Software for Astronomy Students
by Dr Jamie Love 
© 1997 - 2011
by Dr Jamie Love © 1997 - 2011
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. 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. |
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.
LunaView
After the February lessons you will find LunaView can provide you with more information about the Moon's features.
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 3.1Mb program directly from my website.
SimSolar
SimSolar allows you to view and predict the movement of planets and will be very useful after the March lessons.
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.
WinMeuss
This program could be used after the first few months of our course but becomes increasingly useful as the course progresses.
WinMeuss is very old, written in 1992 
, but is a timeless and simple program. The Help file doesn't work on modern systems but this program is so straight forward that I can explain it here.
Start with the Configuration tab to input your location and display characteristics. Then play with the Sun and Moon tab to get observational information about the two most important objects in our sky. You can print out a monthly lunar calendar and learn of upcoming events (eclipse, solstice, equinox, etc.). Next, try the Planets tab and chose the planets you want to locate, as well as their rising, setting and illumiation. Go back to the Configuration tab to change the date to get information about the Sun, Moon and Planets in the past or future.
Place this self-extracting file of WinMeuss in a new folder and run it. A black (DOS?) window will pop up asking to extract into the current folder. Once the few files are extracted, launch ASTROWIN.EXE and fiddle around with the program.
Geoclock
Geoclock helps to reinforce what you learn(ed) in the September lessons about the seasonal changes and patterns over the face of the Earth.
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. (I think you can download it free for evaluation.)
Free Planetarium!
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. Available for Mac OS! And Linux, too. Just set your coordinates and go.
MyStars By the middle of autumn you will have enough knowledge to get the most out of 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.
