Sky Charts (a.k.a. Cartes du Ciel) computes and prints customized charts of the heavens. When you download the program ("basic package") it comes with the Bright Star Catalogue (featuring stars down to mag. 6.5) and a database of 10'000 nebulae from SAC 7.2. Optionally, you may choose to download the "complete package", including also Sky2000, version 3, with 300' 000 stars to magnitude 9, high precision planetary satellites positions and Realsky support.

Anyway, the point is for you to later get additional free catalogues from its homepage, according to your interests and specific needs. For instance, Tycho-2 with more than 3 millions stars, down to mag. 12.1; a catalogue of 68'179 variable stars from GCVS, NSV and EVS; a database of 193'898 galaxies from PGC1999 catalogue etc, etc...

Main features offered include:

• about 30 catalogues of stars, star clusters, nebulae and galaxies;
• ability of demanding portions of star catalogues online so as to plot charts until mag. 20;
• facility of self-updating online, from different sources, the comet and asteroid elements databases;
• option to request from SkyView - Digital Sky Survey, and similar sources, real sky images of the region drawn on the chart - with the ability of superimposing and easily editing, filtering and chromatically juggling them;
• DDE interface allowing the joint use with VAROBS - another freeware by Patrick Chevalley, consecrated to variable stars;
• interface for telescope control;
• additional support of Real Sky and USNO Cds etc, etc...

DeepSkyStacker is a freeware for astrophotographers that simplifies all the pre-processing steps of deep sky pictures and is specialized in RAW files from DSLRs.

• Registering
• Stacking
• Simple post-stacking processes to quickly view the final result.
• Saving the resulting picture to a TIFF or FITS file (16 or 32 bit)

Features:

• Automatic registration of a set of pictures

• Automatic detection of stars using all the picture area

• Preview of registered stars

• Sub pixel registration

• Automatic derotation

• Automatic creation and use of offsets, flats and darks frames

• Sub pixel alignment and stacking

• Supported bitmaps formats : 8, 16 et 32 bit colour and monochrome TIFF files, 16, 32 and 64 colour and monochrome FITS files, JPEG, BMP, PNG

• Native use of RAW files from most DSLRs (CR2, NEF, CRW, ...) without using an intermediate file format (TIFF or other).

• Darks, Flats and Offsets computed from and applied directly to the RAW picture before any interpolation.

• Stacking methods: average, median, kappa-sigma clipping, auto adaptive weighted average, entropy weighted average, maximum...

• Preview of all pictures (including RAW)

• Simple post-processing with RGB levels, luminance curve and saturation adjustments.

• Save the resulting picture to 16 and 32 bit TIFF or FITS files with or without adjustments applied.

• Simple and intuitive user interface

• Optimal memory usage: the same amount of memory is required to register and stack 10 or 500 pictures.

• Optimal CPU usage: fully multithreaded with optimal use of duo/quad/multi processors.

• And much more...

In short: after a shooting night you give all your pictures (light frames, darks frames, offset/bias frames, flat frames) to DeepSkyStacker and you go to bed. The next morning you can see the result and start post-processing.

It's conceived to be easily usable "in the field" according to an observing session needs, but also to study "at home" the Moon and its relief. It's interfaced with "Sky Charts" freeware (above). This set is certainly now one of the most complete released.

It's possible to choose the language used by the software and database.

Files have been cut in several packages.

New features introduced in version 2 included :
- Introduction of "Moon complete globe" with Far Side;
- Simulation of a spatial flight orbiting the Moon;
- VMA is now separated in 3 modular versions;
-- AVL "Light”: 2D software for less performing hardware;
-- AVL "Basic”: Basic software presenting the "3D with librations" mode;
-- AVL "Expert”: Advanced software presenting the "3D complete globe" mode;
- New texture of complete globe realized with Clementine high resolution photos by professor Mark S. Robinson and his team of the "Northwestern University";
- More than 600 new Far Side craters and formations descriptions;
- Database corrections for some bad entries;
- New pictures library: "Moon Stars" 130 LOPAM pictures of the most famous lunar formations

News functions introduced with 2.1 included :
- Computerized goto mount support;
- Moon phase calendar.

You can explore real planets - like Mars and Earth - or use imaginary data.

