Acquiring, Installing and Testing Stellarium

Stellarium is a free planetarium software. This web page is designed to share my experience of downloading, installing and testing of Stellarium software version 0.10.6.1. At the end of this page, you can also read my comments about the entire process. Since downloading and installing of the Stellarium took only a few minutes, I could manage to test its main functions thoroughly. The account represented here reflects my experience as a Windows XP operating system user. Therefore, other operating system users' experiences may differ.

Downloading

When I visited the Stellarium’s homepage to download it, I easily spotted the download links on the top-right corner of the homepage. There are 3 download links; for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows operating systems and the other link at the bottom of these is for the downloading of User's Manual, if needed. On the left of the links, a very first sentence under the title “Stellarium” clearly states that it is a free open source program. This gave me both the confidence about the completeness of the program and also took away my worries about the registration issue.

Clicking on the Windows link directed me to an external site named “SourceForge”. After a quick search about this company, I found that they are the developers and distributors of open source softwares. When I was directed to this site, I saw “Your Stellarium download will start shortly...” message and after a few seconds, small window appeared asking me if I would like to save the file “stellarium_0.10.6.1.exe”. I always feel good when I see the single exe file when I am downloading softwares because this shows that the installation process will be easy since single exe files generally install all the needed files to run the software. After clicking “Save file” button, the installation file started to download into the “Downloads” folder of “My Documents”. Server speed was really good and my download had finished within a few minutes. Finding download link and then downloading the installation file was very easy process and required just a few clicks.

Installation

To install the software, I double clicked on the installation file. After that, I saw a security warning telling me that the publisher could not be verified. Since I downloaded the file from the trusted web-site I ignored this warning and clicked the run button to start the installation. Installation process was fairly easy and a short one (approximately 10 seconds). I was asked about the license agreement, where you must accept in order to continue, chose destination folder, a few more “next” clicks and I completed the installation. There was no critical decision needed step affecting my download process.

Testing

The following text includes my experience of testing the software immediately after the installation process. Therefore, I only tested some of the main functions of the Stellarium. Testing the whole functionality of the software was not the scope of this web page.

Once the installation finished, I was asked if I want to see “readme.rtf” file or start the software or both. I checked “Start Stellarium” and unckecked “View README.rtf” and clicked “Finish”. A few seconds later software was started with a full-view of a nice countryside, facing towards the South. At the first glance, I noticed there were almost no buttons and no menus on the screen except a transparent menu below which is called (menu tool-bar in the Manual) showing default location, date, time, frames per second and field of view (FOV).

When I moved mouse on the menu, the rest of the menu popped-up. The rest of this menu contains buttons with clear symbols explaining the function of the button and when you move onto the button, a text appears on the menu explaining the function of the button with the keyboard shortcut in square parentheses. Some of these buttons were active as a default.

This menu bar contains these buttons:

Constellation Lines
Constellation Labels
Constellation Art
Equatorial Grid
Azimuthal Grid
Ground
Cardinal Points
Atmosphere

Nebulas
Planets Labels
Switch between equatorial and azimuthal mount
Center on selected object
Night mode
Full-screen mode
Ocular view
Satellite hints
Decrease time speed
Set normal time rate
Set time to now
Increase time speed
Quit

Since it was a daytime when I ran the software, there were not any stars in the sky. Sun was shining on the blue sky. Therefore, I pressed the atmosphere button and the effect of the atmosphere disappeared with a smooth transition and the sky filled with stars. Then, I clicked on one of the stars and the information about the star appeared on the left-top of the screen. I realized that the information about the star is not superficial. All the information that an amateur or even a professional astronomer needs are presented there.

After that, I looked around to find the button to change the location to my current location and I realized that there is another hiding menu on the left-hand side of the screen which is called side tool-bar in the Manual. This menu bar contains these buttons:

Menu bar buttons
Window	Menu Bar
Location
Date/time
Sky and viewing options
Search
Configuration
Help

When I clicked on the Location window button, small window appeared. In this window there are three ways that you can input your location:

You can choose your location on the world map
You can select your location from the list of the main cities on the Earth
If your location is not on this list then you can input your longitude, latitude, altitude and write the name of the location, choose country and even planet and add it to the list.

Since my town was not in the list, I entered my coordinates and added it into the list. When I closed the window I realized that the sky was showing my sky now.

Then I wanted to check the way you navigate through the sky, and I saw that it was almost the same as I experienced with the other softwares before. You need to click and hold the left mouse button and move around. If you want to zoom in and out you use the mouse wheel.

As I am a CCD observer, I generally deal with faint stars, therefore I zoomed in different parts of the sky and checked the faintest star magnitude software provided. I saw that it was around 10.5. Since It was not enough for me, I wanted to check if there was any upgrade of the star database. When I looked around a bit, I easily spotted “Star Catalog Upgrade” under the “Tools” tab in “Configuration” window. There, you can upgrade the star catalog of the software step by step until the magnitude 18. And it is very simple. You just click the button and the software downloads and upgrades the database by itself. You don’t need to do anything else. And it is free.

After that, I checked other buttons on the menu bar at the bottom. There are two buttons for equatorial and azimuthal grids. There are also time control buttons, where you can pause sidereal motion of the sky, move forward or backward in time at a several speeds.

Comments

Here, I want to present my comments and make some suggestions about the entire process I experienced with Stellarium.

Pros

I have used several free planetarium programs until now but Stellarium is the best I have ever seen. Its capability is really competing even with the commercial softwares.
Its setup file size is only 43.4MB which can be downloaded in a few minutes with a modest internet speed.
User interface is well designed. Menus and buttons are user friendly. You can easily recognize the function of the button with its icon. Program's main screen and also menus themselves are very simple in design. There is no button bulge in the design which is actually what we saw in other planetarium softwares.
Transitions between different functions are well animated. Realism is perfect. For example, transition of the sky brightness from day to night is well designed.
Stellarium star catalogs split into several files. Default catalog includes stars with magnitude down to 10.5. If user needs fainter stars, program's star catalog can be updated to the stars down to magnitude 18.0. This can be done within the program itself. Users do not need to download the catalog as an external file and put it into a specific folder or etc.
Generally, planetarium softwares include only western cultures' constellation and star names. However, Stellarium provide a dozen more culture's constellation and star names. It was really fun and informative for me to explore them.
Nice set of plug-ins. Especially, telescope control and Oculars worth to mention here.

Cons

Since the setup file is not on the network of Stellarium, some users may look suspiciously to the file and may decide not to download it. I know from my experience that whenever I am forwarded to another website to download a file, I look suspiciously to the source file. I think it would be better if the setup file can be downloaded from the Stellarium's website.
With the time-speed buttons on the menu tool-bar, you can move back and forth in time at several speeds but users can not enter specific time manually. If you want to see the sky at a specific time you have to enter it to the Date/time window which can be opened from the side tool-bar. It would be better if you could do it on the menu tool-bar.

As a result, Stellarium software is a perfect tool for both amateur and professional astronomers. Amateurs can use it to learn and discover the night sky. On the other hand, professionals can use it to control their telescopes during their observing sessions. It is really easy to download, install and even use it. And it is FREE. I highly recommend this software.