In this section you can find all kinds of astronomical and/or space-oriented software programs for almost every platform. From MS Windows, Macintosh, Linux to Android and iOS smartphone apps. Some are free while others are paid. We have included, in the list below, only the most qualitative…
Stellarium
Stellarium is an open source planetarium program that makes it possible to view a realistic 3D sky on a computer screen. The program contains more than 600,000 stars as standard, which can be expanded to 210 million stars. There are also images of deep sky objects available. Furthermore, the Milky Way, the planets with their satellites and artificial satellites can be seen. The location and time can be set in the program; The program’s clock automatically follows the current time. The landscape in which the observer finds himself can be adjusted. Furthermore, it is possible to display an equatorial and an azimuthal grid.
There is also a free online (browser) version that you can consult HERE!
| Recommended age: +8 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Planetarium program
| Platform: MS Windows, Macintosh and Linux + Smartphones
Click HERE to download this software.
Click HERE for the Android version and HERE for the iOS version.
Cartes du Ciel
While Stellarium attempts to simulate a realistic view of the night sky, Cartes du Ciel is more map-oriented. The program generates precise maps of every part of the sky, plotting the positions of large and small objects in the solar system, whose extensive list includes many of the fainter moons of the gas and ice giants.
There are many configuration options for this freeware, including various projection settings, all of which can be adjusted to give you the map you need. Telescope control is a key feature of this program, connecting to your mount via the separately available ASCOM and INDI protocols (both open source and free).
| Recommended age: +12 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Planetarium program
| Platform: MS Windows, Macintosh and Linux
Click HERE to download this software.
KStars
The program provides an accurate graphical simulation of the night sky, from any location on Earth, at any date and time. The display includes up to 100 million stars, 13,000 deep-sky objects, all 8 planets, the sun and moon, and thousands of comets, asteroids, supernovae and satellites.
For students and teachers, it supports adjustable simulation speeds to view phenomena that occur over long timescales, the KStars Astrocalculator to predict conjunctions, and many general astronomical calculations.
For the amateur astronomer, it offers an observation planner, a sky calendar tool and an FOV editor to calculate and display the field of view of equipment. Discover interesting objects in the “What’s up Tonight” tool, plot height vs. time graphs for each object, print high-quality sky maps, and access tons of information and resources to help you explore the universe!
| Recommended age: +12 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Planetarium program
| Platform: MS Windows, Macintosh and Smartphones
Click HERE to download this software.
Click HERE for the Android version and HERE for the iOs version.
Winstars
Winstars is somewhat similar to Stellarium, but also allows you to explore the solar system in 3D. So it is more than a ‘classic’ planetarium program, but also a simple space simulator. You can even learn something about well-known space probes.
| Recommended age: +8 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Planetarium software
| Platform: MS Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Raspberry Pi
Click HERE to download this software.
Click HERE for the Android version and HERE for the iOS version.
Worldwide telescope
Worldwide Telescope is a visually appealing planetarium program with an intuitive interface. It has high quality images and displays planets, stars, deep space objects, etc. in high definition. Moreover, the navigation system is simply excellent. You can simply point to the object you want to view and zoom to view it. This allows you to take a look at the Earth, the sky from Earth, the planets and the solar system. Options will appear depending on your selection. Select an option and this tool will automatically navigate you there. The navigation tool allows you to freely zoom and rotate the object you are viewing.
| Recommended age: +8 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Planetarium program
| Platform: MS Windows
Click HERE to download this software.
Star Walk 2
Identify Stars in the Night Sky is a great astronomy guide to explore the night sky day and night, identify stars, constellations, planets, satellites, asteroids, comets, ISS, Hubble Space Telescope and other celestial objects in real time in the sky above you. All you have to do is point your device towards the sky.
| Recommended age: +8 years
| Type: Paid (3.49 Euro)
| Type: Planetarium program
| Platform: Android and iOS Smartphones
Click HERE for the Android version and HERE for the iOS version.
Virtual Moon Atlas
The Virtual Moon Atlas is a digital globe for exploring the moon. Using a series of increasingly detailed images, it creates a seamless interactive view of the moon. An ephemeris generator allows you to display the state of the moon for any date and time, with detailed values for its position, phase, co-longitude, etc…
| Recommended age: +8 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Database and atlas
| Platform: MS Windows (and Macintosh/Linux via Wine)
Click HERE to download this software.
