Stellarium Review: Watch The Universe Go By

The Google Chrome probably lets you surf the cyber world, but the software we are reviewing today lets you see the universe. We are talking about another free software called Stellarium. It won’t report your web surfing habits. It is open source. We haven’t run out of good things to say yet. It is currently in use by planetarium projectors run by Digitalis Education. All levels of star gazers can benefit from the astronomer level features offered here.

Although not as robust as some other programs, it is very fast. Doesn’t take the rapid away from RAM. You can simultaneously run another program and your computer will not crash. It runs only in full screen mode and other programs are not accessible as a result.

The program is still in beta but the feature set is amazing. You can watch 600000 stars – default. There are upgrade modules that can push this number up to 210 mn stars. We are saying WOW!  10 different cultures of constellations are included. There are illustrations and asterisms as visualization tools. The atmospheres to watch dawn and dusk are good.

In addition there is also a fish eye view. Cool visualizations populate this program. There are also shooting stars now and then. Once you understand the navigation, you won’t have much to complain.

Add comment September 7th, 2008