Like most kids I dreamt of becoming an astronaut when I was little. When I realized that it is far from becoming a reality (like in a country where PAGASA is the closest space program), I gave it up early but kept the respectful wonder to the skies above my head.
If you're still eager like me, to explore the night sky and become an amateur astronomer, you'll need to overcome one of astronomy's biggest hurdles — learning to identify the stars and constellations. After all, you won't be able to locate the Orion Nebula if you can't find the constellation of Orion, which is, to most the easy to spot together with Ursa Major(The Big Dipper is not a constellation but rather of an asterism in Ursa Major ).
Well here's what is probably the most helpful tool for beginners learning to read star maps.
You can set your coordinates(Manila Coordinates: 14°35′N 120°58′E) and local time to match the actual star positions above your head.
It also has a convenient search function which will lead you to planets, galaxies, nebuleas, and all other space objects.
Download this free software from: http://www.stellarium.org/
More screenies:
Other features:
If you're still eager like me, to explore the night sky and become an amateur astronomer, you'll need to overcome one of astronomy's biggest hurdles — learning to identify the stars and constellations. After all, you won't be able to locate the Orion Nebula if you can't find the constellation of Orion, which is, to most the easy to spot together with Ursa Major(The Big Dipper is not a constellation but rather of an asterism in Ursa Major ).
Well here's what is probably the most helpful tool for beginners learning to read star maps.
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.
You can set your coordinates(Manila Coordinates: 14°35′N 120°58′E) and local time to match the actual star positions above your head.
More screenies:
- default catalogue of over 600,000 stars
- extra catalogues with more than 210 million stars
- asterisms and illustrations of the constellations
- constellations for twelve different cultures
- images of nebulae (full Messier catalogue)
- realistic Milky Way
- very realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset
- the planets and their satellites
- interface
- a powerful zoom
- time control
- multilingual interface
- fisheye projection for planetarium domes
- spheric mirror projection for your own low-cost dome
- all new graphical interface and extensive keyboard control
- telescope control
- visualisation
- equatorial and azimuthal grids
- star twinkling
- shooting stars
- eclipse simulation
- skinnable landscapes, now with spheric panorama projection
- customizability
- plugin system adding artifical satellites, ocular simulation, telescope configuration and more
- ability to add new solar system objects from online resources...
- add your own deep sky objects, landscapes, constellation images, scripts...
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