This article contains 5 Best Free Planetarium software for Windows 10/8/7. This free software lets you view and explore outer space right from your computer. Most of these software simulate the sky precisely for the current position and time on Earth. You can also manually set any location on Earth and set the time in the present, past, or future to view the respective sky maps. Some of these software only take you to the object you want to see and have a 3D view.
With this planetarium software, you can view Planets, Stars, Satellites, Galaxies, Space Objects, Constellations, Nebulae, Asteroids, Comets, and many more. This software is like an open atlas to the vast universe and brings information about the millions of objects out there.
While most of these tools let you view objects in 3D or as an image, some only display the position of the object. This software also brings detailed information about the object, such as name, magnitude, hour angle, ellipse information, distance from Sun, distance from Earth, diameter, phase angle, etc.
Another interesting feature that most of these software for sky viewing have is, moving objects in the sky in real time or fast forward.
This software provides navigation tools to browse objects, and search tools to find objects. All you have to do is enter the object name, and it will be displayed for viewing. There are various other interesting tools offered by this planetarium software. Immediately, the following 5 Best Free Planetarium software for Windows 10/8/7:
1. Stellarium
Stellarium is an open source planetarium software for Windows, Mac and Linux. It lets you see the sky, as you would from your eyes through binoculars, or through a telescope. It is a very extensive software with a wide set of tools and options. Once you know about its features, you will be amazed by its capabilities. Available tools help you to see stars as well as interstellar objects, including satellites, planets, galaxies, constellations, etc.
When you open the software, it will display a simple landscape along with the sky. According to your time zone (which this software updates from the internet), landscape is displayed in day or night view. The daylight time display only shows the Sun and Moon when they are visible in the sky. The sky glows at night with the moon and all visible satellites, planets and stars. Zoom using the scroll button of your mouse and get a telescopic view of the object you want to see. Click on an object to view its details, such as: name, magnitude, hour angle, ellipse information, distance from the Sun, distance from Earth, diameter, phase angle, etc.
Using this planetary software for the first time can be confusing, as it has no options on the interface, just a landscape where you can look around. In order to use this software properly, you have to download the Stellarium User manual, which is available in various parts of this software. There is also a User Manual in the form of a 291-page PDF file with Hot Keys, How To(s), and Catalogs.
What you see when you open this software is a simple landscape, but the tool can be used to visualize many things. These include: Time lag, Fast forward time, Reverse time, Jump to a specific time in the future or past, Jump to locations to get individual views of the sky, View constellations, View equatorial grid, View deep celestial bodies, View the sky with/without atmosphere, and more.
Information about various other tools, features, and configurable options including Plugins is available in the user manual. the planet’s software runs very smoothly and doesn’t lag even on computers without high-end graphics cards.
2. Celestia
Celestia is a multi-platform Planetarium software available for free. It lets you explore the Solar System along with the vast expanse of the Universe, which includes planets, clusters, galaxies and even space objects. All of this can be viewed in high resolution or low resolution which can be set manually.
Celestia doesn’t restrict you from seeing objects from Earth’s point of view. You are free to go to a planet, star, or even galaxy to view it from a set distance. All you need to do is enter the object name and enter the distance from where you want to see it. You can Zoom to very high level and see celestial objects from our universe. When viewing an object, the related info is displayed along with the distance from which you are viewing it in kilometers or astronomical units.
All objects displayed in this planetarium software move in real time. You can see their actual movement with respect to viewing distance. If you want, you can pause time, speed up time, or slow down time to view objects as per your wish. You can also jump to a time in the past or in the future to view an object at a certain point in time.
There are various other options available which can enhance your planetarium, or rather universe exploration experience. You can take screenshots and even record videos of your entire journey.
You will also find certain plugins on the website of this software which will enhance its capabilities and help you see more about the Universe.
Celestia is an excellent planetarium software that operates in high resolution. If you don’t have a high-end graphics card installed on your PC, you can lower the resolution to make it work smoothly.
3. Hello Northern Sky
Hello Northern Sky is a simple but feature-rich planetarium software for Windows and Linux. It lets you see the observable universe from your location. It has a huge database of millions of stars, galaxies and space objects, which you can see by zooming in.
When you load this software, the view of the visible sky is displayed with all the stars, planets, galaxies and constellations. The constellations are connected and marked with lines. The sun, nearby stars and 8 other planets are also shown along with their satellites. Scroll your mouse to zoom in and get a telescopic view of an object.
The position of the object displayed is accurate within 1 , and is displayed with respect to the current time and location of the viewer. If you want, you can jump to a specific time in the past as well as up to 10 years into the future to see the positions of stars, planets, etc.
If you want to search for an object, just open the Find tool and search for Constellations, Stars, Asteroids, Comets, Space objects, or Planets. You can also type object name to find it.
For those who are using this software for the first time, it may be a bit confusing. Once you start exploring the options and get used to it, this planetary software will impress you with its simplicity.
4. WinStars
WinStars is a great planetarium software for Windows. Along with the Planetarium view in the sky, it also offers a view of the solar system. It’s very close to Stellarium in terms of the features and tools it offers, with the added interface.
Planetarium view lets you see the sky from your location, which is detected automatically over the internet. You can also jump to any place on earth and see how the sky looks from there. You can highlight or disable names selectively for planets, stars, probes, comets, asteroids, etc. You can also set the desired time in the past or in the future to view the sky.
Zoom to view objects in a telescopic view. Several options let you animate gridlines, rulers, and equator ellipses, so that you can pin point objects. If you want to find an object, you can also use the available Find tool; just type the name.
Solar System View gives you a view of solar system from Earth orbit. You can see the planets, their paths, the Sun, and all the stars, galaxies, etc. in the visible Universe. You can also turn on/off the visibility and names of stars, space objects, planets, probes, orbits, etc.
There’s a lot more to do with this free planetarium software. Although similar to Stellarium, but still less subtle.
5. KStar
KStars is an open source planetarium software that can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It lets you see the sky and explore it just like you would from Earth. It is mainly developed for educational purposes and has a database of millions of stars, thousands of space objects, all planets, planetary satellites and the Sun. You can manually find these objects or simply use the Find tool to find them automatically, then zoom in to see.
Synchronizes with your location and current time, then displays the position of the object in the sky according to precision. The sky moves in harmony with the current time; However, you can pause time or jump to future or past time to view the respective sky. You can also speed up the time to play the movement of stars and planets.
Horizontal coordinate grid along with directional markers lets you find objects easily. To point to an object and zoom in on it, simply drag the sky and bring the object to the center of the screen, then zoom in.
The set of tools available with this planetarium software is quite a lot. Some of the interesting tools are: Sky Calendar, Altitude vs Time, What’s Up Tonight, What’s Interesting, Solar System Viewer, Observation Planner, View Constellations, Constellation Art, etc.
Overall, this is an excellent planetary software that can be used to study astronomy.
Conclusion: Those are the 5 Best Free Planetarium Software for Windows 10/8/7. Of the 5 software that we mentioned above, Stellarium and Celectia are the planet software that we like the most. This software provides an excellent sky exploration tool and is very easy to use. The high quality images provided by this software are simply stunning to look at.
