I'm not big into astronomy but I found this really cool freeware proggie that lets you do a bit of stargazing on your PC. It's called Stellarium and runs in real time, so you set your location as e.g. Johannesburg South Africa for me, and it will show you the stars, planets etc., as you see them when you walk outside.
You can then activate line diagrammes joining the stars that make up the constellations and activate their names on screen so you know what you're looking at. You can then also activate the artwork so pictures of the constellations are superimposed over the stars. Once you've seen the picture, it's much easier to go outside and identify them. Great for people like me who never got past the "there's Orion's belt" stage.
The planets are modelled from actual photos, so when you zoom in, you see them in good detail and in the actual phases they're in in real time. During the day, you can switch off the "atmosphere" (sunlight) and see the heavens as though it were night. Click on any body and it gives details of it e.g. distance from earth etc.
I'm amazed that such a powerful proggie could be free and was impressed enough to be moved to share it. Download Stellarium here: http://www.stellarium.org/
Don't forget the "User's guide" while you're there, if you're as 'astronomical' as I am, you're going to need it.
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Originally Posted by aiasib
