Software for Astronomy Students
by Dr Jamie Love 
© 1997 - 2010
by Dr Jamie Love © 1997 - 2010
From this page you can collect a variety of programs that will reinforce what you have learned in your lessons. You are NOT required to use these programs. They merely help you with the material covered by allowing you to "experiment" with some of the astronomy and physics that I teach in this course.
I own a PC so I do not know what is available for Macs. Sorry. 
Here's a list of programs that will run on Macs but I cannot give you any help or information about their quality or utility.
Most of these programs are free and the rest are shareware. (Chances are that you will get plenty out of the shareware programs before the registration date is upon you 
but all of them are all well worth the small cost of registration.)
By the way, I don't get any money from the sale of any of the programs on this webpage.
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I recommend programs based upon specific lessons for a particular month but (of course) you are free to download and use them at anytime. However, you will probably get more out of each program if you wait until you've had the lesson(s) on the topic. Besides, you'll be less like to become overwhelmed or sidetracked if you stick to the lesson schedule.
There are lots programs for astronomy students but I only list the ones that I feel are good for teaching & learning, are inexpensive (or free!) and are simple to use.
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Some of these links will take you to the website of the person who wrote the program. Those people often update their software and by directing you to their website you can be assured that you are getting the latest version and sufficient instructions. These programs are often large and the website owner might ask you to register.
The other links will take you to my "software repository" - my home for excellent astronomy programs that do not have a website or need much explanation. Those links do not go to a "web page". Instead, they link directly to my downloads directory. When you visit those links
a dialogue box will pop up asking you where to download the program. Download the file somewhere on your computer and, once it has completely downloaded, go offline and run (execute) the file. It will extract into the directory you chose.
What about viruses!?
I downloaded these programs directly from the authors' websites so these programs are unlikely to be infected. (I "rezipped" some of them into self-extracting packages.) Regardless, I checked all of them for viruses using the most recent versions of Norton Antivirus, Dr Solomon and F-Prot. You're more likely to be hit by a meteorite than get a virus from any of these programs. (And, if you do get hit by a meteorite, please send that chunk to me! 
)
After the February lessons you will find LunaView can provide you with more information about the Moon's features.
LunaView
Steve Massey has created a very good program that offers amateur lunar observers, a quick reference guide to various prominent lunar features as can be seen through a small to moderate sized telescope. LunaView displays lunar phases (current or whatever date you want), gives vital lunar statistics, and has a clickable image map of the Moon. There is some succinct supporting text along with a database that references the lunar surface features and gives you the history behind the names.
Steve allows you to download the program directly from my website. The smaller verison is only 3.1 Mb and is very good. The larger version is 7.3 Mb with more features and details. It is up to you to choose the one you want. (Folks with poor download speeds will enjoy the smaller one.)
SimSolar allows you to view and predict the movement of planets and will be very useful after the March lessons.
SimSolar
Daniel J. Opdahl has a fun to use Solar System simulator that will show you the relative positions of the Sun, Moon and planets for any date. You can choose from a variety of preset scales in order to get a feel for the size of it all. Evaluation copies of SimSolar are provided at no charge, for a 30 day evaluation period. (By registering you get some additional features.) My only complaint about this simulation is that the orbits of the planets are all calculated and illustrated as circles on a single plane. (The real orbits are ellipses and their planes are at different angles.) You will learn about this small discrepancy, and what it means, in our June lessons. Regardless, SimSolar is a fun program to get you thinking about our Solar System and its scaling features will help you put the whole thing in perspective.
Leap over to the SimSolar website, read all about it and download a copy.
After the April lessons you will find H-R Clac particularly helpful in understanding the HR diagram.
H-R Calc
David C. Irizarry has written "H-R Calc" - an excellent program that allows you to "create" stars of different luminosity and temperature and plot them on the H-R diagram. This program also allows you to plot, save, print and compare your experiments. David has even included a file containing over 200 real stars for you to enjoy. Be sure to use the "relative size" and "info" buttons to get the big picture!