Features:

• Over 120000 stars from the Hipparcos Catalogue with name and infos for the brightest ones.
• Planets and major satellites in real time, with a powerfull zoom mode to see them like in a telescope.
• Planet position computation now accurate enough for eclipse or transit simulation.
• Drawing of the 88 constellations with their names.
• Textured displaying of more than 70 nebulas (Orion, M31 etc..).
• Photorealistic Milky Way.
• Ground, fog, and landscape.
• Ultra fast realistic atmosphere rendering.
• Automatic eye adaptation to luminance.
• Star twinkling.
• Smooth real time intuitive navigation.
• Equatorial and altazimutal mode.
• Fisheye projection mode (e.g for planetarium dome).
• Grids in Equatorial and Azimuthal coordinates.
• Time control (real time and accelered time modes).
• Graphical menu for simple utilisation.
• Clikable stars, planets and nebulas with informations.
• Ecliptic and celestrial equator lines.
• Windowed and fullscreen modes.

This is the Windows version. Linux/Unix and MacOSX versions are also available.

It is offered without any restrictions, except it does not include some of the more advanced features the full version has to offer.

On the graphical side, it offers the classical representation of the celestial sphere; the situation of the sky over the local horizon; elongations and heliocentric position of the planets and a tool to draft/register your sunspot observations.

On the ephemeris side, it gives you access to a wide set of utilities with all expected calculations: current time in some twenty calendars; eclipses; conjunctions; seasons; distances; moon phases; conversion of coordinates; an option to list the objects by type seen over a given period of time and on a given constellation etc, etc... Also featured is an interface to record personal observations.

A MIDP1.0/2.0 midlet for most Java-enabled mobile phones (cell phones). Simulates whole sky at any point on earth with constellations, stars up to 6 mag, solar systems and some other celestial objects. It may be a useful tool when you are bathed under star lights with your cell phone in the pocket. This also gives you a serious and detailed guide of current sky above your head at your location.

Features:

Both Horizontal and Equatorial Coordinate Display of whole sky. 88 constellation names, 83 constellation stick figures, 10 messiers and stars up to mag 6.0 (5080 stars, and 50 common star names).
• All 8 planets plus Sun and Moon is calculated, information is displayed respectively on a seperate screen.
• Location and Date/Time can be set at startup.
• Applicable for any location on earth given a specific time.
• Auto update of celestial object positions.
• Sophisticated display control over all information on screen.
• Support English and Chinese display of celestial object name.
• Tiny 150KB compressed jar file. (All 6 mag stars insides, for version 0.08)

Features include:
. All stars brighter than magnitude 4.0 clearly visible in a graphic rendering of the sky. Dimmer stars needed to complete the constellation figures are also included, with an accurate reproduction of each star's color.
. Over 100 common star names, including all the standard navigational stars.
. Accurate calculations of the positions of the planets, Sun and the Moon for your location.
. An accurate representation of the current phase of the Moon.
. An intuitive way to determine what is in your sky currently, regardless of the size of your cell phone's screen.
. Wireless network access not required! If you're lucky enough to find yourself at a very remote dark sky site, all of picoSky features will still work. picoSky has completely self contained databases and harnesses the computational power of your cell phone to create a graphical representation of the sky.
. Geometric figures and names for all 88 constellations.
. Over 250 of the brightest and most popular deep sky objects, with each type (globular cluster, open cluster, galaxy, nebula, planetary nebula, and asterism) easily identifiable. If available its common name is also included.
. Search for and find any star, constellation or deep sky object in picoSky's databases and obtain detailed information for that object. A quickly accessible menu also gives you detailed information about the Sun, Moon and each planet. For example: Distance from the Earth and Sun for the planets, Moon, and Sun; Rise, Transit, and Set times ; Right Ascension and Declination coordinates ; Altitude and Azimuth coordinates ; The ability to view the object if above the horizon.
. View what will be or what was in the sky for any given date and time within thirty years from the present.
. Access to a database containing latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates for every telephone area code in the U.S. for simple location selection. Or for more precision, enter your exact location in degrees, minutes and seconds of latitude and longitude.

It includes catalogues allowing you to draw individual charts for all constellations (North and South Hemispheres, amounting to 92 charts); 40 generic charts covering all of the sky and seven «special topics» charts (the Pleiads, open clusters on the Milky Way etc...).

StarStrider is a fully three-dimensional planetarium and 'software star ship'.

You can visit not only the planets and moons of our solar system, but also hundreds of thousands of other stars. And you can view spectacular galaxies, cluster, nebulae!

Relativistic space-time effects such asaberration and Doppler shift are optional!

Requires a 3D-card. Anaglyph 3D-glasses (for true '3D stereo') and joystick are optional.

If you want to learn more about Astronomy, this program also has an on-line extensive Help.

It exports the results to .html, .csv (spreadsheet) and .txt formats.

Version 2 also includes an on-line automatic update feature and a basic sky simulator.

