Free Astronomy Software

The subject of ufos, crop circle and other weird paranormal can increase your interest in the worl of astronomy You can find here a list of astronomy software that are open sources, and free of charges. they are a great way to explore that field, some of them are very graphical which brings a great experience for all audiences. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, please don't hesitate to contact me. Celestia Celestia is one of my favorite 3D astronomy program.It uses the Hipparcos Catalogue, most object have a link with detail information, from artificial satelite to galaxies. Even NASA have used Celestia in their programs. Not only it is an open source software, which means free, it runs on many platforms such as Windos, Linux and Mac! Stellarium Stellarium is another free software planetarium, and is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. This program is great to render a realistic sky in real time. You can use this program to see what you cannot see at the naked eye or small telescope, so it's a great choice. WorldWide Telescope WorldWide Telescope is a great graphical experience. Part of Microsoft Research, this program provides detailed information on specific subject, sucjh as the exploration of Mars, but is also able to reach any audience for its "wow" presentation. Free software that brings lifelike 3D rendering. WinStars Winstar is another great program that permits you to view celestia object from space, or look at a reprenstation of the sky in real time. It is not as graphic as other programs, but very educational. Kstars KStars is also a planetarium program that can provide a representation of the sky, from any location and also at any time. Sadly, for now, the program is only for the KDE desktop or for Unix-like operating system. So no Windows user. PP3 PP3 is a free software that produces sky charts, focusing on high quality typography and graphics. Avaible for Windows or Linux, Wikipedia charts are actually produced by PP3.