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. Try the Web Version. World's leading manufacturer of astronomical telescopes for the serious amateur astronomer. Products include astronomical telescopes and accessories, eyepieces, CCD imaging equipment, astronomical software, spotting scopes, binoculars, and microscopes. Astronomy Deep Sky Stacking Software. StarStaX is available as a free download for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. Find StarStaX here: https://www.markus-enzweiler.de. AstroGrav is available for both Mac and Windows, and a free, but fully functional trial in several languages is available for download. Stellarium While there are hundreds of planetarium software suites available, Stellarium is the only free software that is also used in commercial planetaria all over the world today. Stellarium is an open source planetarium software for Windows, Mac and Linux.
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- Free Astronomy Software For Mac
While computers and specialized software are not strictly required for stargazing at the amateur level, there is no doubt that the stargazing hobby can be greatly enhanced with the use of computers and user-friendly software. The problem, however, is that there are thousands of applications available today, and it is no easy task to select the ten best desktop applications that will satisfy the needs of all amateur astronomers all of the time. Nonetheless, in this list, we present you with our choice of ten stargazing applications that cover the most ground, from planetarium simulations to an app that automatically searches for near-earth objects. If you don’t have these apps, get them- you will wonder how you ever got by without them.
You may also like to later check out other articles in this series, including one covering free stargazing apps, and another the best premium astronomy apps currently available on the market.
AstroGrav
AstroGrav is a solar system simulator with a difference. All movements of solar system bodies are based on their gravitational interactions with other bodies, meaning that you get gravitationally correct motions of asteroids, planets, and comets. The software takes the effects of general relativity into account, ad used superb interactive three dimensional rendering that allows you to rotate, and zoom into parts of the solar system while you watch it evolve.
AstroGrav includes a background of more than 100 000 stars, all the constellations, and planetarium-style viewing points from anywhere in the world. Other features include:
• Multiple views that can be animated at the same time with orbits that are calculated dynamically.
• Extensive tabular data with more than 30 editable fields for each object selected.
• Simulation time steps that can be set to fractions of a second, to several thousand years.
• Ecliptic, equatorial, galactic, and horizontal celestial coordinate grids.
• Astronomical, metric, and imperial measurement units.
• Comprehensive editing capabilities that allow for the manual insertion of additional objects, or the importation of any of several hundred thousand comets and asteroids.
• Extensive tabular data with more than 30 editable fields for each object selected.
• Simulation time steps that can be set to fractions of a second, to several thousand years.
• Ecliptic, equatorial, galactic, and horizontal celestial coordinate grids.
• Astronomical, metric, and imperial measurement units.
• Comprehensive editing capabilities that allow for the manual insertion of additional objects, or the importation of any of several hundred thousand comets and asteroids.
Apart from the solar system, you can also explore the gravitational effects of exoplanet systems, the collision of globular star clusters, or even watch the evolution of planetary systems from accretion discs. In fact, almost any situation in which gravity is the dominant force can be simulated accurately.
AstroGrav is available for both Mac and Windows, and a free, but fully functional trial in several languages is available for download.
Stellarium
While there are hundreds of planetarium software suites available, Stellarium is the only free software that is also used in commercial planetaria all over the world today. Stellarium runs on all major operating systems, and in all cases, the rendered views are almost indistinguishable from what would be seen through a telescope, binoculars, or with unaided vision.
The following is a list of features taken from the Stellarium homepage:
Sky views:
• Default catalogue of over 600,000 stars
• Extra catalogues with more than 210 million stars
• Asterisms and illustrations of the constellations
• Constellations for 20+ different cultures
• Images of nebulae (full Messier catalogue)
• Realistic Milky Way
• Very realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset
• The planets and their satellites
• Extra catalogues with more than 210 million stars
• Asterisms and illustrations of the constellations
• Constellations for 20+ different cultures
• Images of nebulae (full Messier catalogue)
• Realistic Milky Way
• Very realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset
• The planets and their satellites
User interface:
• Powerful zoom
• Time control
• Multilingual interface
• Fisheye projection for planetarium domes
• Spherical mirror projection for your own low-cost dome
• All new graphical interface and extensive keyboard control
• Telescope control
• Time control
• Multilingual interface
• Fisheye projection for planetarium domes
• Spherical mirror projection for your own low-cost dome
• All new graphical interface and extensive keyboard control
• Telescope control
Visualisation:
• Equatorial and azimuthal grids
• Variable star twinkling
• Shooting stars
• Eclipse simulation
• Supernovae simulation
• Skin-able landscapes, now with spherical panorama projection
• Variable star twinkling
• Shooting stars
• Eclipse simulation
• Supernovae simulation
• Skin-able landscapes, now with spherical panorama projection
Customizability:
• Plugin system adding artificial 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, and more
• Ability to add new solar system objects from online resources
• Add your own deep sky objects, landscapes, constellation images, scripts, and more
Celestia
While Celestia is primarily a planetarium program, it does not confine you to the surface of the earth. With this application you get to travel to any one of more than 100 000 stars in the Milky Way in three dimensions, or if you so choose, to points beyond the Milky Way.
