KStars

            
            Desktop planetarium, observation planning and telescope control

KStars is a scientifically accurate desktop planetarium, visualising agraphical simulation of the night sky from any location on Earth, at any dateand time.The display includes 130,000 stars, 13,000 deep-sky objects, all 8 planets,the Sun and Moon, and thousands of comets and asteroids. KStars addressesstudents and amateur astronomers of all levels.

The database of known objects can be extended and updated from local orremote databases, which is prepared for in a user-extendable interface.KStars suggests observations of particular interest like conjunctionswith respect to the location of the user. And for user-selected targets itproposes the ones that are best-observable.

The software may be used for planning experiments around the globe,e.g. for remote controlled commercial services. But KStars alsofeatures an INDI interface to control local telescopes and cameras.Users with programming experience can script it via the KDE desktop bus.