Features

List of selected features

The map

  • Displays sky-globe in range between 1.1.1 and 1.1.3000.
  • Supports equatorial, ecliptical and azimutal coordinates.
  • Displays stars, planets, comets, asteroids, artificial satellites and other objects.
  • Selected objects like nebulas or galaxies have real shape in the map.
  • The DSO catalogue has more than 100,000 of non-star objects.
  • Support added external star catalogues like UCAC4, PPMXL, GSC, USNO A1, USNO B1, NOMAD or URAT1.
  • Planetary and Moon ephemeris JPL-DE, PLAN404, VSOP87 and ELP2000
  • Creating catalogues from Virtual Observatory VizieR.
  • Realtime rendering of interactive atlases HiPS
  • You can place any number of DSS images to the map. Limited only by available memory.
  • Map can be displayed in real or speeded-up time.
  • You can insert or edit geometric shapes like circles, various FOV or CCD frames on the map.
  • Searching for events like eclipses etc. in given range.
  • You can attach custom images to object gallery.
  • Displays actual online weather for current observing location.
  • Displays object's track in given interval.
  • Night-mode map.
  • Supports color custom schemas.
  • Prints map on printer or to file.
  • Generating charts of orbital elements planets, asteroids and comets.
  • Drawing comet or asteroids orbits on solar system
  • Moon texture up to 16K (16384 x 8192 pixels).
  • Show planet moons and theirs shadows
  • And many more...

 

Position of planet and stars

Planet position using algorithm JPL-DE (need to download data) or possibly Plan404 or VSOP87. All positions of the planets, stars, comets and other objects in the map are calculated for the mean position of the current date or epoch J2000. I.e. They are corrected for precession and mean equator. Nutation and other aberrations are not yet counted. For objects within the solar system (planets, comets, asteroids, etc.) is a fixed position relative to an observer on the ground. For stars, does not include its own motion (in preference, but you can turn on the display size and direction of movement).

Remote control over TCP

The program can be controlled by commands via TCP. E.g. from another program. eg. APT (Astro Photography Tool) . The list of commands.

External catalogues

If you need more stars you can get one of supported external catalogues. SkytechX supports GSC 1.2, USNO 2.0, PPMXL and UCAC4 catalogues.

 

DSO catalogue plugins

DSO information can be freely extended via plugins. In basic SkytechX installation there is only pluging for Saguaro Astronomical Club v8.1.

Telescope connection

You can connect you own telescope directly to SkytechX map via ASCOM6 interface. If your telescope does not support it you can write your own plugin.

 

Some technical description

The program is written in C++ with help of Qt5 library. MSVC 2013 Express is used as compiler. Most of code is my own except math algorithms that calculate objects positions are taken from other free astronomical software or from books.

I was used to write games earlier so I used my experience with several algorithms to accelerate planetarium rendering.