Hallo Northern SKY

There is always something magical about admiring the night sky and modern technology makes it even better. For example, Hallo Northern SKY provides you with a detailed map of the stars and other bodies, based on up-to-date deep sky databases. There are over 30.000 objects, with detailed descriptions, to explore in this desktop planetarium software. What's more, if you have an ASCOM or INDI telescope, you can connect it to Hallo Northern SKY, which will make your stargazing more enjoyable.

The software is absolutely free and it is available for Windows and Linux platforms. You can have it up and running in no time, without making any complicated settings. The hardware requirements are modest, so you can run it even on older hardware and there is no need to install any special tools or services.

Hallo Northern SKY presents an orthographic projection of the stars on its main user interface. It is essentially one big panorama of the night sky, viewed from Earth. When launched, the software will ask you to specify your geographical location, for a more accurate view and results. You can click and drag to pan the camera in any direction, spin the mouse wheel to zoom in and out and you can also interact with the objects you see. The best part is that you can zoom in on nearby planets, moons or stars until you get detailed pictures.

You can click mostly any object you see in Hallo Northern SKY, which displays its coordinates, as well as other details, directly on the main screen. Furthermore, right-clicking will reveal a series of options, for focusing on an object, performing online queries or take measurements. You can also draw a rectangle, with the right mouse button and select an option for retrieving DSS images from the Internet, from sources like Skyview, NAO and others, which will be overlayed on your selection.

One of the best advantages of Hallo Northern SKY is the possibility of connecting a telescope and controlling it through an ASCOM or INDI interface. If you want to point your telescope to a specific object, you can look for it on Hallo Northern SKY's interface, right-click and choose between several options, for pointing the telescope in sync with your mouse cursor or for tracking and following an object. This is an excellent feature to have, since you can find specific celestial bodies and point your telescope at them much faster.

If you are fascinated by celestial bodies, millions of miles away, Hallo Northern SKY is something you will definitely want to try.