Among others, Winstars includes tools to calculate the most relevant ephemeris for a given period of time; to represent the FOV of any eyepiece; the ability to get online from DSS (Digital Sky Survey) real pictures for a given area either in visible light, red, blue or infra-red spectrums and a graphical tool to represent the position of the natural satellites of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus (additional module).

It is also capable of guiding a telescope.

There are many more supplementary files available. You can download them from the webpage http://www.hnsky.org and just unzip them in the HNSKY directory (normally c:\hnsky ). Examples:

Non-English menu modules for the Italian, Russian, Catalan, Spanish, German, Czech, Romanian, Traditional Chinese, French, Portuguese Hungarian, Polish, Korean language.

PPM star database to magnitude 10.0 or 11.0 (468861 stars)

Tycho-2 star database containing 2.5 million stars to magnitude 12.(32 Mbytes)

GSC star database (15 million stars to about magnitude 15, (binary version 330 Mbytes)

UCAC2 star database and supplement.

Planetary images of Jovian moons, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

255 Deep sky images which will blend automatically within the map with the right size, orientation.

Deepsky help file containing about 10000 deepsky observations by Tom Lorenzin, Steve Coe and Steve Gottlieb.

43000 asteroid supplement.

Several deepsky and star supplement files such as the Yale catalog, binary and variable stars, messier objects, world map, 71000 Galaxies based on Leda data and a Milkyway supplement.

Originally comes with the Bright Star catalogue, but you may wish to enhance it by downloading additional files from its homepage - for instance, plug-ins to work with the SAO and Tycho star catalogues (compact version of these catalogues also available); interfaces to work with the Guide and USNO-A2 star Catalogues etc...

The main differences between the demonstration version of SkyMap Pro and the full product are:

Calculates the planets visibility on the day, conjunctions, moon phases, seasons, up until 24 different events for each planet. Shows a current phase lunar map, offering the possibility of searching features by name. Also calculates and shows the passes of artificial satellites et cetera...

C2A allows one to access the SAO star database (included in the installation package), Guide Star, Tycho-2, USNO-SA1.0 and USNO-A2 (these catalogues are not included in the program due to their massive size), it is also able to display field images transferred from the ESO DSS (Digitized Sky Survey) server over the Internet.
Regarding the deep sky, C2A is offered with two catalogues: the Revised New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue as well as one catalogue of deep sky objects based on RNGC and NGC2000. It also allows reading and plotting the pictures of the B-T Atlas, a unique catalogue of 6600 deep sky objects with 4649 associated images (not included with the program).

C2A possesses numerous functions (planetary positions, asteroid and comet tracking/plotting, ephemeris tables, local visibility conditions/graphic for any given object etc?).

It was conceived to offer great precision regarding the calculation of planetary positions in astrometric coordinates (and not in apparent coordinates), a facility required to compare the position of solar system objects with background stars. This is particularly useful for observing occultations.»

The author also offers separate downloads of updated orbital elements files (for comets and asteroids) and a few tools (such as compilers of the Guide Star Catalogue and of the Tycho-2 Catalogue, for those owning the CDs).

This program will not let you down, neither will he run you mad trying to figure out how to plot a chart amidst piles of menus and options... as many may.

It was idealized to naked eye observation and it draws stars until mag 5, the brightest planets and the most popular Messier objects - a frugality inversely proportional to its speed.

Buttons are provided to give you quick access to the local horizon on all cardinal points, and ephemeris of the Sun, Moon and planets are also offered. Additionally you may choose to input new objects, such as comets. A summary table of daily events and a tool to find planetary conjunctions complete the set.

This the Windows version. An older DOS version is equally available.

José R. Vieira, a Brazilian amateur astronomer, has brilliantly solved this problem by creating a set of files which work as external catalogues and allow the program to plot the Milky Way according to 5 levels of luminosity.