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FAQ
Note: this FAQ is a short list of answers to common problems.
It is not supposed to be a substitute for the user's guide that provides much more detailed information about using Stellarium, landscapes, customization, astronomy, etc. This page will only list the bare minimum to get you up and running.
If you have any other questions about Stellarium, you can:
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Stellarium is an open source desktop planetarium for Linux/Unix, Windows and macOS. It renders the skies in realtime using OpenGL, which means the skies will look exactly like what you see with your eyes, binoculars, or a small telescope. Stellarium is very simple to use, which is one of its biggest advantages: it can easily be used by beginners. The Stellarium project was started by Fabien Chéreau during the summer of 2001 and used Sourceforge intensively. After long years at Launchpad Stellarium currently is hosted on Github. Access the Sourceforge project page here.
Yes! Stellarium is open source software. Anyone has the right to download and use the software for free, to distribute it without modifying to other people, or modify the source code, all of this under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Via the top icons on the homepage or here on the releases page. Stellarium is now hosted on Github servers. Do not download from freeloader sites who may add "safe downloader" apps with adware. And do not fall into the trap of some dealers on ebay who sell rebranded software. Such individuals betray developers and deceive their customers.
Your ideas and comments are invaluable to Stellarium. Have a look at the homepage to see where you can get personal support, ask for new features, report bugs and even submit your own patches.
Every few days we have a question along the lines of saying "I tried to install on my computer, and it does not work."
What does such a message say to us?
"I have some kind of computer, bought likely 2003-2022, consisting of some box with keyboard and screen, and some operating system that allows me to go online and download software. Some version of Stellarium does not work here."
What do you think we can do with such a report? Yes, NOTHING! We have to ask for more information. This takes lots of our (spare) time and energy we could otherwise use for improving the software.
Before reporting a crash, please read and understand FAQ "Common Problems with Version 0.13", and update your graphics card drivers. If problems persist, continue.
When reporting a crash, please list:
- Platform and operating system: Windows (7? 8? 8.1? 10? 11? 32bit? 64bit?), macOS (which?), Linux (which?)
- What kind of graphics card do you have? Driver version?
- Which version of Stellarium causes problems: NAME OF THE DOWNLOADED FILE or "built from sources at revision <9645> with Qt <version></version>(5.6, 5.9, 5.13, 6.2, 6.4?), <tools></tools> (specify which: MinGW, MSVC2017/2019?), CLang, cmake/gcc/...? ANGLE or OpenGL?)"
- The LOGFILE. From your program menu, there should be a link to "Last Run Log". Copy&Paste its contents. If logfile is empty (i.e., crash is really immediately, very early at start), please say so.
- If crash was not immediately at startup, actions that lead to it. (Keypress sequence, some scenario to reliably recreate the crash.)
Some Linux systems have a system-wide Qt configuration which inhibits most of our logfile debug messages. If you want to report an error and the logfile does not contain a box with the sentence "This is Stellarium <version number>", please do the following:
Add a file ~/.config/QtProject/qtlogging.ini with the contents:
[Rules] *.debug=true qt.*.debug=false
With these settings, the logfile will have the required details to identify many problems.
A graphics card capable of rendering OpenGL 2.1. Stellarium is also fairly processor intensive, so you will get higher framerates with faster processors. Any reasonably recent computer should be able to run Stellarium. Furthermore your computer should be running a Linux, Windows or macOS operating system.
System requirements for version 1.0:
Minimal
- Linux/Unix; Windows 7 and above (still on XP? Try the "0.19.0 classic" version!); OS X 10.12.0 and above
- 3D graphics card which supports OpenGL 2.1
- 512 MiB RAM
- 600 MiB on disk
- Keyboard and Mouse
- 64-bit operating system
- Linux/Unix; Windows 10 and later; macOS 11.0 "Big Sur" and later
- 3D graphics card which supports OpenGL 3.3 and above
- 1 GiB RAM or more
- 1.5 GiB on disk
- Keyboard and Mouse
For Windows and Mac users, download an installer package from https://stellarium.org and follow the instructions. For Linux users, the easiest is to find a pre-compiled package for your distribution.
