Would it be wise for me to try and download Stellarium?

Question

I have a five year old laptop running XP SP3 with 512MB of RAM. It's actually prone to crashing when I use Google Earth and I tend to limit the amount of programs I use.

I have been told about Stellarium by a user in the Astronomy section and I would be very interested to see what it has to offer. However, I don't want it to be a case of curiosity killed the computer.

Full laptop spec here for techies.

http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/laptop/7048.htm

I am going to post this in Computer Software & Astronomy & Space as I feel both sets of users have relevant feedback.

Answer 1

Yes, download it.



I agree with Tina's clone there are other great free planetarium programs like "Cartes du Ciel".



For serious observing I use Sky Map Pro 6.0.



Also, checkout the link below for a great set of free printable star charts.



- Edit - You should max your ram out to 1GB. You won't have a problem. I've run Stellarium on a PC with 1Gb before with no problem. Google earth really is resource intensive and will max your PC out

Answer 2

You can download ccleaner for free here: http://bit.ly/1Bk5V5C



First open CCleaner

Go to the Cleaner tab and you will be confronted by a very confusing lineup of checkboxes.

To make this brief, below is my recommended setup:

Under internet explorer check temporary internet files, cookies, and last download location. Most users don't really need this stuff. keep history and bookmarks unchecked, history is a maybe, but you don't want to lose bookmarked sites. You can normally leave Windows Explorer, System, and Advanced alone.

Run CCleaner and it will start deleting files.

afterward it will present you with a list of the files deleted, you really don't need to go through it as it will be several pages long.

The registry cleaner is recommended for slightly more advanced users. Use it after uninstalling programs as they will often leave behind incorrect registry entries.

If you decide to run Registry cleaner then review the items detected and always back up the registry (I keep a folder aside for this)

The Tools tab lets you uninstall programs and set startup programs. Why do you need this if Windows has all of these features? Especially with Vista Home Ed. The windows defender software explorer( startup programs) doesn't pick up some entries (however software explorer is easier to use).

Using CCleaner to uninstall programs and then check for leftover registry entries takes less time.

Under Options you can determine how CCleaner cleans your files. I leave this alone.

Answer 3

I put it on an old dinosaur of a Panasonic Toughbook with 125Meg of Ram. It runs, but slow. Still keeps up with real-time sky but the fast forward and reverse are jumpy, not smooth. Does it though.

It's on my normal 8-year-old Dell with 512 Meg , integrated graphics and a 40Gig HD with 59% free space, and it ran well even before I put another 256Meg in a few months ago ...it's the one I'm on now...and it's on a 6-year-old laptop Dell C 610 no extras just as bought , and runs fine.

No prob. Used it for ages on this one.

Carte du Ciel is good, free download. Ok for the Ephemeris lists, and I've got a couple of others, one paid for.

Stellarium is free....and a right good job it does for a freebie.

If you get slow computer probs how much is running at once?.

This Dell starts up with 34 running processes. It's got 39 this minute.

Check it with Task Manager...right click on the blue bar, it's in the drop-down menu.

The computer gets cleaned every day with CCleaner and defragged with SmartDefrag or the Windows one regularly.

Runs fine.

Try NBench V3 for a computer test...it's a fun one, runs graphics and bits from a few games and a maths program fractals, great pics from them, space shot is terrific and you can watch them develop for a minute or two each and it checks the frame rate and stuff and then gives you a score for each and a total at the end and a rating against a reference computer.

Fun to do, nice bit of screen ogling.

It's an AMD program, the processor firm. Dead safe, no harm and no probs.

http://www.amdboard.com/amd_n-bench3.html. . . .



EDIT: Stellarium as spam? Haha, more like honey roast ham. It's great.

Answer 4

Well...I don't know much about the computer you're using...but....it seems to me that...if your system is "crashing" as easily as you say when using Google Earth....then...I suspect another issue is the problem...a virus..or some other intrusive bug might be there.



I use Google Earth...and my system has a 100 gig hard drive..vs...your 60.



My RAM is 1 gig...vs...your 512 megs.....and....my computer still has around 70% of it's free space available.





I just downloaded Stellarium last night...so...I'm still learning the functions...but...it seems to me that between that....and Google Earth....they don't take up all that much space on your entire system....so...there really could be another issue that's causing your system to crash.





Edit:....BTW,....I am using a lap top myself...always have.

Answer 5

I can't guarantee that your laptop will not crash, but try downloading an older version of Stellarium, like 0.9.1 or 0.9.2, not the most recent version, 0.10.2. I have severe display problems with Google Earth on my desktop, severe enough that I haven't used Google Earth successfully in two years. Google Map and Bing Maps are fine, even if they are somewhat clumsy and limited compared to ERDAS Imagine and ArcInfo.

Answer 6

I've had problems with an under-specced laptop freezing up when it tries to load Stellarium.  Try SkyGlobe 4.0 for Windows (you will need to download 3.6 for DOS to get the required SKYGLOBE.DAT file)



http://www.sidewalkastronomy.com/skyglobe.html



There is also MyStars!, which will run well on a slow machine, but, whilst not freeware, it is relatively cheap at $US20.



http://www.relativedata.com/mystars/



ii

Answer 7

1

Answer 8

Ehm..

If you want to clean your pc and make it faster and more secure use Ccleaner. It's free and ot works like a charm. Download it from here http://bit.ly/UrApkI

You should definitly try it

Bye

Answer 9

while stellarium is promoted around here to an extent that almost constitutes spam, it isn't the only game in town. it's not like you will lose anything, since it's free.



hardcore cheapskates use xephem. :-)