2. SoftwareSoftware Section 2.1. CollectionsHere are some links to collections and other indexes of Linux astronomy software. If the above does not appeal to your needs, these links may help: 2.2. Planetarium ProgramsHere is discussion of programs which run on Linux for use in finding objects,
natural and man-made, in the sky. XEphem has been the pet project of one of us (Downey) for the past 15-odd years. It has grown to become one of the more capable interactive tools for the computation of astronomical ephemerides. XSky is by Terry R. Friedrichsen, terry@venus.sunquest.com. XSky is essentially an interactive sky atlas.
KStars is a Desktop Planetarium for KDE. Skymap is an astronomical mapping program written in Fortran and C for unix workstations by Doug Mink of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Telescope Data Center.
Xplns reproduces real starry sky on your display of X Window System. Nightfall is an astronomy application for fun, education, and science. It can produce animated views of eclipsing binary stars, calculate synthetic lightcurves and radial velocity curves, and eventually determine the best-fit model for a given set of observational data of an eclipsing binary star system. NOVA free Integrated
Observational Environment for astronomers.
2.3. Portable and Handheld AppicationsThe advance of palm computers has taken hold. Linux has made its way to this realm. 2.4. SimulatorsPrograms that classify themselves as simulators. 2.5. Image ProcessingAstronomical Information Processing System (AIPS) is the heavy iron used by professional astronomers. AIPS++ is the place to find out more, but note that AIPS Classic also exists and is actively maintained. Good ol' GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is a fine program to use for processing of digital images of all kinds and can prove useful for astro images as well.
2.6. Sun and MoonA surprising number of applications deal with just the Sun and Moon. wmMoonClock shows lunar ephemeris to fairly high accuracy and is listed at this web site along with several other interesting programs. XVMoontool is an XView application which displays information about the Moon in real time. XTide is a Harmonic tide clock and tide predictor.
2.7. LibrariesThis section discusses bits and pieces of software that can be used to form the basis for specialized projects. 2.9. OtherEvery list needs a miscellaneous section, and this is it for Software. IRAF is a gigantic but exceptionally capable astronomical analysis system, shepherded over the past 20-odd years by Doug Tody formally at NOAO. It has accumulated innumerable authoritative contributions from leading astronomers in all areas of astronomical data analysis. If you have a serious interest in astronomical data reduction and significant time to invest, this system will reward you mightily. Nightfall Eclipsing Binary Star Program Xplanet Very realistic
rendering program for Earth and other planets and moons. Uses X Windows and
OpenGL. StarPlot
A 3-Dimensional Star Chart Viewer for Linux. Uses C++ and Gtk+.
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