Linux astro softwa KStars planetarium and observatory control program.

Greetings, my brothers and sisters!
I just wanted to share my favorable impression of the marvelous KStars
program, which is freely distributed to members of the Linux community.
The project web page is he
http://edu.kde.org/kstars/

There is a link for downloading the latest version there.

Some of the features include an AAVSO light curve generator,
altitude vs time plotter, astronomical calculator, a "what's up tonight"
doohickey, charting software and ASCOM compliant telescope and
observatory control.

I think it is an improvement over Cartes du Ciel, has a more realistic
and informative display and is more feature rich.
It is certainly worth investigating if you are so blessed as to be a
Linux user.

I especially like the feature that allows you to click on an object and
download HST, SEDS, DSS images.
It is really amazing how a community of developers can pull together and
produce such a product for free.
Thanks to them for their generosity.

Clear Skies!
Uncle Bob

Uncle Bob wrote:
Greetings, my brothers and sisters!
I just wanted to share my favorable impression of the marvelous KStars
program, which is freely distributed to members of the Linux community.
The project web page is he
http://edu.kde.org/kstars/

There is a link for downloading the latest version there.

Some of the features include an AAVSO light curve generator,
altitude vs time plotter, astronomical calculator, a "what's up tonight"
doohickey, charting software and ASCOM compliant telescope and
observatory control.

I think it is an improvement over Cartes du Ciel, has a more realistic
and informative display and is more feature rich.
It is certainly worth investigating if you are so blessed as to be a
Linux user.

I especially like the feature that allows you to click on an object and
download HST, SEDS, DSS images.
It is really amazing how a community of developers can pull together and
produce such a product for free.
Thanks to them for their generosity.

Clear Skies!
Uncle Bob





Hi.

Yes KStars is very nice, but Cartes Du Ceil is really more
useful, and usable to me.
It also goes far deeper in star magnitude. KStars goes down to
mag 8. CDC goes to mag 15 IIRC

What really is better than both (IMHO) is XEphem. (ver 3.7.1)
Everything you mentioned above, and with the full version stars
down to mag 21. This is my preffered choice.

http://www.clearskyinstitute.com/xephem/


And dont forget Stellarium. An excellent prog showing
the sky and many DSO's in a beautiful format !









--
AM

http://sctuser.home.comcast.net

CentOS 4.3 KDE 3.3

AM wrote:

Yes KStars is very nice, but Cartes Du Ceil is really more
useful, and usable to me.
It also goes far deeper in star magnitude. KStars goes down to
mag 8. CDC goes to mag 15 IIRC



Hi:

I don't know about "better than Cartes," but XEphem is a great program.
I'm a little surprised that Kstars hasn't been taken farther than it
has...sounds like it's pretty much in the same place it was several
years ago when I went throught my "Linux Phase." ;-)

If there were a version of XEphem that would run under Win (without an
emulator, etc.), I'd be happily using it today.

It's one of the best astronomy programs I've ever seen.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
and
_The Urban Astronomer's Guide_
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user

On 26 Jul 2006 05:35:09 -0700, "RMOLLISE"
wrote:

If there were a version of XEphem that would run under Win (without an
emulator, etc.), I'd be happily using it today.

Xephem will compile and run with cygwin. Cygwin isn't exactly an
emulator, but a Posix compatible runtime for Windows plus a bunch of
unix software ported to cygwin. They have IRAF running with cygwin
now, in case you want to have IRAF for something.

Bud

AM wrote:


What really is better than both (IMHO) is XEphem. (ver 3.7.1)
Everything you mentioned above, and with the full version stars
down to mag 21. This is my preffered choice.

http://www.clearskyinstitute.com/xephem/


Being a Unix/Linux/OS X guy, XEphem has been an excellent
choice for me. My hat is off to Elwood Downey!

RMOLLISE wrote:
AM wrote:

Yes KStars is very nice, but Cartes Du Ceil is really more
useful, and usable to me.
It also goes far deeper in star magnitude. KStars goes down to
mag 8. CDC goes to mag 15 IIRC




Hi:

I don't know about "better than Cartes," but XEphem is a great program.
I'm a little surprised that Kstars hasn't been taken farther than it
has...sounds like it's pretty much in the same place it was several
years ago when I went throught my "Linux Phase." ;-)




Hi.

I guess *better* is a relative word. I like how XEphem is
incredibly customizable, and full featured. Also showing
stars down to 21 mag, is helpful with photographs to me.
But being able to control almost every aspect of how it
looks/works is nice with XEphem. I almost hate to say this,
but using XEphem just seems so easy to me now...

To be honest, CDC is what goes on any laptop that goes
observing with me. (looking slowly for a Linux laptop tho)



I say hats off to both Elwood and Patrick !!!!!!!!!!!!!





--
AM

http://sctuser.home.comcast.net

CentOS 4.3 KDE 3.3

William Hamblen wrote:

Xephem will compile and run with cygwin. Cygwin isn't exactly an
emulator, but a Posix compatible runtime for Windows plus a bunch of
unix software ported to cygwin. They have IRAF running with cygwin
now, in case you want to have IRAF for something.

Alas...I have neither the time or the inclination (or most probably the
smarts) to mess around with stuff like this. All I want is something
that I can install and run on my Win XP laptop.

Which planetarium do I use the most right now? The Sky 6 Professional.
Despite the fact that it does a lot, it's still relatively simple to
use. There was somewhat of a learning curve--largely because
_everything_ is customizable--but sitting down with it for a couple of
evenings made me comfortable with it in fairly short order.

Actually, I rarely use planetariums in the field any more. I'm finding
the planning programs--Astroplanner, Deepsky, Skytools--much more
suited for my observing.

;-)

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
and
_The Urban Astronomer's Guide_
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user