All motions in Celestia are totally seamless, and with an exponential zoom, you can effortlessly explore the Universe in a vast range of scales- from galactic clusters to the area you can see from your spaceship window. The basic download includes an enormous catalogue of stars, galaxies, planets, planetary moons, comets, asteroids, and even some historical spacecraft with which to explore the universe, but additional star catalogues and plug-ins are available for download. Celestia runs on Linux, Windows, and Max OSX
Where is M13?
Since views through telescopes are flat and one dimensional, this unique software will help you get a sense of an object’s location with respect to the galaxy’s centre, and/or midplane. In this way, your observing sessions are greatly enhanced, because you get an almost 3D view of the relationship between a viewed object and the galaxy. Where is M13? also provides information on the galactic coordinates, luminosity, distance, and true size and angular diameter of objects. The software also makes a great educational and outreach tool as well, and runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.
DeepSkyStacker
Stacking software for astro-imaging are not created equal, and while Photoshop or Registax do well in most departments, DeepSkyStacker was developed to satisfy the particular demands of deep sky imaging. DeepSkyStacker takes most of the pain out of pre-processing, because all you need to do is load all your images before you go to bed. The software does the rest, and by the time you are fully awake the next morning, the images will be ready for post-processing. Files can be saved in both TIFF and FITS formats in either 16 or 32 bits.
CCDStack
CCDStack was developed exclusively to stack CCD images and it does so with extremely sophisticated statistical methods and concepts that were heretofore not available in commercial stacking software. CCDStack runs on both 32-and 64 bit versions of Windows, but due to the particular design of Windows in 32 bits, CCDStack is limited to one GIG usable memory when installed on 32-bit machines.
However, on 64-bit machines, CCD stack will use all of the memory it can access, making the process of stacking images much faster than was possible before, but bear in mind that the process is governed by the amount of available memory, so the more memory you have, the faster the process becomes.
With this software, you get all the tools required for precision image stacking and processing, and features include the following:
• Dark, Flat and Bias frame calibration
• Star Bloom Removal
• Image alignment and registration
• Re-sampling of registered images
• Image normalization
• Advanced Data Rejection
• Image Combine
• Gradient Removal
• Real-Time DDP Display
• Deconvolution and Sharpening
• Full LRGB Color Capabilities
• Star Bloom Removal
• Image alignment and registration
• Re-sampling of registered images
• Image normalization
• Advanced Data Rejection
• Image Combine
• Gradient Removal
• Real-Time DDP Display
• Deconvolution and Sharpening
• Full LRGB Color Capabilities
MetaGuide
Auto-guiding software is a requirement for astrophotography, but the problem is that while there are many auto-guiding applications available, there are very few that are free, and even fewer that provide the accuracy and sharp focus of adaptive optics.
MetaGuide however, is both free and in the adaptive optics league. It is based on video imaging, and provides precise collimation by using the in-focus diffraction patterns of stars. I addition, the software employs several novel approaches to auto-guiding that results in real and significant insights into the optics of any given telescope, as well as the tracking behaviour of the mount used. The following is an extract of a review of the software by an experienced observer:
“MetaGuide allows me to obtain sub-2″ fwhm stars with a Celestron CGE and 11″ SCT at 2800mm f.l. and 0.45″ per pixel. The key is an accurate and low latency centroid that can be chased aggressively to overcome gearbox and bearing noise. This pushes auto guiding of a mid-range mount into a realm of performance that normally requires adaptive-optics.”
