Q&A: looking for astronomy software?
blogadmin - Wednesday, 14 December 2011 11:18
Question by Mr.: looking for astronomy software?
Looking for software that will render a live 2d representation of the planets and their positions around the sun. Also forward date tracking would be nice.
Best answer:
Answer by Hero
http://order.ph.utexas.edu/clock/
What do you think? Answer below!
Starry night is a good one. they have different types and versions. Most of them can do what you described
Celestia is more of a tour software. Never got to grips with it myself but there are all sorts of add ons from that web site.
Download Stellarium, it’s fun, it’s free and it is as good as most of the stuff that costs over $ 100 / £100.
It shows you the sky from your house at THIS moment in time but you can change the clock to show you the sky next year, yesterday or even in the year one if you want to find the original christmas star.
You can zoom in on planets so ti is almost as good as a telescope.
Three good possibilities:
(1) Online – to get the positions of the planets, and basic sky-charts that you might see at any given time – go to http://www.heavens-above.com
(2) Free Download – Stellarium
http://www.stellarium.org/
(3) Free download – Celestia
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/