Also you can get detailed information of any object from the BSC 5.0 Edition. Beside that you can check out the positions of then planets and then moon over a period of 200 years(1900-2100).

designerSky is easy to use and handle. It runs on WinXP.

You need the ***Visual Basic Runtime libraries*** to run designerSKY. You can get them everywhere on the Net (e.g. here) or I can send it to you via email (size about 1 MB).

The program is still the Beta Version

Features include: you can fly anywhere in space; each star is depicted with its "real" color; you can filter stars by many parameters; simplified Wireframe of our Milky Way Galaxy is available; you can check a star in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram; finding a famous star by its names is available; you can study constellations.»

USED FILE FORMATS:
RegiStax can read/write many input/output file-formats. In version 3 the amongs webcammers popular RAW-AVI format has been added to allow direct processing.

INPUT
* NEW:Multiple AVI (bypassing the 2Gb filelimit)
* NEW: Direct RAW AVI debayering (incl. usage of raw darkframes)
* NEW: PNG lossless compressed files support (input 8/16 bit/channel)
* AVI (8 bit/channel; optimized for NON-compressed formats)
* BMP/JPEG (8 bit/channel)
* TIFF (8 and 16bit/channel)
* FIT (16 and 32 bit/channel; multiple channels in one file NOT supported)

OUTPUT
* NEW: Registered AVI-sequence output (non-compressed)
* NEW: PNG lossless compressed files (16 bit/channel)
* JPEG (8 bit/channel)
* BMP/JPEG (8bit/channel)
* TIFF( 16 bit/channel)
* FIT (16/32 bit/channel; multiple channels in one file NOT supported)

Features include:

REGISTRATION
The registration in RegiStax V3 has been optimized to run a lot faster and give the user more options to select images. The 3 new quality estimation methods allow better initial quality estimates.

OPTIMISATION

STACKING

WAVELET PROCESSING
The main power of RegiStax is located in the wavelet tab. This is where all the registered and stacked image information can be used by the user to enhance the image.

It can be used for serious astronomical study, or just to enjoy its amazing graphics.

- pass prediction results are presented in four modes: text/tabular, two local sky simulation modes, «satellite over an Earth map» mode;

- able to syncronize the PC clock with NTP servers over the Internet;

- able to self-update the TLE files;

- very easy to use and handle (especially for beginners);

- it is principally made for visual observing (namely for the ISS with a magnitude up to -1).

Alcyone Ephemeris is an accurate and fast astronomical ephemeris calculator covering the period 3000 BC to AD 3000. It calculates heliocentric, geocentric, and topocentric positions of the Sun (Earth), Moon, planets, minor planets, comets and fixed stars in ecliptical, equatorial, and horizontal coordinates (including angular differences between two bodies), with optional corrections for parallax and refraction; rectangular coordinates, velocity, apparent diameter, magnitude, phase, lunar libration, orbital elements, differences for all of these, and more. In addition Alcyone Ephemeris offers a wealth of functionality: star chart generation, 3D-visualization of heliocentric and planetocentric orbits, plotting ephemeris data (as a function of time or in a parametric plot), searching for specific values, data export (HTML, Excel, Text, CSV, XML), printing, and (PDF-/HTML-/RTF-) report generation. Access to the complete Bright Star Catalogue, calendar conversion, and an astronomical event calculator are available.
The ephemeris calculation is based upon Steve Moshier's analytical ephemeris using trigonometric expansions for the earth and planets and the lunar ephemeris ELP2000-85 of Chapront-Touzé and Chapront for the moon, both adjusted to Jet Propulsion Laboratory's DE404. There are further adjustments in Alcyone Ephemeris, some optional, to JPL's more recent DE406, the most accurate long-term ephemeris. Alcyone Ephemeris is fast. With an Athlon XP 2000+ processor, 100 calculations of geocentric longitude, latitude, and distance for the sun, moon, and all planets take about 2 seconds.
A comprehensive documentation includes tabular and graphic comparisons of calculations with HORIZONS Ephemeris generator . Alcyone Ephemeris is shareware and runs under Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista.

Features:

• 110,000 stars.
• 110 Messier objects.
• All the majour planets and moons.
• All the majour constellations.
• Realistic graphics
• Animation with lock-on function.
• View from any position on the Earth at any time
• Mirror view
• Night vision mode
• Configuable eye piece
• RA/DEC and Alt/Azi charts
• Asteriod veiwer with over 2000 asteriods

Some of the features include:

• PC Client ( can synchronize databases, get internet data like comets, asteroids, images and have a full batch image taker from the main surveys...)
• Celestial Calculators (CCD, Magnitude Limits...)
• Supernova Observation Tool
• Integrated with online DSS and SDSS images
• Double Stars (diagrams, WDS Catalog, logging tool...)
• Variable Stars (AAVSO Light Curves, GCVS Catalog, logging tool...)
• Precision Astronomical Clock
• Tours (Autostar, Enhanced commands...)
• Slide Shows
• Sky Maps
• Earth (weather maps, Aurora forecasts, Meteor Showers...)
• Sun, Moon and Planets ephemerides
• Asteroids and Comets ephemerides
• Telescope control
• Star Tales tool, Maps and plenty of other useful stuff...

