This program was designed to be a planetarium simulator with an emphasis on practical usefulness to the average amateur astronomer. As such, its function ranges from getting acquainted with the constellations and star names to planning observing sessions and controlling your Meade or Celestron telescope through the ASCOM telescope interface.

Moreover, one of the great things about this software is that it will run well even on modest hardware.

Here are some key features of "Sky Planetarium":

· Maps from nearly any time. From the distant past to the distant future. See the precession of the Earth's axis and how it affects the star's positions.
· The Location Tool allows you to quickly choose your Earthly location from a map (or a list of cities).
· The Time Tool graphically shows sun rise/set and moon rise/set times along with Local time, UT, etc. It's an analog clock and gives you a nice "feel" for the passage of time and its effect on the night sky's appearance.
· The Magnifier Tool shows you what's under the cursor when you point to objects on the main map. This tool can mimic the view through various telescope/eyepiece combinations. It can also keep track of points of interest, which are locations you set on the map and can cycle through quickly with the number keys or via a menu selection.
· Other features include: a calendar of celestial events (computed on-the-fly), simulated sky glow during sun rise/set, fairly accurate planetary positions/depictions... including Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings, the whole thing is even scriptable in BASIC.

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Added support for the ASCOM telescope interface.
· Corrected Daylight Savings Time routines to current US standard.
· Corrected bug that caused "Early Tonight" time setting to be one day early.
· Corrected bug that crashed program on loading "Points of Interest".
· Added support for online download and display of objects from POSS, etc.
· Misc. improvements for saving/loading Comet and Asteroid elements including online downloading of elements from the MPC.