Celestia Forums

hi i want to know where exaactly in the sky to look so that i can see mars and venus, how would i use celestia to see where to look in the sky from where i am on earth to find these things? is it possible, i also want to know this for other constellations

i dont know how to do this with celestia, but you could go here, there is a nice little online program that is meant for such purposes http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/skychart/

thank you very much this is exactly what i was looking for

i still wouldn't mind doing it in celestia though since i wouldn't have to log on the net so if anybody has any suggestions don't mind posting them

Jim -check out Starry Night, and see http://www.fourmilab.ch/ try the sky screensaver. It will do what you are looking for without being on-line. Not as cool as Celestia but it works!

another one i actually found by accident is called Stellarium. its pretty neat, lets you easily specify your coordinates, time zone, what's visible and includes the hip. star catalog. http://stellarium.free.fr/

From what I hear, the best free skychart program is Cartes du Ciel for Windows (http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/index.html) available in a variety of languages. If you have some money to throw around, try The Sky for Windows/Mac (http://www.bisque.com/Products/TheSky/TheSky.asp, from $40 to $250).