Open source software has come a long way. Enter Stellarium. Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.
Stellarium is a Free and open source software project that is available for multiple platforms including Windows, Linux and even OS X. The linux download is offered as a source package that needs to be compiled on your computer.
My first impression of Stellarium was pretty good. The graphics quality is just fantastic, it definitely beats the hell out of Winstars or Kstars. I would say that the program inteface is comparable to Imaginova's Starry Night. I have a copy of Statty Nights Special Edition, and Stellarium just blows it away. By default the program carries a catalogue of 60,000 stars
The first thing to check is how accurate is the program. So I feed in my Location as Patna in Bihar, and the date as 22nd July 2009, around 6:30 am IST. This is the time of totality of a solar eclipse that passed through India recently. See project Sunshine . Stellarium was right on showing totality at the correct moment.
Totality simulated by Stellarium in Patna on July 22nd 2009 at 0630 IST, CLICK image to enlarge
The shading was also smooth with ambient light toning down during totality.
So lets see what the interface looks like. The program has all the typical planetarium program features, changing time/location, toggle DSOs, constellations, constellation asterisms, labels etc. Although I must say that the the constellation art was pretty gaudy.
Screenshot of Stellarium with DSO labels on, CLICK image to enlarge
Another good feature I liked about Stellarium's is its ability to simulate limiting magnitude, It shows you far fewer stars if the moon is in the field of view, and as soon as you take it out the night sky brightens up
Whats more, Stellarium allows you to set up your own personal planetarium inside a dome. All you need is a computer running Stellarium, a dome, a projector and a spherical security mirror. Now that is really cool!
Stellarium also can take control of your telescope and has been interfaced to Celestron and & Meade controllers. To see a list of compatible scopes CLICK HERE
To visit the Project page visit http://www.stellarium.org/