For Ubuntu we provide a package repository with the latest stable releases. Open a terminal and type:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stellarium/stellarium-releases sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install stellarium
MacOS users should download the dmg file, double click on it to open, the application is contained inside, drag the application to your Applications folder.
But it is also possible to compile the program yourself. See instructions in BUILDING.md in the source code repository.
- For Windows users, uninstall Stellarium using the "Add or Remove Programs" applet in the Windows control panel.
- For Linux users,
- use your package manager if you installed a pre-compiled version.
- If you compiled yourself you can uninstall by typing make uninstall in the compilation directory.
- If you compiled yourself, ran make install as root afterwards, and removed the compilation directory:
- First redownload (if necessary) and extract the source of the version that is installed
- To see what version you've installed run: stellarium --version
- Then run: mkdir build; cd build; cmake ..; sudo make uninstall
Just installing a new version over an older version may leave some old files. While this is normally harmless, we do not recommend this practice.
- For Windows users, uninstall the old version of Stellarium using the "Add or Remove Programs" applet in the Windows control panel or the "Uninstall" link in the Stellarium folder in your Start menu. Then install the fresh version. The installer program allows you to reset settings and delete plugin data or your own user-defined landscapes. Do not reset your settings or delete plugin data or your own landscapes if you want to use the same settings again.
- For Linux users,
- use your package manager if you installed a pre-compiled version.
- If you compiled yourself uninstall as described above, then install as above.
- Windows: Yes, just use different installation directory names. If versions are too far apart, you may need different config.ini or even plugin data folders, run these separate versions with the --user-dir option pointing to different user directories.
- Linux: You will need to build from sources and configure different target directories.
- Set your location first! The default location is Paris, France, but on startup an IP-based lookup tries to guess your approximate location. You can click on your location on the map in the location window, or enter coordinates manually. Don't forget to save the changes. Do that by clicking "set as default", and switch off the automatic lookup. From now on, the sky will look exactly as it looks where you live when you run Stellarium. If you take Stellarium along on a trip with a laptop, you will need to adjust your location of course (or activate the IP-based lookup).
- Use the mouse or arrow keys to look around.
- Use the page up and page down keys to zoom in and out.
- Use the left mouse button to select an object, the right button to deselect the object and middle mouse button or spacebar to center on the selected object.
- Zooming on nebulas or planets is very interesting...
- J slows down or reverses speed, L increases time speed, and K makes time return to normal speed.
- Press the F1 key for help.
- Read the Stellarium User Guide
There is no GUI option specifying your default window size in the menu, in case you don't run fullscreen mode. Resize the window by dragging a lower corner (you must grab accurately!) and press "Save Settings" in the configuration window. Alternatively, you can open the config.ini file with a text editor, and find the screen_w and screen_h values. Set the numbers to the desired dimensions, save the file and restart Stellarium: enjoy the view!
Yes. Find out everything you want to know about Stellarium, and the astronomic principles you see demonstrated in the program. Essential reading. It comes packed with the Windows installation file or as separate download from https://stellarium.org.
On Windows, you can access it from your Start Menu, program group Stellarium.
The Guide, chapter 5, tells you.
BTW, you should read the documentation. It was written for you.
Want to use other drawings than the ones included in Stellarium, like your own drawings, or antique drawings from the Uranographia?
You will need to change the constellation textures, and possibly adjust their coordinates in the constellationsart.fab file. If they're not burdened by restrictive copyrights, you can share the set you made with the rest of the community. See the User Guide for details.
Stellarium uses the Hipparcos catalog, which contains over 120000 stars. It is currently not possible to use other star catalogs. Additional stars allowed in Stellarium may be found at the sourceforge download site: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=48857&package_id=233730 But it is far easier to just download these files from within the program.
Stellarium can be tailored to show your language. Settings are in the preferences window, or in the config.ini file. If you see missing or bad translations in your own language, you can contribute to the translations.
