Description: KStars is a Desktop Planetarium for KDE. It provides an accurate graphical simulation of the night sky, from any location on Earth, at anydate and time. The display includes 126,000 stars, 13,000 deep-sky objects,all 8 planets, the Sun and Moon, and thousands of comets and asteroids. KStars comes with several tools to aid amateur astronomers of all levels, and a collection of informative articles on astronomical topics. KStars can even be used to control your telescope.
(Note on the version number: the last tarball release was numbered 3.3 to match the KDE version number. We have decided to use our internal version number from now on, which is currently 1.1, and corresponds to KDE-3.4.0).Last changelog:
* Improved NGC/IC catalog * A GUI Tool for adding custom catalogs * Improved Object Details window, including customizable thumbnail image * Allow negative timesteps in Solar System tool * Highlight objects on the sky which are in the Observing list * Save/Load Observing Lists * New Calculator module: Radial velocity conversion * DCOP functions to store/retrieve user settings * Can now execute "foreign" DCOP scripts * INDI: New CCD Preview tool * INDI: Add support for Apogee CCDs * INDI: Add support for Meade Lunar Planetary Imager * INDI: Add support for Sky Commander * INDI: Add support for Finger Lakes Instruments Filter Wheels
I have a new scope I would love to be able to control with KStars. Here is a link to it. Any help would be appreciated.
http://www.ioptron.com/products_con.aspx?pro=GO%20TO%20MOUNTS&id=39
KStars is a nice program, I have it in all my linux installations. It is powerful considering it is free (in both senses). I also think it is the best program of its type specifially written for Linux.
That said, I still think the commercial program SkyMap Pro by Chris Marriott is the best desktop planetarium for my needs as an amateur astronomer. It has a much larger database and provides much more information than KStars on most objects, and uses a higher level of accuracy for calculations just what I need for predicting astronomical events. I run SkyMap in Wine under Linux with little problems. Its author is very helpful in his support forum.
These are the points I think KStars can still improve on. Kudos to the KStars team.
I run Kstars and SkyCharts. Both are excellent programs. My question: where are
the catalogs one can add to KStars? I refering to additional Catalogs in the setup Wizard. . . I would like to install additional catalogs if I knew where to find them. . . . Maybe you can point us into the right direction to obtain and install these. . .
Thanks for a great program.
I am using kde version 3.4 and still getting problem while giving make command.
#make
Following are the errors:
.......
.......make[3]: *** [extdatetime.lo] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/neo/Softwares/kstars-1.1/libkdeedu/extdate'
make[2]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/neo/Softwares/kstars-1.1/libkdeedu'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/neo/Softwares/kstars-1.1'
make: *** [all] Error 2
I have also tried using the patch but still it doesn't works.
Can anyone give me the solution??
I am using this app from time to time and since first usage two years ago I liked the app and its intuitive interface. Small glitches were always fixed quickly in one of the frequent releases and many nice features were added without spoiling the usability.
One feature I am still missing though is a fullscreen mode for the sky map. Combined with the night view mode this would be very useful helper on a notebook for watching the stars at night.
Thank you for the kind comments. :)
You will be happy to hear that a true fullscreen mode already exists in CVS. We are also adding an option where the kstars window can adjust its color scheme to a dark-vision theme to match the dark-vision theme of the sky map. (Without this, you'd still have a brightly-colored menubar, toolbar and statusbar, even in fullscreen mode)
Ratings & Comments
13 Comments
I have a new scope I would love to be able to control with KStars. Here is a link to it. Any help would be appreciated. http://www.ioptron.com/products_con.aspx?pro=GO%20TO%20MOUNTS&id=39
KStars is a nice program, I have it in all my linux installations. It is powerful considering it is free (in both senses). I also think it is the best program of its type specifially written for Linux. That said, I still think the commercial program SkyMap Pro by Chris Marriott is the best desktop planetarium for my needs as an amateur astronomer. It has a much larger database and provides much more information than KStars on most objects, and uses a higher level of accuracy for calculations just what I need for predicting astronomical events. I run SkyMap in Wine under Linux with little problems. Its author is very helpful in his support forum. These are the points I think KStars can still improve on. Kudos to the KStars team.
It would be great a FreeBSD port. Thanks in advance
kstars-1.2-1-lotus.i586.rpm [K352] at http://home.tiscali.be/raoul.linux/downloadSuSE10.0.htm ENJOY !!!
A SlackWare TGz package with SlackBuild Script is Ready to DownLoad!!! http://www.slacky.it/ http://www.slacky.it/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=1&func=fileinfo&filecatid=1040&parent=category
I run Kstars and SkyCharts. Both are excellent programs. My question: where are the catalogs one can add to KStars? I refering to additional Catalogs in the setup Wizard. . . I would like to install additional catalogs if I knew where to find them. . . . Maybe you can point us into the right direction to obtain and install these. . . Thanks for a great program.
I am using kde version 3.4 and still getting problem while giving make command. #make Following are the errors: ....... .......make[3]: *** [extdatetime.lo] Error 1 make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/neo/Softwares/kstars-1.1/libkdeedu/extdate' make[2]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/neo/Softwares/kstars-1.1/libkdeedu' make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1 make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/neo/Softwares/kstars-1.1' make: *** [all] Error 2 I have also tried using the patch but still it doesn't works. Can anyone give me the solution??
for kstars-3.3-suse92.i586.rpm see at http://home.tiscali.be/raoul.linux/download.htm My participation....
Thank you for providing a package!
No problem , it's my contribution to Open Source
I am using this app from time to time and since first usage two years ago I liked the app and its intuitive interface. Small glitches were always fixed quickly in one of the frequent releases and many nice features were added without spoiling the usability. One feature I am still missing though is a fullscreen mode for the sky map. Combined with the night view mode this would be very useful helper on a notebook for watching the stars at night.
Thank you for the kind comments. :) You will be happy to hear that a true fullscreen mode already exists in CVS. We are also adding an option where the kstars window can adjust its color scheme to a dark-vision theme to match the dark-vision theme of the sky map. (Without this, you'd still have a brightly-colored menubar, toolbar and statusbar, even in fullscreen mode)
KStars is an excellent program and has been for some time now. Definately one of the more professional qt apps out there.