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Stellarium is a free, open-source planetarium that transforms your computer into a breathtaking virtual window to the cosmos. It utilizes OpenGL to render photorealistic 3D skies in real time, accurately representing how the universe appears to the naked eye, through binoculars, or through a telescope.
This powerful astronomy app displays a vast range of Celestial Bodies (including stars, planets, and nebulae) and detailed Terrestrial Features (such as landscapes and atmospheres). It also includes robust functionality to download additional Solar System objects from supported online sources, continually expanding your virtual universe.
Users can easily add a wide variety of content, including deep sky objects, custom landscapes, constellation images, and scripts. The powerful plugin system also adds artificial satellites, detailed ocular simulation, telescope configuration, and many other advanced features.
Stellarium is available for a comprehensive range of platforms, including Linux, Unix, Windows, macOS, and Android. Its rendering engine is designed for high-accuracy rendering and is used in planetarium projectors worldwide. Set your viewing coordinates and start exploring instantly!
Features:
sky
- Default catalog of over 600,000 stars
- Further catalogs with more than 177 million stars
- Default catalog of over 80,000 deep-sky objects
- Further catalog with more than 1 million deep-sky objects
- Asterisms and illustrations of the constellations
- Constellations for 20+ completely different cultures
- Images of nebulae (complete Messier catalog)
- Realistic Milky Way
- Very realistic atmosphere, sunrise, and sunset
- The planets and their satellites
interface
- a robust Zoom
- time control
- multilingual interface
- The fisheye projection for planetarium domes
- Spherical mirror projection for your low-cost dome
- The all-new graphical interface and in-depth keyboard control
- telescope control
visualization
- equatorial and azimuthal grids
- star twinkling
- shooting stars
- tails of comets
- Iridium flares simulation
- eclipse simulation
- Supernovae and novae simulation
- 3D sceneries
- Skinnable landscapes, now with spherical panorama projection
customizability
- plugin system including artificial satellites, ocular simulation, telescope configuration, and more
- ability to add new solar system objects from online resources…
- Add your deep-sky objects, landscapes, constellation images, scripts…
Stellarium – Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✓ Provides a large built-in sky catalog with over 600,000 stars and more than 80,000 deep-sky objects, with additional catalogs available. | ✗ The recommended configuration requires a 3D graphics card that supports OpenGL 3.3 or newer, which may affect performance on older graphics hardware. |
| ✓ Uses real-time 3D rendering with realistic stars, the Milky Way, atmosphere, sunrise, sunset, planets, and other celestial phenomena. | ✗ Higher-quality use requires more resources than the minimum specification, including at least 1 GiB of RAM and 1.5 GiB of disk space. |
| ✓ Includes astronomy-focused controls such as telescope support, time control, advanced zoom, multiple projections, and detailed keyboard control. | ✗ The extensive catalog options and plugin system can make the software more complex for users who only need basic sky observation. |
| ✓ Offers extensive customization through plugins, additional Solar System objects, custom landscapes, constellation images, deep-sky objects, and scripts. | ✗ Some specialized projection features, such as fisheye and spherical mirror projection, are intended for planetarium-style setups rather than ordinary desktop viewing. |
| ✓ Runs across Linux, Unix, Windows, macOS, and Android, with both x64 and ARM64 Windows builds documented. | ✗ The most detailed astronomical experience depends on additional catalogs, plugins, scripts, or downloaded objects, so the default installation does not contain every available resource. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Stellarium free to use?
Yes. Stellarium is free, open-source software that is available without a commercial license. Its open-source architecture allows users to extend the application with plugins, scripts, and additional content.
What is Stellarium used for?
It allows users to explore and simulate the night sky, including stars, planets, nebulae, constellations, and other celestial objects. The software can also simulate astronomical events and provide tools for telescope control, time adjustment, and different sky projections.
Where can I download Stellarium?
You can download Stellarium from the download section provided on Softfully.com, which links directly to the developer’s official release files. Downloads are available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android in several formats.
What is the difference between Stellarium and WorldWide Telescope?
Stellarium focuses on realistic real-time sky simulation, with features such as star catalogs, astronomical event simulations, telescope control, and customizable landscapes. WorldWide Telescope combines astronomical imagery and data from major observatories with interactive sky, Solar System, Earth, and planetary views, plus guided tours and a browser-based web client.
What’s New in Stellarium 26.3:
- Added Potawatomi sky culture
- Added new plugin: Object visibility
- Many improvements in plugins
- Many improvements in Core and GUI
- Many updates in sky cultures
- Improvements in the scripting engine
Official Homepage – https://stellarium.org
System Requirements:
minimal
- Linux/Unix; Windows 7 and above; macOS 10.15 and above
- 3D graphics card that supports OpenGL 2.1 and GLSL 1.3 or OpenGL ES 2.0
- 512 MiB RAM
- 600 MiB on disk
- Keyboard
- Mouse, Touchpad, or similar pointing device
recommended
- 64-bit operating system
- Linux/Unix; Windows 10 and above; macOS 11.0 and above
- The 3D graphics card that supports OpenGL 3.3 and above
- 1 GiB RAM or more
- 1.5 GiB on disk
- Keyboard
- Mouse, Touchpad, or similar pointing device
- Moderately dark environment (deep shadow or indoors)
