| Recommended
software |
Software
A large
range of astronomical software is readily available for the amateur
and professional astronomer alike. One significant development in this
trend has been in the growth of the Internet and with organisations
and individuals offering full or evaluation programs via the web that
one can easily purchase and/or download. In addition to this many professional
organisations and institutions now offer on-line astronomical resources
in the public domain, enabling the amateur the means to conduct useful
scientific research and complement that done by his or her professional
colleagues.
Recommended
Software
The following
list of astronomical software is regularly used by, and has been recommended
by members of our group. For links to other astronomical software, click
here.
SkyMap
by Chris Marriot
A fast easy to use, accurate, and powerful planetarium
program. Charts the position of constellations, stars, planets, Sun
and Moon, asteroids, comets. Comprehensive catalogues and database and
planning utilities. All fully searchable. Create finder charts and generate
different fields of view for eyepieces, film and CCD frames and Telrad™
circles. Interface for common goto telescope drivers. Full
and evaluation programs available. Highly
recommended.
www.skymap.com
Satsat
by Dan Bruton
A beautifully simple program. Very easy to use. Displays
the position of Saturn's moons for a given time and date; animations,
changing ring tilt. Freeware.
www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/dansoftware.html
BINARY
STAR ORBIT CALCULATOR by Brian Workman
This Excel
workbook contains all of the nearly 1000 binary stars in the "Fourth
Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars", by C.E. Worley and W.D. Heintz.
The workbook allows a user to calculate the position angle and separation
of a visual binary star for a given date. The orbital path of the secondary
star about the primary is also plotted. Freeware.
http://www.psiaz.com/polakis/binaries.html
Astrophotography
Exposure Program by Michael Covington
An
easy to use program that enables you to calculate exposures for a wide
range of astronomical subjects. Freeware.
http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/astro/astrezip.html
Iris
by Christian Buil
Iris is a powerful image processing program, designed
specifically for processing digital astronomical images. Optimised to
deal with CCD images. FITS, PIC raw or BMP formats; can also read in
images contained in the Buil-Thouvenot Atlas CD-ROM. Windows95/98/NT.
Freeware.
Highly recommended.
http://astroccd.com/terre/buil/us/iris/iris.htm
Cartes
du Ciel by Patrick Chevalley
Fast, easy to use and powerful skycharting program. Enables
you to draw sky charts, using data from 16 catalogues of stars and nebulae,
as well as the position of planets, asteroids and comets. Various languages
supported (as of Sep2000) French, English, Italian, German, Portuguese,
Spanish, Catalan, Dutch, Thai, Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, Serbian,
Czech and Russian. Regular updates to program and catalogues used. Windows
95/98 or Windows NT4. Freeware.
Highly recommended.
http://www.astrosurf.org/astropc
|
|
|
|
 |
The
Met. Office for links to ... |
|
|
|
|
 ® |
Sky
& Telescope™ for links to ... |
|
Current
news
latest astronomical reports in the media and journals
|
|
|
|
|
|