Look4Sat
Thanks to Celestrak and SatNOGS’ enormous database, you have access to more than 5,000 active satellites orbiting the Earth. You can search the entire database by satellite name or by NORAD catnum. Satellite positions and passes are calculated relative to your location. To get reliable information, you need to set the observation position.
| Recommended age: +8 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Satellite forecasting program
| Platform : Android Smartphones
Click HERE to download this software.
JSatTrak
JSatTrak is a satellite tracking program written in Java. It allows you to predict the position of any satellite in real time or in the past or future. It uses advanced SGP4/SDP4 algorithms developed by NASA/NORAD or customizable, high-precision solvers to propagate satellite orbits. The program also allows for easy updating of current satellite tracking data via CelesTrak.com. Since this application is written in Java, it should run on almost any operating system.
| Recommended age: +10 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Satellite forecasting program
| Platform: MS Windows, Macintosh and Linux + Smartphones
Click HERE to download this software.
WinJupos
WinJupos has gone through many versions over time, all of which have contributed to the amazing collection of features this program has to offer. As the name suggests, it’s a native Windows application, but while the ‘Jupos’ part suggests it’s specific to Jupiter, it actually covers all the major planets in the solar system, as well as the moon and sun. The official description defines it as a free application for processing and analyzing planetary images, but it is much more than that and is basically the software equivalent of a Swiss army knife for the solar system. WinJupos generates detailed ephemerides – data tables – for the bodies it covers. It can show simulated views for each target and, if applicable, show the positions of the target’s major moons. In the case of Jupiter and Saturn, this also includes showing lunar events such as transits, eclipses and shadow transits.
| Recommended age: +12 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Image editing and various tools
| Platform: MS Windows
Click HERE to download this software.
Aladin
You can do a lot with Aladin Sky Atlas. The Atlas helps you access most astronomical servers such as the Simbad database, Hubble images, VizieR and many more. Additionally, the software allows the user to view astronomical images and overlay data from the astronomical database.
| Recommended age: +16 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: image editing and database
| Platform: MS Windows, Macintosh and Linux
Click HERE to download this software.
RegiStax
RegiStax used to be the go-to application for high frame rate processing and although largely adopted by AutoStakkert, it still has a useful place in the field of solar system image processing where it excels is its wavelet sharpening module, which is an advanced form of image sharpening. This can cover different levels of detail within an image, from fine to coarse. A processing workflow often includes the finishing touches in Registax.
| Recommended age: +16 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: image editing and database
| Platform: MS Windows (and Macintosh/Linux via Wine)
Click HERE to download this software.
Autostakkert
‘Lucky imaging’ is the process of taking hundreds or thousands of images of a solar system object with a camera at a high frame rate, extracting, aligning and averaging the best frames.
AutoStakkert! is the current king of registration stacking software, automating the process and offering the ability to apply it to small parts of an image. It seamlessly combines the results into one result that is many times smoother and better defined than the individual frames that were processed.
The program’s interface seems daunting at first, but it is quite easy to use. Once the high frame rate images are loaded, usually as a movie file in AVI or SER format, all you need to do is click ‘Analyze’, wait for the program to sort all the frames, set your alignment points manually or automatically and press on the ‘Stack’ button. It has never been easier to distill so many source files into one high-quality image.
| Recommended age: +16 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Image editing program
| Platform: MS Windows (and Macintosh/Linux via Wine)
Click HERE to download this software.
DeepSkyStacker
DeepSkyStacker is similar in functionality to AutoStakkert and RegiStax, except that it focuses on recording and stacking deep sky images. Images of deep-sky objects such as galaxies or nebulae require special treatment before being combined, a process known as image calibration.
| Recommended age: +16 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Image editing program
| Platform: MS Windows (and Macintosh/Linux via Wine)
Click HERE to download this software.
Starting rails
Startrails is a free image editing program specifically intended for creating impressive star trails (or ‘star-trails’) photos. The program can be used for editing photos and videos.
| Recommended age: +12 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Image editing program
| Platform: MS Windows
Click HERE to download this software.
StarStaX
StarStaX is a multi-platform image stacking and blending software that allows you to merge a series of photos into a single image. It was developed primarily for Star Trail photography, where the relative motion of the stars in successive images creates structures that resemble star trails. StarStaX has advanced features such as interactive gap filling and can create an image sequence of the mixing process that can easily be turned into great-looking time-lapse videos.
| Recommended age: + 12 years
| Type: open source (free)
| Type: Image editing program
| Platform: MS Windows and Macintosh.
Click HERE to download this software.