The flash animation by default shows the local sky calculated to the latitude of Paris.

You may download the editable (.fla) source code (165 KB), customize it and a add a bit of your own creativity.

The zip file also includes an .swf, which should run on any PC/operating system with a flash plugin installed.

Freeware charting software oriented to deep sky astronomy, including 25 million stars (GSC1.2), 1.25 million deep sky objects, 2300 comets and 300,000 asteroids (all the additional databases are available in the link indicated above). The full instalation requires around 250 Mb HD space, depending on the additional databases selected. It can link image files to show them as one navigate in the maps. Multitabbed interface easy to use. Controls Meade LX200 classic telescopes. Includes some basic ephemerids calculation (more facilities currently under development) and prediction of visibility of stellar and nonstellar objects. It also includes annotations of the visual appearance of thousands of DSOs, and the user can introduce his/her own notes. It can overlay the maps on digital images to identify deep sky objects. It also includes a library with tables listing deep sky objects that can be used to jump to the maps clicking on them. From panoramic planetarium views to powerful maps exceeding 15 magnitude in stars and galaxies up to 18th magnitude. Comets and asteroids ephemeredes. Full VSOP87 theory for planets (accuracy ca. 0.05 arc seconds). Local updates (EXE file) 1.05.65 with fast DSOs picker downloadable from the complements webpage and paralax corrections for the situation of the observer on the Earth. Full setup files are now in MS Windows Installer 1.1

UPDATE 1.06.04: Speed increased (1.06.04 exe). More than 200 nebulae outlines. Quick deep sky objects picker to list DSO by constellations and/or object type, and see also photos or maps. Especial tabs to find the best instant and night of observation. Progressive finders. Several common objects lists (Messier+Dyer, Herschel''''s 400, etc). Main databases corrected and recompiled. New files available: Pluto, Moon, visual binary stars, asteroids and comets (JPL September 1st 2006 databases), Milky Way, constellation boundaries, DSOs outlines. Digital setting circles mode. Corrections in printouts and clipboard images. Eyepiece overlays. Earth-view maps integrated in the main maps. Local horizon editor (mountains, hills, buildings). Enhanced observing list viewer (All-sky, horizontal, ecliptic and galactic views, and gradual-zooms). Visual binaries with ephemeredes. List of the last visited objects. Milky Way outlines. Constellation boundaries. Customisable tabs to set user''''s zoom levels and N, E, W and S Earth-views. Cluttering decreased. Time picker to select certain instants (twilights, midnight, moon/sun set, rise and transit, etc)

Root author website: http://www.uv.es/jrtorres/index.html Root CNebulaX website: http://www.uv.es/jrtorres/CNebulaX.html

Internet downloadable, includes detailed electronic User's Manual & "Starry Night Companion"; view from any location on Earth or from any planet, moon, comet, asteroid, or star; easily locate space objects using the 'Find' command; easy to print star charts with smart labels; automatic Internet updates of hundreds of comets, asteroids & satellites.

The only problem is that it only allows a 30 day evaluation. After that it stops functioning

Note: This program is no longer under development.

It supports the long exposure mode of Vesta-SC webcams as well as the RAW mode.

Features include:

Multiple views
. Simple sky charts: horizon, zenith and ecliptic views.
. Interactive 3D orrery display.
. World map display.
. Moon phase display, including eclipse simulation.
. Galilean moons of Jupiter.
. Saturn rings display.
. Various charts showing movement over time.

Information panels
. Information panels for sun, moon and planets.
. Customisable database of comets and asteroids.
. More accurate than previous versions of Solun.
. Includes eclipse prediction for observer's location.

The lunar ephemerides are split in several windows: «Today», «Coordinates», «Appearance», «Orbit», «Calendar» and «Eclipse».

Includes a full featured Planetarium - yes, in .xls format and with all expected features: sky simulation; 3D solar system orrey, extended ephemerides tables for the planets and Moon (including a graph comparing it's apparent size etc...), graph depicting the visibility of the planets along a 24 hour period, ephemerides for all the Messier objects, Sun ephemerides with graphs, Jovian system simulation graphs, graphical simulation of Saturn, it's rings and satellites, day and night progression over an Earth map and a lot of miscellaneous calculations, including on the telescope optical parameters and CCD sides.

