CVC's Astronomy Freeware and Software

**from your friendly neighborhood science teacher**
(Bill Drennon)

Click here to see current view of the earth
Click here to get a star chart for your location at any time and date
Click here and find the location of current manned space flights and orbits!
Click here for the Java Applet for real-time tracking of the space shuttle and space station -- Java applet provided by United Space Alliance

Download H-R CalcHertzprung-Russell Diagram Calculator

This freeware program by David C. Irizarry works on Windows 3.x and Windows 95. The compressed zip file that you will download here is only 319kB. When unzipped, it takes up 1.07 Mbytes of disk space.

I have tried a lot of freeware and software in astronomy. I rate this a keeper. This is an excellent program, utilizing the Hertzprung-Russell Diagram. Find a star in the sky. Identify it using planetarium software. Then use this software to see where it falls on the H-R diagram. Discover its relative size to the sun, its surface temperature, its spectral class, its actual brightness, and other interesting facts about the star. It is well worth the small disk space and short download time.

NOTE: This shareware version, though fully functional, has a built in time limit per session. You have the bother of having to reboot it after your session time runs out. If you like it, though, you can send in a check or money order to its author of $15 and be rid of that problem.

SkyMap3.1

This is planetarium software for Windows 3.1/95. Go to this site to download the most user-friendly example of planetarium software. Use it freely for 30 days. If you like it, purchase it for $49 from JASC. When you print out star maps with this software, the quality is outstanding. It has the greatest flexibility of any of the programs of its type that I have tried. This is a hefty-sized download at 1.9 Mb. If you want a smaller program or one that will be be less expensive to purchase, try Cyber Sky. Each program has its pros. Overall, though, I rate SkyMap software the best. If you decide to purchase the software, you will be sent a version that works for Windows 3.x and Windows 95. There is also a CD version of SkyMap Pro for $79.95 plus $5.00 handling. You can download the Windows 95 version here. ( Download skymap.exe for Windows 95 now.) file is 1.9MB.

CyberSky2.0b

This is planetarium software for Windows 3.1/95. Go to this site to download an excellent example of planetarium software. Use it freely for 30 days. If you like it, purchase it for $28 (much less expensive than SkyMap). Of the smaller memory planetarium software, some people like Stella Pro best and some like CyberSky best. Right now, the choice is easy. This is the only one under 1 MB presently available in English! I rate it as excellent! Choose the right version for your operating system. The Windows 95 version ( Download csky3220.exe for Windows 95 now.) file is 734kB. The Windows 3.x version (Download csky1620.exe for Windows 3.x now.) is 708kB.

Deep Space Ver. 5.54

This observer-oriented astronomy program was written right here in Tulare County, CA, so it is a pleasure to introduce it. It prints highquality star maps in a variety of useful formats designed for use outside at night, including a 2-tone Milky Way, an option to generate a printed moon phase calendar, and a local horizon files may be associated with each observing site. This shareware version has a limited database, but is fully functional. A full commercial version is available which supports the Deep Space Navigator telescope interface, several models of digital setting circles, and the LX200 line of telescopes. Download Deep Space Ver. 5.54 The author's web page is http://www.davidchandler.com/

Stellar Pro SPR153e

This is OUTSTANDING planetarium software for Windows 95...from Japan. Go to this site to download this excellent planetarium software when it becomes available again in English. Right now the only version being distributed is in Japanese!. WARNING: Version sswpro160 is the Japanese version! You want spr153e. Planetarium software such as this is a must to help you find/identify the stars and planets you see in the sky. You can set your viewing location to your present location, set the stars in the sky to whatever cutoff brightness you wish, and set the sky to any time you want. You can print out star charts to take outside with you for viewing the sky. This is a truly excellent program and should be on your computer if you have Windows 95. If you are one of my students and have a Windows 95 operating system, email me and I will email you a copy of the program. Otherwise, download it here

Download My Stars

This is another example of planetarium software. I do not rate it as highly as cyber sky or Stella Theater Pro, but perhaps you will. You should try several and compare. This is available for 16bit Windows 3.x and 32 bit WIndows 95. The Windows 95 file, mys32241.zip takes up 738kB. You can set your software to Visalia, CA by setting Latitude to 36 deg 19' N LAT and 119 deg 26' W LONG.

Download GeoClock For Windows

I have students use this program to determine the circumference of the earth. They measure the length of a shadow produced by a plumbed meterstick. Then they use this program to find where the sun is at its zenith at that instance and how far that location is from their present location. By inverse tangent of experimental data, you can determine the angle at which the sun hits the stick and hense the arc of the earth between your site and where the sun is at zenith! This program maps the location of the sun and moon and shows how the globe is shaded at any time. This program is also useful for obtaining latitudes and longitudes of a large data base of locations. You can also determine the distance between any two points on the globe. Very useful program! The registered version gives more bells, whistles, and maps. The new file name is gckwin80.zip and replaces the old dos version geoclk.zip and the former gckwin75.zip (which is actually the version that I have class tested).

