Stellarium
Free, open-source planetarium that shows a realistic sky in 3D on your computer.
- Verified facts
- 5 of 5
- Alternatives ranked
- 2
- Approved reviews
- 0
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About Stellarium
Stellarium is a desktop planetarium: set your location and time and it draws the sky as you would see it with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope, with a realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset. Its default catalogues hold hundreds of thousands of stars and tens of thousands of deep-sky objects, and optional downloads raise that to hundreds of millions of stars. It is widely used by amateur astronomers to plan observing sessions, by teachers, and by planetarium domes through its fisheye and spherical mirror projection. Plugins add telescope control, eyepiece (ocular) simulation, satellites and more, and there is a scripting and remote control interface. Stellarium also shows constellation art for many cultures, which makes it popular with researchers in cultural astronomy. The project is free and GPL-licensed, run by a volunteer team funded by donations, and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux; a browser version, Stellarium Web, is also available. It needs a 3D-capable graphics card and is focused on the view from a planet's surface rather than flying through space.
Best for: Stargazers, teachers and amateur astronomers who want an accurate sky view for free.
Pros and cons
What works
- Free and open source, on all three desktop systems
- Very large optional star and deep-sky catalogues
- Telescope control and ocular simulation via plugins
- Sky cultures and dome projection for teaching
Why people leave
- Desktop app needs a 3D-capable graphics card
- Ground-based view only, unlike Celestia's free space travel
- Astrophotography tools are limited compared with KStars' Ekos
Top Stellarium alternatives
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Stellarium: common questions
Is Stellarium free?
Yes. Stellarium is free, open-source software.
Is Stellarium open source?
Yes. The source code is on GitHub at Stellarium/stellarium.
What platforms does Stellarium run on?
Stellarium is available for Windows, macOS, Linux and Web.
What are the best alternatives to Stellarium?
The highest-ranked Stellarium alternatives right now are Celestia and SkySafari. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.