MetaGuide is free, extremely user-friendly, and fully compatible with any telescope, and almost all video cameras. However, for the auto-guide to work, you must provide either an ASCOM connection, or some other mode of mount control such as GPUSB, TOGA, AstroGene, or LPT.
Additional requirements to run MetaGuide:
• MetaGuide requires only a video camera and Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2000 computer (not Win98, ME, NT, Mac, or Linux) with recent DirectX installed to perform the core diffraction analysis of a star. MetaGuide and its install package are compatible with Win7/64.
• Most video cameras are supported – of any size – along with analog video cameras (NTSC/PAL) with a simple video2usb converter. The user can specify any resolution the camera supports. The main requirement is that the camera have a DirectShow video driver
• Modified web-cams are not supported; MetaGuide relies on streaming video to correct for seeing.
• For the guiding features of MetaGuide, a connection to the mount is needed. The mount must be either equatorial or on a wedge, and for ASCOM it must support PulseGuide.
• A view of the diffraction pattern requires high power and a stable mount, so a Barlow and good tracking may be needed. The guiding and collimation aspects of MetaGuide will work with any f/ratio.
• Most video cameras are supported – of any size – along with analog video cameras (NTSC/PAL) with a simple video2usb converter. The user can specify any resolution the camera supports. The main requirement is that the camera have a DirectShow video driver
• Modified web-cams are not supported; MetaGuide relies on streaming video to correct for seeing.
• For the guiding features of MetaGuide, a connection to the mount is needed. The mount must be either equatorial or on a wedge, and for ASCOM it must support PulseGuide.
• A view of the diffraction pattern requires high power and a stable mount, so a Barlow and good tracking may be needed. The guiding and collimation aspects of MetaGuide will work with any f/ratio.
System requirements for MetaGuide courtesy of- http://www.astrogeeks.com/Bliss/MetaGuide/
OpTaliX
OpTaliX is the last piece of software you will ever need if you are thinking of making your own telescopes. It offers extensive support in the design of both basic and complex optical systems, as well as thin-film multilayer coatings on optical elements. Some features include the following: Geometric and diffraction analysis, lens optimization thin film multilayer analysis and refinement, non-sequential ray trace, physical optics propagation, polarization analysis, ghost imaging, tolerance analysis, extensive manufacturing support, user defined graphics, illumination, macros, and many more.
Available in three versions, called OpTaliX-Pro, OpTaliX-Edu and OpTaliX-LT, the app is certified to run on both 32-, and 64-bit versions of Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista.
Peranso
Peranso is a must-have app for amateur observers of variable stars, or other objects that vary in brightness. The user friendly app allows in-depth analysis of light curves and luminosity periods. Data can either be large, multi-session sets, or a single observation, making this the most accurate and productive data analysis tool for amateur observers available today.
Ascom For Mac
This app offers too many advantages and features to be listed here, so click here for an overview of features and requirements. Note that although Peranso was developed to run on Windows, it is possible to run the product on Mac and Linux machines by using appropriate Windows emulation software.
On Apple Macintosh machines, use Parallels Desktop For Mac or the WINE emulator, which is available free of charge. For machines running Linux, use VMWare Player, or the WINE emulator. Both emulators are available free of charge, and have been running Peranso successfully on Ubuntu.
Asteroid Data Hunter
With this app from NASA any amateur astronomer can do some real science, and help protect Earth from asteroid impacts, to boot. According to Jason Kessler, the program executive for NASA’s Asteroid Grand Challenge, “…The Asteroid Grand Challenge is seeking non-traditional partnerships to bring the citizen science and space enthusiast community into NASA’s work, [and it] has been successful beyond our hopes, creating something that makes a tangible difference to asteroid hunting astronomers and highlights the possibility for more people to play a role in protecting our planet.”
Essentially, the program involves amateurs to take images of any part of the sky, and to use the free app in desktop computers to analyse their images in a search for previously unknown asteroids and near-earth objects. The application will notify a use if a record for any objects found exists, and if there is no record, suggest the best way to report the find to the Minor Planet Center, who will archive the discovery.
The app requires Windows 7.1+ or Mac OS 10.10.2+ to run, but an installer for Linux Ubuntu is in the planning stages, and should be available soon, if it is not already. Download the app at http://topcoder.com/asteroids.
