What is Planisphere?
Planisphere is a free, open source application that allows users to create customized, interactive maps of the night sky from any location on Earth. Developed by Stellarium, Planisphere generates detailed star charts, highlighting constellations, planets, galaxies, nebulae and more based on the user's defined location, date, and time.
Key features of Planisphere include:
- Generate detailed interactive star maps for any date, time, and location
- Customize charts by changing date/time, location, limiting magnitude, adding constellation lines etc.
- Identify stars, constellations, deep sky objects and planets
- Change point of view and field of view settings
- Add descriptive labels for celestial objects
- Export charts as PNG, SVG or PDF files
- Completely free and open source software
With its user-friendly interface and wealth of customization options, Planisphere makes it easy for astronomy enthusiasts to create accurate, tailored sky charts for observation planning, outreach events, or educational use. Its open source nature also allows developers to extend its capabilities. Overall, Planisphere offers an excellent free alternative to expensive planetarium software.
Stellarium, Sky Map, SkyView, Noctua Stellarium Mobile, Planetario, Sky Guide, SkyMap, KStars, Star Walk (series), Cartes du Ciel (Skychart), Star Chart, Gaia Sky are some alternatives to Planisphere.