Comments on: Free downloadable astronomy apps today only!

By: santo

santo — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:51:10 +0000

i got two download link of skygazer software:

http://www.brothersoft.com/skygazer-299735.html

and for torrent download link:

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5077844/Voyager_SkyGazer_CD_Version_4.0

By: Jim Ernst

Jim Ernst — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:05:21 +0000

It seems I was overreacting. A couple of pleasant emails back and forth, and I got my serial number for the Voyager software. I’ll be playing with it tonight!

By: Jim Ernst

Jim Ernst — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:35:39 +0000

I downloaded the software, but when it came to getting the serial key, it was too late! I’m in an email conversation with Carina about it, but I’m not holding out too much hope. I’m thinking of going to the Better Business Bureau. Am I overreacting?

By: Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum

Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:10:01 +0000

Thanks for the info, Phil! I jumped on this one like a duck on a June Bug!
I just tested it against Starry Night Pro and found the RA & Dec numbers, the distance to them, the mass, the apparent magnitude, the moon positions & names and the Alt/az data to be accurate for Jupiter, Neptune & Uranus!
W00T!
When I turn on the “realistic” Milky Way, it slows down a bit, but it’s pretty as all heck!
I have the 32GB iPod Touch, so there’s plenty of room for this one on there.

By: SMo

SMo — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:02:25 +0000

Thanks for the heads up! Much appreciated!

By: iBozz

iBozz — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:50:28 +0000

It’s Stellarium from http://www.stellarium.org/

I’ve downloaded the free apps from Carina and keenly await the serial numbers.

My reading is that Voyager455b1Mac and SkyGazer454CD or my macOSX.4.11 are free today (I don’t have an iPhone so haven’t bothered with that one) – I just hope I’m right.

And in answer to drksky, I’ll be using it and not merely clogging up my somewhat small HD with apps I don’t use!

Thanks for the heads up for these apps.

By: Donovan

Donovan — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:39:59 +0000

Well that sucks. But it was a free offer, so I can’t complain. Still, as Joe Walsh say, sometimes I do. This really sucks.

By: Adrian Lopez

Adrian Lopez — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:18:48 +0000

@pete,

It’s Stellarium.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:17:33 +0000

I love Stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org/). Fantastic open-source software for exploring the night sky. There’s also Celestia, which may be out dated as it hasn’t been updated in a while. Celestia is more of a solar system browser than a sky viewer.

Stellarium’s strength is in being very very pretty. It simulates various lens distortions (fisheye, spherical, etc.) and has a library of historical constellations etc.

Celestia’s strength is in its extensibility. It’s highly customizable. You can add new objects to the universe in a pinch, perhaps creating a fantasy or theoretical star system of your own around arbitrary stars in the sky.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:48:47 +0000

This is exactly why I use GoDaddy and Rackspace – Everyone who has bluehost.com as their provider and hopes for a widely successful product should take a lesson from Carina’s software and find a new provider now!

By: pete

pete — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:22:56 +0000

Surprised noone has mentioned Stallerium (spelling?) total freeware. May not have the same features.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:39:55 +0000

Stellarium?

http://www.stellarium.org/

By: GerardPM

GerardPM — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:26:18 +0000

oops

By: Adrian Lopez

Adrian Lopez — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:04:23 +0000

“At approximately 6:20 AM PDT this morning, we recieved a call from our web-hosting provider, bluehost.com, asking us to suspend the one-cent download offer for our Voyager and SkyGazer desktop software. Demand was so high that our automated serial-number generator, which emails serial numbers to customers, was sending out several thousand emails per hour – putting us in violation of our Terms of Service (TOS) agreement, and causing our email service to be suspended.”

Note to self: Should I ever need to host a commercial website, avoid bluehost.com like the plague.

By: John Weiss

John Weiss — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:02:37 +0000

Darnit. I actually would love to have Voyager on my Macs (I used to have the PC version, but I’ve since switched platforms) and could use it fairly often as an astronomy professor.

By: Crusty

Crusty — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:55:06 +0000

Stellarium and Cartes Du Ciel are *always* free, and pretty much awesome. Voyager and SkyGazer look pretty poor in comparison.

The iPhone apps might be interesting though.

By: jest

jest — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:44:59 +0000

I would have actually used the programs had I been able to download them… Considering I’ve been in to astronomy for 25 years and don’t currently own any decent sky software, this wouldn’t have been a download for the sake of a free download.

But there are some who would probably have downloaded for the sake of it being free.

By: drksky

drksky — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:39:04 +0000

I wonder how many people downloaded it to actually use it and not just because they were getting something free…

Now, when are they going tobe offering one of their massive german EQ mounts for free??

By: Jack Carter

Jack Carter — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:20:43 +0000

Grrr…

“Due to overwhelming (and unexpected!) demand, we’ve had to make some changes to this one-time event.

First, our iPhone apps SkyVoyager and SkyGazer will continue to be free downloads from the iTunes app store all day long. No changes there!

At approximately 6:20 AM PDT this morning, we recieved a call from our web-hosting provider, bluehost.com, asking us to suspend the one-cent download offer for our Voyager and SkyGazer desktop software. Demand was so high that our automated serial-number generator, which emails serial numbers to customers, was sending out several thousand emails per hour – putting us in violation of our Terms of Service (TOS) agreement, and causing our email service to be suspended.

Our email has been restored, and we are catching up on our backlog of missing-serial-number emails manually. All customers who have purchased one-cent downloadable copies of SkyGazer and Voyager should recieve their serial numbers from us by the close of business today, Monday, July 20th, 2009.

After continued discussion with our web-hosting provider, it is unlikely that we will be able to continue providing our desktop software as one-cent downloads for the remainder of the day. If this situation changes, we will let you know here, first.

As mentioned above, our iPhone apps SkyVoyager and SkyGazer will continue to be free downloads from the iTunes app store all day long.”

By: Montsecor

Montsecor — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:07:33 +0000

Both are free (SkyGazer and SkyVoyager) or so it says on the AppStore… i’m downloading both right now! And thanks for the info Phil!!!

By: Alexander C

Alexander C — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:07:24 +0000

Thanks for the heads up, sir! Downloaded from iTunes and making my iPhone actually useful tonight. For once.

By: jest

jest — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:50:32 +0000

Yeah for both Skygazer and Voyager links (if you click “order” – otherwise there doesn’t appear to be any way to download a usable version), they have the following message:
–
TEMPORARILY DISABLED – Due to unexpectedly high volume, this download has been disabled at the request of our webhosting provider. We are working with our hosting provider to resolve this problem. Serial numbers will be emailed to all customers who have purchased them.
–

Otherwise, if I’m wrong and those two pieces of PC/Mac software AREN’T actually being offered for free at all, then I want my five minutes back. lol. Saying that they’re offering “free software” is a bit over the top, if in the end, all they’re in fact offering is an app for the iPhone.

By: TheBlackCat

TheBlackCat — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:50:23 +0000

In other news, the free star viewer kstars just implemented bending of light around the sun due to general relativity:

http://kstars.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/simulate-eddingtons-experiment/

Unfortunately it is only available in the development version (which won’t be readily available until January of next year) and there is no stable version for windows or mac yet (only Linux so far, although windows and mac ports are underway).

By: Jason Sexton

Jason Sexton — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:43:18 +0000

So far so good. I don’t see anything about registration or purchase. Both apps seem to be fully functional.

By: Veebs

Veebs — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:37:33 +0000

Windows Mobile software for Smartphone

1) Astronomist – large database, I have not used it much so I can’t say much more.
2) Pocket Stars – easy to use only catalogs Messier and Caldwell objects.

Enjoy!