Redshift 7 Premium is a comprehensive guide to the heavens. A huge panorama of the Milky Way, photo-realistic horizons and a 3-D flight out of our galaxy are only a few ways in which Redshift turns astronomy into a breathtaking and inspiring experience. Countless unique features such as telescope and joystick control, over 100 multimedia tours, macro recorder to create your own tours, online access to the Digitized Sky Survey and Google Maps, high quality videos, animations and the extensive help make Redshift 7 Premium the indispensable guide to the night skies.
Features:
•Realistic 3-D model of our galaxy with 3-D flights
•More than 2.5 million stars, planets and Deep Sky objects
•Includes exoplanets an dwarf planets
•New Horizon Panoramas für Earth, Moon and Mars
•Direct access to star catalogs SIMBAD and SOHO
•Download of new discoveries and orbital data of satellites, comets and asteroids from the latest object databases on the Internet into the main Redshift database. Updates are provided at least twice a month.
•Comprehensive observation planner for your in-the-field observation
•Direct link to www.redshift-live.com for the exchange of guided tours and workspaces
•Realistic 3-D model of our galaxy with 3-D flights
•More than 2.5 million stars, planets and Deep Sky objects
•Includes exoplanets an dwarf planets
•New Horizon Panoramas für Earth, Moon and Mars
•Direct access to star catalogs SIMBAD and SOHO
•Download of new discoveries and orbital data of satellites, comets and asteroids from the latest object databases on the Internet into the main Redshift database. Updates are provided at least twice a month.
•Comprehensive observation planner for your in-the-field observation
•Direct link to www.redshift-live.com for the exchange of guided tours and workspaces
Astrophotography Stacker For Mac
Find out more…
Product | Kind | Price | Demo | Author/Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cartes du Ciel | free | yes | Bruce Skelly | |
Celestia | free | yes | Chris Laurel | |
Digital Universe | commercial | $100 | Syzygy Research & Technology | |
Hipparchus | commercial | $50 | yes | sofTouch APpLications |
MacAstronomica | shareware | $25 | yes | Easysoft Creations |
MacStronomy | commercial | $60 | yes | Etlon Software |
MPj Equinox | shareware | $29 | yes | MicroProjects |
Night Vision | free | yes | Brian Simpson | |
SkyORB | free | yes | realtech VR | |
Sky Sentinel Planetarium | commercial | $50 | yes | Procyon |
Stargazer’s Delight | shareware | $29 | yes | Ruedi Schmid |
Starry Night | commercial | $34 – 149 | yes | Sienna Software |
Stellarium | free | yes | Fabien Chereau | |
TheSkyX | commercial | $99 | no | Software Bisque |
Voyager | commercial | $150-200 | no | Carina Software |
Where is M13? | free | yes | Think Astronomy | |
Xephem | free | source | Elwood Charles Downey |
Product | Kind | Price | Demo | Author/Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adastra Freestar | free | yes | Coeli Software Products | |
Alien Sun | commercial | $50 | yes | EKN Enterprises |
AlphaCentaure | freeware | yes | Francois Nguyen | |
AstroMB | commercial | $50 | yes | MBCAA |
AstroViewer | shareware | $12 | yes | Dirk Matussek |
Astronomica | shareware | $25 | yes | Piotr Czerski |
Atlas du Ciel | shareware | $50 | yes | Mario Groleau |
Coeli – Stella 2000 | shareware | $49 | yes | Coeli Software Products |
Coelix | commercial | $28 | no | ngc7000.com |
Cartes du Ciel | free | yes | Patrick Chevalley | |
Celestia | free | yes | Chris Laurel | |
Celestial Maps | free | yes | Ovidiu Vaduvescu | |
CoolSky | shareware | $25 | yes | Piotr Czerski |
CyberSky | shareware | $28 | yes | Stephen Michael Schimpf |
C2A | freeware | yes | Philippe Deverchere | |
Dance of the Planets | commercial | $95 – 145 | no | ARC Science Simulations |
Deepsky Astronomy Software | shareware | $25 – 43 | yes | Steven S. Tuma |