Note: requires MS Excel or compatible (the macros must be enabled).

The sky map in VITO AstroNavigator contains over 9000 stars down to 6.5 m.

AstroNavigator provides advanced search engine for star database and shows:

• all planets of our solar system;
• Sun and Moon;
• constellations;
• coordinate grids;
• names for all major stars and HR numbers for other stars.

C2A allows one to access the SAO star database (included in the installation package), Guide Star, Tycho-2, USNO-SA1.0 and USNO-A2 (these catalogues are not included in the program due to their massive size), it is also able to display field images transferred from the ESO DSS (Digitized Sky Survey) server over the Internet.
Regarding the deep sky, C2A is offered with two catalogues: the Revised New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue as well as one catalogue of deep sky objects based on RNGC and NGC2000. It also allows reading and plotting the pictures of the B-T Atlas, a unique catalogue of 6600 deep sky objects with 4649 associated images (not included with the program).

C2A possesses numerous functions (planetary positions, asteroid and comet tracking/plotting, ephemeris tables, local visibility conditions/graphic for any given object etc?).

It was conceived to offer great precision regarding the calculation of planetary positions in astrometric coordinates (and not in apparent coordinates), a facility required to compare the position of solar system objects with background stars. This is particularly useful for observing occultations.»

The author also offers separate downloads of updated orbital elements files (for comets and asteroids) and a few tools (such as compilers of the Guide Star Catalogue and of the Tycho-2 Catalogue, for those owning the CDs).

CyberSky has a versatile animation feature that lets you watch astronomical events unfold at whatever pace you desire. This feature is not only a lot of fun, it makes the program very well-suited for astronomy education. Many of the most basic and interesting astronomical phenomena can only be seen over weeks, months, or even years, or by observing the sky from widely separated locations on the Earth. CyberSky lets you do this--it places the sky under your control.

Some of the things Deepsky Beginner can do for you include :

• Show you what objects are visible tonight
• Create star charts and other finder charts
• View photographs of galaxies, nebula, and other objects
• Log your observations or enter them into a journal
• View real-time information on the Sun, Moon, and Planets
• Read observing notes from other people - over 8,000 included
• and much more!

Ever hear the phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words?"

With Deepsky Beginner, there's a picture for every deep sky object in the database. That's a whopping 10,000+ pictures! So when you are looking through the Deepsky database or viewing observing lists, you can always see a picture of any object there. It's an incredibly simple, yet powerful feature for software that costs under $30!

Enjoy your Night Time Observing

Start with a Plan! It's much easier to find what you want to look at inside where you have good lighting than it is outside in the dark. A little prep work beforehand using Deepsky Beginner will go a long way to making your observing sessions fun and productive.

Plan it, Observe it, Log it!

Whether you're looking for the Whirlpool Galaxy, or tracking the next famous comet, Deepsky Beginner's integrated easy to use tools will ensure you are right on target to see these wonderful sights.

Have a Celestron or Meade Computerized "GOTO" Telescope?

Let Deepsky Beginner take control to automatically find interesting objects to look at! With the click of a mouse button, your telescope will locate the object placing it in the center of your eyepiece. How easy is that?

Your first time

Imagine the fun and excitement of locating your first galaxy or nebula using your telescope. With its log book and journal, Deepsky Beginner will store that wonderful night's observations forever. It will even keep track of any notes, photographs, or sketches you make.

It's educational

Whether you are learning about constellations, deep sky objects, or treasure hunting the many features on the lunar surface, Deepsky Beginner's suite of easy to use tools will jump start your knowledge of the night sky.

Our Guarantee

We are so sure that you will love our Deepsky Beginner astronomy software that we will refund your money within 30 days if you are not satisfied for any reason. Simply send the CD back for a full refund.

Sideralis is a free sky chart for mobile phones supporting java and MIDP2.0, CLDC1.1.

• A lot of different objects:

  • More than 800 stars.
  • 5 planets: Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn.
  • Sun and Moon.
• 2 different views :

  • Horizontal view.
  • Zenith view.
• Information on all objects:

  • Name.
  • Magnitude
  • Distance
  • Azimuth
  • Height
• Current time or any time can be choosen.
• Selection of location by either entering latitude and longitude, by selecting a city among than 50 cities or by selection on a globe.
• Small dictionnary available giving some interesting informations about universe.
• Real time calculation - No network connection needed.
• Nice and simple user interface.

New features: