SassyBlonde

I don't know about you guys, but I've always wished I knew more about the stars. You know, constellations and star names and such-- being able to point out Sirius and the Big Dipper and Orion (well, even I know that one-- if you can't find Orion and you live anywhere near where I do, as in on the same continent, something's very, very wrong with you.)

Solonor indirectly reminded me of one of my favorite bits of software today-- Stellarium. It's not hyperbole when I tell you this is one of my favorite programs EVER. BAR NONE.

Stellarium can draw you an up-to-date, up-to-the-second map of the starscape from anywhere on Earth. That's a catalogue of over 210 million stars at your fingertips, guys. (Squee!!) It even changes by the second to reflect actual changes you can see in your backyard. Because, after all, if ou have a laptop you can take it outside and use the program in its red mode to preserve your night vision (I love that they thought of that!!)

For those of us who are constellation-challenged, it can show you their outlines, and it will even overlay artwork so you can see what the shape is supposed to be. If, by chance you come from some other culture, well, it probably has your constellations too. When I was in China I used it to plot the Chinese constellations in Beijing, Wuhan and Shanghai so I could look out my window and find them. (Yeah, in Shanghai and Beijing that was pretty much useless. Light pollution as far as the curve of the Earth could take you.)

And those are just the most amateur features. There's lots of super-geeky stuff you can do on there. Me? I'm just happy to see my stars. (Since I can't Print Screen a graphic for you, you'll have to get your own.)