Download SPACE WEIGHT

This cute little freeware program allows you to enter your weight on earth and find your weight on any other location in the solar system. It is only 20Kbyte, so why not add it to your hard drive? Download SPACE WEIGHT now! It is FREE!

Download tjping

What is a ping program doing in an astronomy list? I use it to determine how far away a satelite is. I trace a hop from here to iceland for example and multiply the number of milliseconds by the speed of light/micro-waves (3 X 10^8 m/s). To get the meters of hop. Then divide by 2 and again by 1000 to get the average distance of the satellite in kilometers.

Download Atom Time

You need this software to insure your computer clock is absolutely accurate. This is must for planetarium software to be accurate, to be able to see short-lived satellites, and for correctly measuring the diameter of the earth.

Home Planet Lite or Homeplanet FULL VERSION

This excellent software helps you keep track of satelites around the earth. It also shows where the zenith of the moon is and shows what part of the earth at any time is in the dark or in the light. It comes in a "lite" version that can fit on a floppy or a full version that is over 8 Mb. It is definitely a keeper. I use it for my satelite labs.

ALTERNATIVE: FULL VERSION OF HOMEPLANET IN 5 DOWNLOADS In my opinion, it is well worth it to take the time to download these five files. Extract all five into the same folder; then double click "setup". You can find absolutely every possible thing in the sky. Download images that do not come with the program from NASA into the image folder of the program and have actual images for any object you want working in the program. The full version lets you locate meteor showers, satelites, deep space objects, planets....you name it...AND IT IS FREE:

10/13/95 12:00AM        935,107 hp2-1.zip
10/13/95 12:00AM      2,439,475 hp2-2.zip
10/13/95 12:00AM      1,563,747 hp2-3.zip
10/13/95 12:00AM      1,488,692 hp2-4.zip
10/13/95 12:00AM      1,335,608 hp2-5.zip
The above links are from a university site that is sometimes down. Click the FULL VERSION at the head of this article for a more reliable site.

Test and Fix your Y2K Problem
Try my new site at http://www.cvc.org/2000/index.htm - The Y2K Problem made simple, along with free test software for your PC and solutions.
A free and very reliable test program is here along with a summary of the problem, detailed instructions on how to use the program, and where to find solutions if your PC is not year 2000 compliant. A reliable computer clock in essential for the study of astronomy.

(NOTE: I have finished testing satellite tracking software such as satspy, sattrac, wintrac, pegasus, pctrac, and others. I will be publishing the results very soon. Sorry about the delay!)

STSORBIT PLUS
Download STSORBIT PLUS in three downloads. This is an excellent free space shuttle and orbit simulation program. Download the following programs and extract them into the same folder. Then open the file stsplus.exe You will select a city from its data base or enter a latitude and longitude. The data base is large and even had Visalia, CA. You then set your time zone, though the program leads you through that pretty well. You can select from a list of satelites (It also contains current shuttle). Then follow the track. This software runs from windows but is in DOS. It is freeware. Go tohttp://www.dransom.com/ for more detail.
Download EARTH3.ZIP --- Level 3 Map Database for STSORBIT PLUS
Download SOP9747A.zip --- STSORBIT PLUS Version 9607, Part 1 of 2
Download SOP9747B.zip --- STSORBIT PLUS Version 9607, Part 2 of 2 (now working)

Other Sources of Astronomy Freeware and Shareware

http://www.cvc.org/astronomy/freeware.htm - THe URL of this page
ftp://ftp.seds.org/pub/software/pc/stars - Students for the Exploration and Development of Space at U of Arizona. (many downloads!)
http://www2.plasma.mpe-garching.mpg.de/sat/vsohp/orbsoft.html - Satellite tracking shareware and freeware
http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~iburrell/sat/software.htmlA list of satellite software for UNIX, MAC, DOS, and WINDOWS.
http://www.w3.org/pub/DataSources/bySubject/astro/software.html - Software Links
http://cybersky.simplenet.com/d.html - Download CyperSky2.0b : planetarium software for Windows 3.1/95
http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~cjhamil/software/ - Animation (AVIs) & Display Software at Los Alamos
http://bang.lanl.gov/win- Los Alamos : Microsoft Windows software
ftp://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/pub/software/ - Animation/Display and other Software from SEDS
ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/SOFTWARE/ - Software from explorer.arc.nasa.gov
ftp://ftp.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/software/ - Software from ftp.jpl.nasa.gov
ftp://ftp.univ-rennes1.fr/pub/Images/ASTRO/anim/soft/ - Animation Software


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(last updated 11/01/1998) Send feedback to bdrennon@theworks.com - Bill Drennon

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