Deep-Sky Planner | commercial | $72-$81 | no | Knightware |
Deep Space | commercial | $79 | yes | David Chandler |
Desktop Universe | commercial | $199 | yes | Main Sequence Software |
Distant Suns | commercial | $35 | yes | Mike Smithwick |
Earth Centered Universe | shareware | $55 | yes | Nova Astronomics |
EasySky | commercial | $45 | yes | Matthias Busch |
Electric Astrolabe | free | yes | James E. Morrison | |
Epoch 2000sk | commercial | $149 – 179 | no | Meade |
Expert Astronomer | commercial | $12 | no | MediaMart; Expert Software |
GrayStel | commercial | £75 | no | GrayStel Software |
Guide | commercial | $89 | no | Project Pluto |
HNSky | free | yes | Han_Kleijn | |
Home Planet | free | yes | John Walker | |
HyperSky | commercial | $50 | yes | Willmann-Bell |
Kagayaki | shareware | $40-120 | yes | Seeds Box |
MegaStar | commercial | $129 | yes | E.L.B. Software |
MIRAPLA | free | yes | MSB | |
MoonCalc | free | yes | Monzur Ahmed | |
MyStars! | shareware | $17 | yes | Relative Data Products |
Night Vision | free | yes | Brian Simpson | |
NGCView | commercial | $50 | yes | Rainman Software |
Nuit | free | yes | René Meader | |
OpenUniverse | free | yes | Raœl Alonso | |
PC-Sky | commercial | $39 | no | CapellaSoft |
Perseus | commercial | $190 | yes | ELitalia |
Planetarium Gold | commercial | $20 | no | JC Research |
PlanetWatch | shareware | $20 | yes | Galen Raben |
PRiSM | comercial | $150 | no | Axilone Multimedia |
Power Age Sky Simulator | shareware | $35 | yes | George Dragandjikov |
Redshift | commercial | $60 | no | Maris Multimedia |
RIA3D Live Solar System | commercial | $30 | yes | interact3d.com |
Sky3D | shareware | $35 | yes | Corvus Software |
SkyChart III | commercial | $50 | yes | Southern Stars |
Sky Atlas | commercial | $20 | yes | Piotr Bednarczuk |
Skyglobe | shareware | ? | ? | KlassM Software |
SkyMap | commercial | $55 – 89 | yes | Chris Marriott |
SkyPlot | shareware | $10 | yes | Gerry Santoro |
SkyTools | commercial | $99 | no | CapellaSoft |
Solar Kingdom | commercial | $49 | yes | Silverfrost |
SPICA | free | yes | Guillaume Richard | |
STAR Atlas:PRO | commercial | $66 | no | Paul Mayo |
StarCalc | free | yes | Alexander E. Zavalishin | |
StarChartGL | free | yes | James Fitzjohn | |
Stargaze | free | yes | Ray Middleton | |
Starry | free | yes | ||
Starry Night | commercial | $34 – 149 | yes | Sienna Software |
StarScape | commercial | $70 | no | Zephyr Services |
StarStrider | shareware | $38 | yes | FMJ-Software |
Stella 2000 | shareware | $49 | yes | Swimming Elk Software |
Stellaris | shareware | $20 | yes | Nick Heyworth |
Stellarium | free | yes | Fabien Chereau | |
TheSky | commercial | $129 – 249 | no | Software Bisque |
Touring The Universe Through Binoculars Atlas | free | yes | Phil Harrington | |
Virtual Sky | shareware | $28 | yes | Astronomiesoftware Dings |
Where is M13? | free | yes | Think Astronomy | |
WinStars | free | yes | Franck Richard |
Product | Kind | Price | Demo | Author/Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|
Celestia | free | yes | Chris Laurel | |
Cartes du Ciel | free | yes | Patrick Chevalley | |
OpenUniverse | free | yes | Raœl Alonso | |
KStars | free | yes | Jason Harris | |
Night Vision | free | yes | Brian Simpson | |
Skymap | free | yes | Doug Mink | |
Stellarium | free | yes | Fabien Chereau | |
Where is M13? | free | yes | Think Astronomy | |
Xephem | free | source | Elwood Charles Downey | |
Xplns | free | yes | Osamu Ajiki | |
Xsky | free | yes | Terry R. Friedrichsen |
Product | Platform | Kind | Price | Demo | Author/Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Astromist | Palm, WinCE | Commercial | $16 | yes | Cyrille Thieullet |
Astronomy for the Palm OS | Palm | Shareware | $10 | yes | Hans Anger |
AstroHTML | WinCE | commercial | ? | ? | SanSoft |
Astro Info | Palm | free | Peter Enzerink | ||
Google Sky Map | Android | free | |||
