Description
You want to know whether Jupiter will be visible from your east-facing balcony at three in the morning next Wednesday, or where Orion stood on this date a century ago, and a printed star atlas means a lot of conversion. Night Vision is an open-source virtual planetarium: set a latitude, longitude and moment and it draws the whole sky for that instant, with magnitudes, constellation lines, planets, the Sun and Moon, and the Milky Way shaded. Drag to look around, scroll to zoom.
Time steps forward or backward by hour, day or month, so you can watch the sky turn and planets go retrograde. Click any object for its right ascension and declination, altitude and azimuth, magnitude, distance and rise and set times. A separate solar system window looks down on the planets in their orbits.
The interface is old-school Java, plain but dense and responsive. It is cross platform, and Windows downloads come both with and without a bundled Java runtime.
Full sky chart: Draws the sky for a chosen place and moment with constellation lines, planets, Sun, Moon and Milky Way.
Time travel: Step time forward or backward by hour, day or month to watch motion and retrogrades.
Object details: Click any star or planet for RA and Dec, altitude and azimuth, magnitude, distance, rise and set.
Any location: Enter coordinates or pick a city to see the sky from anywhere on Earth.
Solar system window: A separate top-down view of the planets in their orbits.
Pan and zoom: Drag to change the viewing direction, scroll to change the field of view.
Cross platform: Java based for Windows, macOS and Linux, with builds bundled with or without Java.
Time steps forward or backward by hour, day or month, so you can watch the sky turn and planets go retrograde. Click any object for its right ascension and declination, altitude and azimuth, magnitude, distance and rise and set times. A separate solar system window looks down on the planets in their orbits.
The interface is old-school Java, plain but dense and responsive. It is cross platform, and Windows downloads come both with and without a bundled Java runtime.
Features
Full sky chart: Draws the sky for a chosen place and moment with constellation lines, planets, Sun, Moon and Milky Way.
Time travel: Step time forward or backward by hour, day or month to watch motion and retrogrades.
Object details: Click any star or planet for RA and Dec, altitude and azimuth, magnitude, distance, rise and set.
Any location: Enter coordinates or pick a city to see the sky from anywhere on Earth.
Solar system window: A separate top-down view of the planets in their orbits.
Pan and zoom: Drag to change the viewing direction, scroll to change the field of view.
Cross platform: Java based for Windows, macOS and Linux, with builds bundled with or without Java.
Screenshots
Tags:astronomy