Here is some info about various planetarium and sky simulation programs.

Product Kind Price Demo Author/Publisher
Distant Suns commercial $35 yes Gary Osborn
Digital Universe commercial $100 Syzygy Research & Technology
Hipparchus commercial $50 yes sofTouch APpLications
MacAstronomica shareware $20 yes Easysoft Creations
MacStronomy commercial $60 yes Etlon Software
MPj Astro shareware $25 yes MicroProjects
Night Sky freeware   yes Kaweah Software
Observer commercial $50 - 150 yes Procyon
Planet C shareware $25 yes Lars Gislen
Redshift 3 commercial $50 no Maris Multimedia
SkyChart III commercial $50 yes Southern Stars
Stargazer's Delight shareware $20 yes Ruedi Schmid
Starry Night commercial $34 - 149 yes Sienna Software
TheSky commercial $129 no Software Bisque
Voyager III commercial $160 no Carina Software

(incl. DOS)
Product Kind Price Demo Author/Publisher
AstroMB commercial $50 yes MBCCA
Astronomica shareware $25 yes Piotr Czerski
Atlas du Ciel shareware $50 yes Mario Groleau
Coeli shareware $34 yes Swimming Elk Software
Cartes du ciel free   yes Patrick Chevalley
CosmoSaver-Solar System shareware $15 yes MicroRealities
CyberSky shareware $28 yes Stephen Michael Schimpf
Dance of the Planets commercial $95 - 145 no ARC Science Simulations
Deepsky 2000 shareware $25 - 43 yes Steven S. Tuma
Deep Sky shareware ? Part 1 2 3 Rich Burke
Deep Space commercial $79 yes David Chandler
Distant Suns commercial $35 yes Mike Smithwick
Earth Centered Universe shareware $55 yes Nova Astronomics
EasySky commercial $45 yes Matthias Busch
Epoch 2000sk commercial $149 - 179 no Meade
Encyclopedia Galactica free   yes Javier Martínez Molina
Expert Astronomer commercial $12 no MediaMart; Expert Software
GrayStel commercial Ł75 no GrayStel Software
Guide commercial $89 no Project Pluto
HNSky free   yes Han_Kleijn
Home Planet free   yes John Walker
HyperSky commercial $50 yes Willmann-Bell
Kagayaki shareware $40 yes Seeds Box
LodeStar commercial $100 - 160 no Zephyr Services
MegaStar commercial $129 yes E.L.B. Software
MIRAPLA free   yes MSB
MoonCalc free   yes Monzur Ahmed
MyStars! shareware $17 yes Relative Data Products
NGCView commercial $50 yes Rainman Software
OpenUniverse free   yes Raśl Alonso
PC-Sky commercial $39 no CapellaSoft
Pises Atlas-Prisn98 commercial $100 no Pises Observatory
Planetarium Pro commercial $35 yes JC Research
PlanetWatch shareware $20 yes Galen Raben
Power Age Sky Simulator shareware $25 yes George Dragandjikov
Redshift 3 commercial $50 no Maris Multimedia
Sky3D shareware $35 yes Corvus Software
Sky Atlas 2000 free   yes  
SkyChart III commercial $50 yes Southern Stars
Sky Charts free   yes Patrick Chevalley
SkyGlass shareware $19 yes Scott Ferris
Skyglobe shareware ? ? KlassM Software
Sky:Lab commercial $60 no Paul Mayo
SkyMap commercial $55 - 89 yes Chris Marriott
SkyPlot shareware $10 yes Gerry Santoro
SkyTools commercial $99 no CapellaSoft
Sky View free   yes  
Solar Kingdom commercial $49 yes Silverfrost
SPICA free   yes Guillaume Richard
StarCalc free   yes Alexander E. Zavalishin
Stargaze commercial $100 no CEB Metasystems
Starry free   yes  
Starry Night commercial $34 - 149 yes Sienna Software
StarScape commercial $70 no Zephyr Services
StarStrider shareware $38 yes FMJ-Software
Stella 2000 shareware $49 yes Swimming Elk Software
Stellar Pro free   yes ?
TheSky commercial $129 - 249 no Software Bisque
Touring The Universe Through Binoculars Atlas commercial $20 no Phil Harrington
Virtual Sky shareware $28 yes Astronomiesoftware Dings
WinAstronomica shareware $20 yes Easysoft Creations

Product Kind Price Demo Author/Publisher
OpenUniverse free   yes Raśl Alonso
Skymap free   yes Doug Mink
Xephem free   source Elwood Charles Downey
Xplns free   yes Osamu Ajiki
Xsky free   yes Terry R. Friedrichsen

Product Platform Kind Price Demo Author/Publisher
AstroHTML WinCE commercial ? ? SanSoft
PalmAtlas Palm Shareware $10 yes Brian Tung
Planetarium for PalmPilot Palm Shareware $24 yes Andreas Hofer
Pocket Star Chart Palm Shareware $13 yes Kevin S. Polk
Pocket Universe WinCE commercial $30 yes Sticky Software
Solun Psion free   yes David Rushall
Star Pilot Palm commercial $30 yes Chris DiPierro
StarTrak Psion free   yes Steve Jones
TheSky WinCE commercial $49 no Software Bisque

Product Kind Price Demo Author/Publisher
Night Vision shareware $25 yes Brian Simpson
SkyGate commercial $59 yes AstroGrafx
The COSMOS commercial $49 no MENSYS

Note: prices are in US dollars exclusive of shipping/handling charges and rounded to the nearest doller.


Sky Survey

The ultimate planetarium is the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, a set of images covering the entire sky taken with professional telescopes. The printed version is extremely expensive but it has now been digitized and is available in 10x compressed form on the Web from STScI and NASA and in 100x compressed form on 10 CDROMs from ASP. The CDROM version can be accessed from TheSky and several others; the online version can be accessed from Starry Night and a few others.

Web-based Planetariums

Other Software

Data

Misc



Bill Arnett; last updated: 2001 Apr 16 ; Additions and/or corrections appreciated.