Recommended Software - Stellarium

Stellarium is a brilliant piece of astronomy software which gives you a three -dimensional view of the night sky, from any part of the world and at any time or date. It is ideal for planning a telescope session a day or two in advance or simply for learning about what we are seeing in the sky on a given evening. The software not only allows you pan in all directions, but you can zoom to a section of the sky and see planets, star clusters, nebulas, constellations or galaxies in extraordinary detail - just like you would if you were viewing them with a microscope. Full co-ordinates are provided so you can then get out you binoculars, telescope or simply look up to see them for real. It comes preloaded with 600,000 stellar objects in its database which you can upgraded to over 10 million! There are also a series of "plug-ins" which show how various astronomical events play out - for example a solar eclipse. The software is extremely powerful, yet very simple, and is in use in many planetarium projectors. But best of all, Stellarium is completely free to download! A must of the anyone interested in astronomy. Click here to download.