Features
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Popularity:
#3 in Science Software (out of 588 products)
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License:
Free
- Editor's Rating:
- Average User Rating:
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Downloads:
4,064
- Requirements:
Mac OS X 10.3+
- Limitations:
No limitations
- Date Added:
August 29, 2008
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Previous Versions:
Publisher's description of Stellarium (OS X)
From Stellarium:Stellarium is a free open-source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.
Version 0.9.1 is primarily a bug fix and stabilization release, but users can expect to see improved start-up times and a new sky culture (Tupi-Guarani) as well as some progress with translations and overall stability.
Editor's review of Stellarium (OS X)
4.0 stars
- "Reach for the stars"
Open source and currently in use by planetarium projectors, Stellarium brings astronomer-level features to stargazers of all levels of interest. It's not quite as robust as its competitors, but it's also a much faster program. It doesn't suck away your RAM into a black hole when loading or running. It does run only in full screen mode, making any other programs you're running inaccessible except for the ALT-Tab switcher.
The default catalog includes 600,000 stars, with upgrade modules that can push the count up to 210 million stars. The constellations of 10 different cultures are included, as well as illustrations and asterisms to help you visualize what the ancients saw. There's a full Messier catalog of nebulae, too. The dawn, dusk and atmosphere backgrounds were good, but not great on our monitor. They probably look better on a planetarium dome, which is why it's useful that Stellarium also includes a fish-eye view for curved surfaces. Besides equatorial and azimuthal grids, users also get shooting stars when appropriate, eclipse simulation, and skinnable landscapes. Stellarium incorporates star-views from the Moon.
The controls live in the lower left corner and are transparent--a bit hard to find. The nifty record feature is somewhat hampered by the dark interface. When you run the program for the first time it asks that you set your current location, but the mouse-over map of the world was too small to use easily. Stellarium should appeal both to users who need something more academic and less distracting than Google or Microsoft's offerings, as well as those who have a need for an open-source planetarium. Fortunately, that could be any of us.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.3 stars out of 6 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 5 user reviewsSee all 5 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Stellarium (OS X) 0.9.1
Pros: Told you, interesting
Cons: No idea as yet
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Version: Stellarium (OS X) 0.9.1
"Lots of useful stuff - but could be more user friendly"
Pros: Could - in principle - extend knowledge of astronomy through study of the night sky to many beyond the regular professional and amateur field....
Cons: ....but initial difficulties in setting up the observer's location will put many people off.
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Version: Stellarium (OS X) 0.9.1
Pros: It's FREE!
Cons: Nothing wrong so far.
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Version: Stellarium (OS X) 0.9.1
"Lovely appearance, hard to use."
Pros: Beautiful interface with a realistic appearance and good overlays of notation or reference information.
Cons: System opened with location at Paris and I couldn't figure out how to set the coordinates to my location on Earth. Gave up and uninstalled in the end.
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Version: Stellarium (OS X) 0.9.1
Pros: Nice graphics
Cons: Not intuitive on entering location
Summary: Needs to be more user friendly
- See all 5 user reviews Write review
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