons, phases of the moon, venus etc. Highly recommended, thsi is my main s/w now.
Satellite Tracking
Instead of downloading software that has to be updated weekly, visit Heavens Above. An excellent resource which is highly accurate and has a very up-to-date database online. Configure it for your exact coordinates. They also have an excellent planetarium function, select "Whole Sky Chart".
Satspy - Windows shareware program for tracking satellites. Has a nice interface and skytraces but you do need to update the database by downloading free TLEs (Two Line Elements) from the website.
STORBIT Plus - Dos freeware that will track the space shuttle or any satellite for which orbital data (TLEs) are available.
VSOHP - This site has more TLEs and software available as well as further information.
Time Synchronizer
A time synchronizer standardizes your system time with any of a number of time services on the internet to ensure accuracy in your astronomy software when viewing starcharts and whatnot.
YATS32 - A simply great program and it has an unlimited time evaluation period too. Setup is quick and it's very easy to use. Get the latest version from the website.
|
