Stellarium

From my childhood days, I had interest in Astronomy. I don't know much of astrophysics. But I had a childish interest. It started from reading a book about Stars & Planets.

It was a Russian Book. In those days (my schooling days), we used to get lot of Russian Books in English as well as Tamil. I owned lot of such books. But, only 2 Books survived, one is "Man and Animals" and another one is "Animals on the Pedestals" (part-II of "Man and Animals").

I think I need to dedicate another posting for Russian Books alone. I want to talk much on Astronomy in this.

From my schooling days (when I was doing VIIth standard), I know how to spot the Orion's Belt, Ursa Major(Big Dipper or Big Bear) and Ursa Minor constellations in the night sky. I can even spot Venus, which is brighter than the brightest star.

My son Rohan is also very much interested in Astronomy. His interest started from the Day when I took him to visit Birla Planetarium in Chennai and watched the Star Show. He like the pictures of planets, constellations, galaxies and universe. He can identify Earth, Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn pictures in the Solar system.

I also used to play with Kstar software in Linux an year bank. But, Kstar was not able to quench my thirst of Astronomy.

Last week, I found a Free Open Source Software - "Stellarium". The features in it are astonishing, it gives you a geographical view of Planets & Constellations. If you want to spot a Planet or constellation in night sky, point monitor in the right direction. You will be able to plot the exact position of it the sky. You can install additional packages and get millions of stars. The software even have scripting through which it can play Solar Eclipses, Transits of Venus and lot more.

If you are interested in Astronomy, check out this software.

I'm planning to buy a telescope in the near future(in 1 or 2 years) and do more study on Astronomy. I also want to read more books on Astrophysics.