Language : Français · English · Español · Русский | Contents · FAQ

Introduction

_images/winstars3.png

WinStars 3 is a planetarium for almost any platform: it is published for Windows, Android, GNU/Linux and Raspberry Pi. Employing 3D technology to display our solar system in a realistic manner, users may tour the planets, follow a space probe on its long voyage, or observe a celestial event from a distant world, as well as receiving the latest astrophysical news from a live feed. Updates add new features and functionality, transforming it into an advanced educational tool for discovering our Universe.

WinStars 3 is free software to use: every feature is available without purchase, without paid option and without advertising (see Licence and usage rights). The program is no longer published for macOS or for iOS.

Features

  • Gaia EDR3 catalogue (December 2020) with 1,811,704,130 sources, up to magnitude G of about 21 (internet connection needed for the last two parts: see Star catalogues).

  • More than 30,000 galaxies, nebulae, star clusters (OpenNGC + EDD Catalogues).

  • A direction of observation which is easily controlled by a mouse and in real time.

  • A precise representation of the observable sky from a point on the Earth’s surface on a given date.

  • A 3D interface to give more realism to celestial objects.

  • Virtual textures to display high resolution surface details of planets.

  • Travel throughout the solar system, to over 200,000 stars, the edge of our galaxy and beyond.

  • Follows the latest scientific news by downloading additional modules.

  • A calculation of notable astronomical phenomena visible from an observation point on the earth.

  • Detailed information about each object.

  • A calculation of positions of the principal satellites of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, of comets and of asteroids.

  • An outline of the celestial equator, the ecliptic, and a grid of azimuthal and equatorial coordinates.

  • A 3D outline of the planetary orbits.

  • Сontrol a large range of telescopes.

  • Internet resources are also available: updated comets and asteroids’ elements, querying of DSS (Digitized Sky Survey) servers to obtain a photograph of that portion of the sky being displayed by the program, a notice of the visibility of artificial satellites, etc.

  • Automatic updates.

  • Available languages: english, french, german, arabic, bulgarian, chinese, spanish, japanese, persian, russian