Tag: planets

  • Aciqra : Open Source Planetarium

    Aciqra : Open Source Planetarium

    Aciqra (Version: 2.2 tested) is an open source planetarium software. It is one of the more complete ones available. It features star catalogs and NGC and IC catalogs that include millions of stars and 1000s of deep sky objects such as galaxies. It offers corrections for atmospheric refraction and other enhancements to be as accurate as possible in tracking stars and other objects. It also provides extra information on objects such as asteroid and comets and events such as eclipses.

    Aciqra
    The interface of the program is not the best but it does try to stay true to the claim that it is made to be efficient. The color and contrast of the buttons is the first issue when using Aciqra. They almost mix into the sky image behind them.

    The bottom of the program from left to right features the buttons to exit, correct for refraction, track for earth’s rotation, toggle night vision mode (red color) and toggle current view information (universal time, location, field of view, right ascension, declination, azimuth and altitude).

    Aciqra

    The right hand side features the time control (view the sky in the past and future), label data which lets the user view very useful information on the objects in the sky like  magnitude brightness,  color (star temperature indicator), common name, scientific name and size. Object labels highlights constellations, stars, solar system and deep space objects. Further up the right hand side are toggles for the visibility of stars, deep sky objects, solar system objects and ground level.

    The program opens with a DOS window where it takes longer than one would expect to load the objects and other information. Also upon first install it opens with its configuration settings text file where default user location, font and many other settings can be viewed and edited. It has some of the mouse and keyboard controls to navigate and move within the sky but the scroll wheel does not zoom in and out as I expected. Aciqra includes an option to save the current sky view as an image. It is available for Linux as well.

  • Stellarium Is Astronomy Central

    Stellarium Is Astronomy Central

    Stellarium is described as

    Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer

    Stellarium is an excellent companion for the hobbyist and the curious astronomer. It has an attractive interface that is at the same time educational. Stellarium provides a view of the sky similar to the one that would visible to the naked eye at any given time.


    Stellarium

    The program has two slide-in menus at the bottom and left hand corners of its interface and they offer tabbed menus that control a multitude of settings and features. The list of features is extensive and Stellarium is really a program that requires its multi-page *.pdf userguide. Setting a location is probably the first option to use as this will show the sky as it looks where you are. Location is set via the left hand slide-in menu and it is also possible to view the sky as it is in other locations and then of course to set one’s own as default. Mouse dragging is used to move around the sky. Mouse wheel zooms in and out. Time control, in the bottom slide-in menu, shows the position and movement of stars and planets in the past and future, in varying speeds.

    The Sky and viewing options window has many choices for the landscape or ground that will be the program’s setting. It is possible to set if planets are shown, how much the stars twinkle, if an atmosphere is shown and even how much light pollution there is. There are numerous paragraphs and text on the history of astronomy in the Starlore tab.

    The Search window (also invoked by pressing the F3 button) searches the extensive list of stars and planets in its database that includes the likes of the Hipparcos Catalogue.

    The Configuration window is the place to play around with the system time, download more star catalogues and to try out scripts. Script support is limited as of this post (version 0.10.2) but more is promised.


    Stellarium

    The bottom slide-in menu offers the tools that would be most used when running Stellarium. Beside the aforementioned ability to move time faster to track star and planet movements here one can switch to full screen mode and night (red colored screen to preserve night vision) mode. Centering the highlighted or chosen star on screen and switching between equatorial and azimuthal mounts are two other useful options. Toggling planet labels, nebula positions, atmosphere, ground, constellation lines, art and labels on and off further enriches the experience and all are done via the said menu.

    The aforementioned *.pdf userguide shows the breadth of options and possibilities of Stellarium. From everything like scripting, creating landscapes, adding Nebula images, taking screenshots (using Ctrl and s keys) and to the many command line parameters.

    Stellarium is open source cross platform software and requires a graphics card capable of rendering OpenGL. An *.ini configuration file written into the program folder is accessible from the program’s start menu and offers another way to tweak the characteristics of Stellarium, for example the presentation font can be changed here but there is much more and some are detailed on the FAQ page.