Download this self-extracting file I've created. Once you have the download you can go offline and set it up by double-clicking it.
After the May lessons you will find StarClock really helps you to enjoy stellar evolution and aging.
StarClock
Leos Ondra has written "StarClock 2.0", an amazing program that animates evolution of stars in the H-R diagram, from ZAMS through to "old age". This program includes details of core burning, in stars of different size, that I haven't covered so this program can take you further than I have. Leos' wonderful freeware has two options. "Evolve" displays the aging process allowing you to really appreciate the difference that size makes. The "Explore" option allows you to study a variety of features about an individual star, during any part of its "life span". Warning: this learning-tool will get you hooked on astrophysics!
Download this self-extracting file I've created. Once you have the download you can go offline and set it up by double-clicking it.
After the July lessons you will find this program helps you to better understand binary stars.
Eclipsing Binary Stars
The folks at Midnight Kite Software have made a very educational program with Eclipsing Binary Stars. This software allows you to change the properties of a pair of binary stars (luminosity, radius and mass) and orbit (inclinations and cycles) in order to simulate the effects. The animation feature is a real plus. This is a great program for studying light curves and seeing how the barycenter changes as you change the masses.
Download this self-extracting file of Eclipsing Binary Star from my software warehouse. Once you have the download you can go off line and unzip it up by double-clicking it.
The "setup.exe" gave me an error but if you run "ebs1a2.exe" (just skip "setup.exe") it works just fine.
After the August lessons you will find this program will get you in touch with meteors.
Crater
Mark Boughen, an astronomer at the University of Hertfordshire, wrote a small (68KB) DOS based program for those wishing to experiment with impacts! Don't get too excited. This is not some kind of interactive version of a Hollywood movie. Instead, it's a useful program for the curious. It asks for the diameter, density, velocity and angle of impact (but the program cannot accept angles less than 20o). Mark gives you an example to get you started. The results of your experiment can be displayed statistically or graphically. Mark has included a small section that explains the physics of these impacts. Download Crater 3.1 (also known as the "Terrestrial Impact Simulator") from my software warehouse. Once you have the download you can go off line and set it up by double-clicking it.
Geoclock helps to reinforce what you learn(ed) in the September lessons about the seasonal changes and patterns over the face of the Earth.
Geoclock
Joe Ahlgren has created a wonderful program for Windows. Geoclock displays the parts of the Earth in sunshine or darkness along with sunrises and sunsets. You can set it up several different ways but I recommend you display the world and highlight your location. (The program has an extensive list of cities and also allows you to input your own co-ordinates, if you have them.) Also, (under Controls/Options) I like it to display the Full Legend, Normal Mode, and set it to display the Moon as both an icon and ephemeris text. I have mine set up as a screen saver.
You'll have fun (educational fun) playing around with the functions under "Actions".
Visit the Geoclock Website to learn all about it and download a copy.
By the middle of autumn you will have enough knowledge to get the most out of MyStars.
MyStars
David Patte created MyStars and I use it throughout these lessons to generate most of the sky images. MyStars produces a "natural" view of the sky. Many other planetary programs draw the SIZE of the star based upon its magnitude. That is also the way most star charts show relative magnitudes. However, this causes stars like Sirius to appear huge and take up a lot of "space". MyStars uses shades of gray to illustrate magnitudes so it looks natural.
MyStars is shareware - you can use it free for only 15 days. After that, you will need to pay a most amount but it is well worth it.
Hop on over to the MyStars website and learn all about it. Then pick up a copy and give it a try
If you own a Mac I'm sure this is not the first time that you have felt sidelined by the PC crowd. I will be the first to admit that Macs run better than PCs but it's a fact that folks who write programs write them first for PCs and then have to be motivated to offer a Mac version. [I asked one programmer if he would offer a Mac version for a program I want to recommend and he literally laughed in his response to me!] Keep in mind that the PC software I recommended is NOT required to enjoy this course. However, I feel I should at least list some Mac programs I have heard about and let you decide if you want to pursue them.
