Stellarium
A free, open source, and easy-to-use desktop planetarium
Stellarium is a virtual 3D planetarium program. By installing this application on your computer, you will be able to observe the starry sky, approaching and removing objects on it. The Stellarium comes with a catalogue containing about 600,000 stars. You can also download additional catalogues that include more than 200 million stars in total. The panorama of the starry sky is displayed in a realistic way, based on the geographical coordinates you have entered and the time of day. The program is able to display sunsets and dawns, the moon and the solar system, meteors, the Milky Way and other objects that you can see in the real sky. In addition, you can enable azimuth and equatorial mesh display, adjust star blinking, emulate eclipses and supernovae. The program provides the widest possibilities for setting up a virtual planetarium - you have the ability to customize landscapes and transparency of the atmosphere, add images of nebulae, use the wide-angle lens "fisheye" and much more. Stellarium supports a variety of plugins that allow you to display artificial satellites, control a virtual telescope, etc. The program can be controlled via the command line and has a built-in scripting engine - scripts for it you can download from a special repository.
Stellarium provides a realistic, customizable virtual 3D planetarium experience, enabling users to explore over 600,000 stars and celestial objects.
- the broadest possibilities for realistic simulation of the starry sky;
- more than 200,000 stars in the default catalogue and more than 2,000,000 stars in additional catalogues;
- support for scripts and plugins;
- the ability to fine-tune the display of stars, atmosphere and landscapes.
PROS
Offers extensive catalog of stars, galaxies, and planets.
Free, open-source and cross-platform compatible.
CONS
Limited built-in planetarium features.
Occasional performance issues and software crashes.
