SkyMap for Windows 95/NT is an excellent astronomy program for both the novice and professional astronomer.
It will display a map of the sky as seen from any point on Earth for any date between 4000BC and 8000AD. You can easily select your observing location from the included list, or you can enter your latitude and longitude. Two different types of maps can be drawn, which include a "Horizon" map showing the observer's local horizon, and an "Area" map showing a detailed view of a small area of the sky.
You can determine the level of detail to display on the map for the stars, constellations, planets, and deep sky objects. You can simply click on an object to display information about it.
You can vary the map background with the current time of day. If it's currently day time the background will be blue. If it's night time and the Moon isn't up, the background will be black. If it's twilight, or night time with the Moon above the horizon, the background will be purple.
You can use the powerful search feature to quickly locate and display any star, constellation, planet, deep sky object, or comet.
Once you have a map exactly as you want it, you can print it on any printer supported by Windows, in either black & white or color.
SkyMap is designed to be extremely accurate (Planetary positions, for example, have a mean error of less than a half second of arc), so it is equally suited for both the novice astronomer and the serious amateur or professional astronomer.
This updated version features reorganized menus, keyboard shortcuts, an expanded on-line Help, a "Tip of the Day" when the program starts up, the ability to easily scroll around the sky with the cursor keys, a new lunar phase tool, and other enhancements.
Limitations in downloadable version:
This shareware version of SkyMap comes with 15,700 stars to magnitude 7. Registered users receive a much larger database of 88,000 stars to magnitude 8.5.
