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Sources of astronomy freeware and shareware programs


The following are some sites where software of general astronomical interest for home PCs can be downloaded. Planetarium programs show the night sky from a particular site, such as your home town; some come with extra catalogues for fainter stars and other objects. Most of those listed are free.

Home websites of some astronomy programs

StarCalc - an excellent, compact, free planetarium program for Win95 or later.
Stellarium is a free download planetarium program with impressive graphics. Available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X.
Alphacentaure - free planetarium program, for Win95 or later.
Hnsky - free planetarium program, for Win95 or later.
Skycharts / ciel - free, for making starcharts, for Win95 or later.
Planet's Orbits - an excellent 3-D simulation of the solar system, complete with asteroids, for Win95 or later. V1.0 is free from this site, from V1.5 it is shareware. Free "Planet Visibility" program is also available here.
Homeplanet - a free multifunction program, one of an eclectic collection of astronomy software and applets on John Walker's website.

Monthly Night Sky Maps

Maybe all you want is to print a starchart for this evening?
Skymaps produce excellent monthly charts for both the Southern and Northern hemispheres.

Make your own planisphere

Starrylady planisphere for 30 - 35 degrees South, made simply by printing two jpg images.
Planisphere v2.0 - program for Win95 or later for designing your own planisphere
Double-sided planisphere - print from pdf files for a wide range of southern and northern latitudes.

More Astronomy Software Links

AstroTips - descriptions of and links to astronomy freeware and shareware.
Dan Bruton's links - to more astronomy software.