Cartes du Ciel (2.76)isn’t a great program from a user interface point of view, but then it’s several years old. Version 3 is in development, but it’s a labor of love for someone and it’ll get done when it gets done. I’ve got enough beta software on my computer causing problems already, I don’t need to take a chance with one more buggy program. So I stick with the latest stable version. And I like it. It’s a bit hard to understand at first, but I like being able to switch to a horizon view with a single mouse click and see what I’d see if I was outside looking in a particular direction. It’s got more stars, nebulae and galaxies in the database than I’ll be able to see in a lifetime, which is a good thing. As with all the star programs I’ve looked at, it’s got depths I’m sure it’ll be years before I’m able to fully understand and make use of.

Stellarium is another good program. It’s very intuitive, what you see pointing your mouse south is going to be what you see while pointing yourself south. It has a smaller database (I think) than Cartes du Ciel, but it’s still much larger than what I need. I was able to understand this program quickly and used it when I was in Montreal watching the lunar eclipse in February. That was a happy accident, since I was there on business and my home was apparently clouded over. It’s good for a quick snapshot or to check the position of a particular planet/star/constellation on short notice, but for regular planning I prefer Cartes du Ciel.

I love Google Earth; I’ve been using it since several weeks after it came out. I love Google Maps; I have a friend who’s driving one of the Googlemobiles to map a large part of Northern California for Google Streets. But when I tried to use Google Sky, as part of Google Earth, I found it to be cute, but useless as a tool to help me find stars in the sky. The interface is unwieldy and paradigms that work well for Google Earth and Google Maps just leave me confused when it comes to Google Sky. I was hoping that the online version of the program would be better, but the truth is, it’s almost exactly the same. They have added some interesting tools like a link called Hubble Showcase and a Backyard Astronomy tool for looking at the Messier objects, but it’s not of much help for me when I go outside to look at the stars from my back lawn. Some day I’ll get to the point of doing a Messier Marathon, but that’s a way off.

The next toy to come out is going to be Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope. When Robert Scoble blogged about how it made him cry and when I watched the video interview he did, I was really wanting to get my hands on it. But having looked at Google Sky and the pictures it offers again, I’ve realized that being able to look at other people’s pictures of the sky is not really what I want. I want to learn enough about the sky to be able to find things myself. Google Sky didn’t offer that and the more I think about the WWTelescope, the less I’m feeling confident it will help me either. Pretty pictures are great, but they’re not nearly as good as finding the same thing with your own telescope, or in my case binoculars.