Stellarium v10 Beta is Betta

I'm a big fan of Stellarium, which is on Open Source program that has one of the most realistic views of the night sky that I have seen. It's previous versions had one "flaw", it's very limited database of objects. It was great at rendering the constellations, but it lacked the ability to list Messier or NGC objects. Well, that seems to be mostly resolved in the latest version. Besides adding what I can tell is the complete Messier list, it also appears to have a healthy database of NGC objects as well. It also has a revamped user interface. Its a tad slower then the previous version, as far as calling up the option that is, but the new user interface is intuitive enough. On my Vista machine it install without incident, although it did not keep any of my previous information saved, such as location or defaults. So if you have added your own objects to the previous version, or lots of locations, be aware you may loose those. They have a user forum however that may help you out, so I advise doing your research first before installing it if you wish to have any chance at keeping those custom items.

So grab the latest Stellarium beta, they have a great product, and I'm looking forward to the next release.

http://www.stellarium.org/