Stellarium - Free Planetarium Sofware

Stellarium is an amazing free planetarium program which shows the sky realistically in 3D, just as you'd see it with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is completely free of charge as a download from www.Stellarium.org

But Stellarium also contains a wealth of information about most things in the night sky. It names all the planets, constellations, galaxies and nebulae and shows you where they are in the sky on any given night. Many people use it to look at what can be seen from their location before they go out looking. You can also animate the stars both backwards and forwards in time to check out something you saw previously or to plan what you might see in the future

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Don't be put off by it's complexity, you don't need to know much to be able to get some good use out of it. Start by putting in your location and the correct time and date. Use the mouse and arrow keys to move the sky around until it's pointing the way you are looking. The two menus are in the bottom left corner of the screen but to see them you need to move the mouse pointer over there and then they will appear. The one on the left side lets you set things up and search for something and the one on the bottom edge turn things on and off such as constellation lines, star and planet names etc.

Try it, it's completely free and although it takes a little getting used to, it's well worth the effort. There is also a simpler mobile phone app version too. 

www.Stellarium.org