HPlanetarium | HP | free | Khanh-Dang Nguyen Thu-Lam | ||
Personal Sky Chart | Zaurus | commercial | $30 | yes | Clear Sky Institute |
Planetarium for PalmPilot | Palm | Shareware | $24 | yes | Andreas Hofer |
Planisphere | Palm | Shareware | $10 | yes | Ivan Baciga |
PleiadAtlas | Palm | Shareware | $10 | yes | Brian Tung |
Pocket Deepsky 2000 | WinCE | commercial | $20 | no | Steven S. Tuma |
Pocket StarCalc | WinCE | commercial | $30 | yes | RELEX Design Studio |
Pocket Stars | WinCE | commercial | $15 | yes | Nomad Electronics |
Pocket Universe | WinCE | commercial | $30 | yes | Sticky Software |
Solun | Psion | free | David Rushall | ||
SkyVoyager | iPhone | commercial | $15 | no | Carina Software |
Star Map | iPhone | commercial | $12 | no | Frédéric Descamps |
Star Pilot | Palm | commercial | $30 | yes | Chris DiPierro |
StarTrak | Psion | free | Steve Jones | ||
TheSky | WinCE | commercial | $49 | no | Software Bisque |
VITO AstroNavigator | PocketPC | commercial | $25 | yes | Eugene Pikalov |
2sky | Palm | commercial | $30 | yes | Kevin S. Polk |
Product | Kind | Price | Demo | Author/Publisher |
---|---|---|---|---|
Night Vision | Night Vision | free | yes | Brian Simpson |
SkyGate | commercial | $59 | yes | AstroGrafx |
The COSMOS | commercial | $49 | no | MENSYS |
Note: prices are in US dollars exclusive of shipping/handling charges and rounded to the nearest dollar (and probably out of date).
Java
- Java star chart program by Akkana Peck
- Planet Finder, a Java applet
- The Planets Explorer, our solar system in Java3D
Astrophotography Stacking Software For Mac
Sky Survey
The ultimate planetarium is the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, a set of images covering the entire sky taken with professional telescopes. The printed version is extremely expensive but it has now been digitized and is available in 10x compressed form on the Web from STScI and NASA and in 100x compressed form on 10 CDROMs from ASP. The CDROM version can be accessed from TheSky and several others; the online version can be accessed from Starry Night and a few others.
Astrophotography Software Mac
Web-based Planetariums
- WikiSky aka Sky-Map.org
- Heavens Above, concentrates on satellites
- SkyView Cafe, very nice!
- Your Sky, an online planetarium from John Walker
- StarMap from Mt. Wilson
- Skymaps.com, Free, high quality sky maps each month in PDF format
- MyStarsLive, an online version of MyStars
- Horizons, an ephemeris generator from JPL (best accuracy)
- Solar System Simulator from JPL
Free Astronomy Software For Mac Download
Other Computer Software
- source code for many astronomical algorithms
- Astronomical Computer Software, a list at AstroNet
- Dan Bruton’s astro software list
- software from Sky Publishing
- Zephrys Services, reseller of astro software for Windows
- AstroGrav Astronomy Software, gravity simulation software for Mac and Windows
- AstroTips, a list of free astro software
- Orrery for RiscOS
- Visual Ephemeris for Uranian Moons by Dennis W. Tracy
- Silicon Spaceships, programs for accessing NASA image data
- Newton’s Aquarium, learn about gravity
- PicoSky, a planetarium program for some cell phones.
- PP3, produces printed charts
Data
- Comet orbital elements for many of the above programs
- ECU User Object Files by Michael Cook
- Solscape, real time solar images & data, very nice; OS X
Free Astronomy Software For Mac
Misc
- MICA, high-precision astronomical data in tabular form
- ICE, an earlier, free version of MICA
- MAXCLOCK, time info (Windows only)
- 3D Starchart for BeOS
- Meridian, a planetarium program specializing in planets
- Astronomical Software & Documentation Service from STScI
- Scientific Astronomer, a Mathematica application
- Approximate astronomical positions, source code
- another list of PalmOS astronomy software
- Emerald Chronometer for the iPhone
- Emerald Observatory for the iPad