Features:

• Over 120000 stars from the Hipparcos Catalogue with name and infos for the brightest ones.
• Planets and major satellites in real time, with a powerfull zoom mode to see them like in a telescope.
• Planet position computation now accurate enough for eclipse or transit simulation.
• Drawing of the 88 constellations with their names.
• Textured displaying of more than 70 nebulas (Orion, M31 etc..).
• Photorealistic Milky Way.
• Ground, fog, and landscape.
• Ultra fast realistic atmosphere rendering.
• Automatic eye adaptation to luminance.
• Star twinkling.
• Smooth real time intuitive navigation.
• Equatorial and altazimutal mode.
• Fisheye projection mode (e.g for planetarium dome).
• Grids in Equatorial and Azimuthal coordinates.
• Time control (real time and accelered time modes).
• Graphical menu for simple utilisation.
• Clikable stars, planets and nebulas with informations.
• Ecliptic and celestrial equator lines.
• Windowed and fullscreen modes.

This is the Windows version. Linux/Unix and MacOSX versions are also available.

On the graphical side, it offers the classical representation of the celestial sphere; the situation of the sky over the local horizon; elongations and heliocentric position of the planets and a tool to draft/register your sunspot observations.

On the ephemeris side, it gives you access to a wide set of utilities with all expected calculations: current time in some twenty calendars; eclipses; conjunctions; seasons; distances; moon phases; conversion of coordinates; an option to list the objects by type seen over a given period of time and on a given constellation etc, etc... Also featured is an interface to record personal observations.

It is offered without any restrictions, except it does not include some of the more advanced features the full version has to offer.

Also you can get detailed information of any object from the BSC 5.0 Edition. Beside that you can check out the positions of then planets and then moon over a period of 200 years(1900-2100).

designerSky is easy to use and handle. It runs on WinXP.

You need the ***Visual Basic Runtime libraries*** to run designerSKY. You can get them everywhere on the Net (e.g. here) or I can send it to you via email (size about 1 MB).

The program is still the Beta Version

It can be used for serious astronomical study, or just to enjoy its amazing graphics.

Features:

• 110,000 stars.
• 110 Messier objects.
• All the majour planets and moons.
• All the majour constellations.
• Realistic graphics
• Animation with lock-on function.
• View from any position on the Earth at any time
• Mirror view
• Night vision mode
• Configuable eye piece
• RA/DEC and Alt/Azi charts
• Asteriod veiwer with over 2000 asteriods

Internet downloadable, includes detailed electronic User's Manual & "Starry Night Companion"; view from any location on Earth or from any planet, moon, comet, asteroid, or star; easily locate space objects using the 'Find' command; easy to print star charts with smart labels; automatic Internet updates of hundreds of comets, asteroids & satellites.

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).

The features include: