which planetarium do people prefer?

hello all,
i was wondering what planetarium software do people use?. i use stary night pro v3 myself as i find this easiest to use.
stephen.

hello all,
i was wondering what planetarium software do people use?. i use stary night pro v3 myself as i find this easiest to use.
stephen.

I tend to use Sky Map. The version I have is ancient but it does everything I need it to. I have a version of Redshift but find it quite crap really. Good for wowing people with but totally pointless for any real work.

Basically I like the KISS principle "Keep It Simple Silly" which is that main reason I still use the old SkyMap. It does everyting I need with the minimum of fus and even runs on my old Pentium I with no problems.

I have RedShift 4.0. Unfortunately its just plain wrong sometimes, and it doesnt appear to be kept up do date with comets etc. on their website either.

Got Sky map with Universe 6th ed (ISBN: 0716746476), though I havent used it enough to comment on it.

However since most of my time is spent with UNIX and not Windows, there is only one program worth mentioning : XEphem. www.xephem.com Its free, though the printed manual and CD's cost. Bandwidth will be needed to download the star catalogues from various places if you dont buy the CD's.

Ont he palm pilot there is plaetarium ( www.aho.ch/pilotplanets/ ). Very handy for quick checks when you dont have a computer around. This one is shareware.

Cheers,
~Al

Got Sky map with Universe 6th ed (ISBN: 0716746476), though I havent used it enough to comment on it.

Just to clarify this is a free version of SkyMap and seems to be something like a reduced version of SkyMap Backyard 3. I tried using it after looking at this thread, I really did, but there wer a few too many bugs. It hasnt inspired me to spend at the 150EUR on skymap Pro.

Cheers,
~Al

I got red shift a year ago and ended up giving it away to a friend, I didnt like it.
Skymap has a remarkable number of features given that its free, great when plugged into the scope, not a great fan of using the supplied meade hand controller.
I use starry night in our monthly club meatings for showing whats happening during the coming month in terms of plants, comets (when there) and what constellations will be visible and at what times.

albert,
just to le you know there is an article (i presume a review) in the july issue of linux magazine about this program which i will read with interest. i was wondering which version of linux you used to run it on?.
Stephen.