Stellarium

[IAmTheWalrus]

Hi,

Do any of you use a Stellarium? If so which?

[2fast748]

What do you mean? Android/PC/Mac?

Version No.?

I'm using 0.20.0 on WIndows 10 PC, I find it really good and with the weather (cloud cover) being the way it is it's the only time I see stars!

You can get add ins for Comets/Satellites/etc so It's a good tool for predicting/identifying satellite passes.

[IAmTheWalrus]

I have one on Linux which is part of the main software deposit. It seems to want to use lots of cpu resources however which by itself isn't a problem but for it making it noisy. I found however although it is set to my town the other day although the moon was visible in reality above the horizon the Stellarium itself did not show the moon prompting me to question its accuracy, however it does show the major constellations alright. It has artificial satellites within the program however they seem to be hard to find and yet whenever you look at the sky itself for a while they are not really hard to find in my experience.

[Eric Mc]

Play with the various settings regarding what you want it to show. There should be an icon at the bottom of the screen that allows you to turn on planets and moons so that they show.

[2fast748]

Try turning the labels on/off and constellation artwork on/off, satellites whizz by relatively so try running it on fast forward/reverse to get the general direction for them. Are the cardinal points on?

There are a lot of options within it so I just mess with it see what it can do most of the time, there is a good manual on the website (400-ish page PDF).

There is a lot of stuff on youtube as well, apologies if any of this is teaching you to suck eggs!

[IAmTheWalrus]

2fast748 said:

Try turning the labels on/off and constellation artwork on/off, satellites whizz by relatively so try running it on fast forward/reverse to get the general direction for them. Are the cardinal points on?

There are a lot of options within it so I just mess with it see what it can do most of the time, there is a good manual on the website (400-ish page PDF).

There is a lot of stuff on youtube as well, apologies if any of this is teaching you to suck eggs!

So are you using this then?

https://stellarium.org/

[2fast748]

IAmTheWalrus said:

So are you using this then?

https://stellarium.org/

Yes.

[smashing]

IAmTheWalrus said:

2fast748 said:

Try turning the labels on/off and constellation artwork on/off, satellites whizz by relatively so try running it on fast forward/reverse to get the general direction for them. Are the cardinal points on?

There are a lot of options within it so I just mess with it see what it can do most of the time, there is a good manual on the website (400-ish page PDF).

There is a lot of stuff on youtube as well, apologies if any of this is teaching you to suck eggs!

So are you using this then?

https://stellarium.org/

Yep its my go to planner, can hook up the telescope and control it from there as well if needed however I mostly use it to see what sort of framing I can get with the camera on objects and plan the coordinates needed for plate solving.

[IAmTheWalrus]

smashing said:

IAmTheWalrus said:

2fast748 said:

Try turning the labels on/off and constellation artwork on/off, satellites whizz by relatively so try running it on fast forward/reverse to get the general direction for them. Are the cardinal points on?

There are a lot of options within it so I just mess with it see what it can do most of the time, there is a good manual on the website (400-ish page PDF).

There is a lot of stuff on youtube as well, apologies if any of this is teaching you to suck eggs!

So are you using this then?

https://stellarium.org/

Yep its my go to planner, can hook up the telescope and control it from there as well if needed however I mostly use it to see what sort of framing I can get with the camera on objects and plan the coordinates needed for plate solving.

Interesting, what type of telescope do you need to work with it then?

[smashing]

IAmTheWalrus said:

smashing said:

IAmTheWalrus said:

2fast748 said:

Try turning the labels on/off and constellation artwork on/off, satellites whizz by relatively so try running it on fast forward/reverse to get the general direction for them. Are the cardinal points on?

There are a lot of options within it so I just mess with it see what it can do most of the time, there is a good manual on the website (400-ish page PDF).

There is a lot of stuff on youtube as well, apologies if any of this is teaching you to suck eggs!

So are you using this then?

https://stellarium.org/

Yep its my go to planner, can hook up the telescope and control it from there as well if needed however I mostly use it to see what sort of framing I can get with the camera on objects and plan the coordinates needed for plate solving.

Interesting, what type of telescope do you need to work with it then?

I have a Skywatcher HEQ5 mount that is controlled via a laptop, I can then use stellarium to drive it if I want

[IAmTheWalrus]

smashing said:

I have a Skywatcher HEQ5 mount that is controlled via a laptop, I can then use stellarium to drive it if I want

Wow, just looked it up on eBay £960, would rather push it myself and spend the money modding up the car..

[smashing]

IAmTheWalrus said:

smashing said:

I have a Skywatcher HEQ5 mount that is controlled via a laptop, I can then use stellarium to drive it if I want

Wow, just looked it up on eBay £960, would rather push it myself and spend the money modding up the car..

Tbf you can get in on much much much cheaper kit but my main thing is astrophotography and the HEQ5 is entry level kit for that really.