The version 2 of winstars is available here : http://www.winstars.net/english

WinStars is a complete planetarium, displaying the appearance of the sky, as seen from anywhere on Earth, for any date. With a click of the mouse, it's possible to review information about all objects displayed using this program. WinStars is freeware.


Features :

• 10.000 stars (BSC5 catalogue) in the basic version and more than 2.500.000 stars by downloading Sky2000 and Tycho2 catalogues,
• more than 10.000 deep sky objects - star clusters, nebulae, galaxies (SAC catalogue),
• smooth real time navigation with the mouse,
• displays the accurate position of the Sun, the Moon, the major planets, comets and asteroids,
• position of the major planetary satellites can be displayed on the map,
• realistic views of the planets, the Moon, the phases of Mercury and Venus, the horizon and objects of deep sky,
• calculations of ephemeris,
• detailed information can be displayed about each object,
• drives the Meade LX200 (and compatible) telescope,
• Web resources are available : updated comets and asteroids' elements, pictures from DSS (Digitized Sky Survey) servers, visibility of artificial satellites...
• compatible with Seti@Home
• WinStars is written in c++.

• Pentium 150 MHz or faster,
• Windows 9x/Me/NT4/2000 or XP,
• 32 MBytes RAM or more,
• 20 MBytes free space on the hard disk,
• video card 800x600 with 32768 colors (15 bits).
• a wheel mouse is recommended.