Stellarium

Stellarium is an open source computer planetarium. It displays a realistic 3D sky as you can see it with the naked eye or a telescope.

It can be used in planetarium projectors. Just set the geographical coordinates and start.

Features
sky

• default catalogue contains over 600,000 stars
• additional catalogues contain over 210 million stars
• asterisms and constellation images
• star constellations for twelve different cultures
• photographs of nebulae (the entire Messier catalogue)
• realistic Milky Way
• very realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset
• planets and their satellites

interface

• powerful zoom
• time control
• multi-language interface
• "fisheye" for planetary dome projections
• spherical mirror projection for your own dome
• totally new graphical interface and many keyboard shortcuts
• scope control

visualization

• planar and azimuthal coordinates
• star measurement
• falling stars
• simulation of eclipses
• simulation of supernovae
• changeable landscape with spherical panoramic projection

customization

• plug-in system adding artificial satellites, eye simulation, telescope setup and much more
• the ability to add new objects to the sky, from sources available online
• add your own deep space objects, landscapes, constellation images, scripts...