An explanation about how to enable the Solar System Editor plug-in in Stellarium 0.11 and later and add a comet, for example C/2010 X1 (Elenin):
1. Enable the Solar System editor plug-in if it hasn't been enabled:
1.1. Open the "Configuration window" and go to "Plugins";
1.2. Select "Solar System Editor" in the left column (the plug-in's description should appear);
1.3. If the "load at startup" box is not checked, check it and restart Stellarium.
2. Go to the same plug-in screen, select the same plug-in and click on the "configure" button.
3. In the window that opens, go to the "Solar System" tab, then click on the "Import elements in MPC format window".
4. In the window that opens, select "Comets", then "Download a list of objects from the internet".
4.1. If you are using 0.10.6, copy this URL to the "URL" box:
http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/Soft00Cmt.txt
4.2. If you are using 0.11.0 or later, just select "MPC's list of observable comets" from the bookmarks list.
5. Click the "Get orbital elements" button and wait for the file to be downloaded.
6. After it has finished downloading, it should display a list of comets. Find the comet(s) you want to add in the list, check the checkbox in front of it and click the "Add objects" button. (In this case, look for C/2010 X1 (Elenin). In future versions, you will be able to search/filter the list.)
After the comet has been added, you can find it in the "Search" window: start typing the name of the comet for it to appear in the list of suggestions. The name should be written in the same way as it was displayed in the list, for example C/2010 X1.
This may be a way to share Satellite Elements among various users on various systems with less use of the sometimes scarce bandwidth of Elements servers, or of supplying elements not available from some servers.
Format your file in TLE format, similar to http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/visual.txt (A detailed description is in: http://celestrak.com/NORAD/documentation/tle-fmt.asp)
Use a browser to navigate to this file with a URL with the scheme "file:///...". Copy that URL and paste it into the Configuration dialog at "Configuration->Plugins->Satellites->Configure->Sources". Click on "Settings->Update now". "Save settings as default".
Stellarium developers are not affiliated with Stellarium (Astronomy StarMap) for Blackberry Playbook OS. Please ask your question for developers from Ontario Inc. - http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/vendor/36306/?lang=en
Probably.
If you want to use screenshots for publications, videos, presentations etc., this is fine in principle for non-profit productions if credit is given. However, some of the images and textures used by Stellarium, and especially the skyculture data, are copyright by others, and may require separate attribution or copyright/use clarification with the original authors. There was a lengthy discussion.
If you want to use a skyculture which is only under CC NC-ND license, it is your responsibility to seek written approval by the respective authors. Please respect this fair use principle.
The README file in the program folder contains all known credits, references and special licenses for images and data.
Stellarium 0.9.1 and later uses astronomical year numbering.
The conventional BC/AD (or BCE/CE) scheme has no year 0 because at the time of its creation, historians and chronologists were widely ignorant of the concept of the number zero, thus the year before 1 AD is 1 BC. This makes arithmetic awkward, and for this reason astronomers often use a different scheme, referring to AD dates as a positive integer, and re-designating 1 BC/BCE as the year 0. Thus:
| Julian | Common Era | Astronomical |
|---|---|---|
| 2 AD | 2 CE | 2 |
| 1 AD | 1 CE | 1 |
| 1 BC | 1 BCE | 0 |
| 2 BC | 2 BCE | -1 |
| 3 BC | 3 BCE | -2 |
Every couple of weeks we receive a request by somebody expressing what he would like to have or like to see in Stellarium. Usually along the lines of "Program X has this feature, why not Stellarium?" or "It cannot be so difficult to have that feature" (giving very vague hints of things totally untrivial to solve properly).
Some wishes cleary reflect the wish of a single user for one particular research question or application. Others may be nice extensions geared towards more users. Others contradict Stellarium's prime use as pretty simulation of the real terrestrial night sky.
Apparently some of you misunderstand the way this free and open-source software is being developed. This is no company, and the few volunteer developers so far mostly work in their spare time on Stellarium. (Donations go into supporting infrastructure, web hosting etc.) Therefore we have no fear of "losing customers" or "losing market share" when some feature is not being included the way you would like to have it. If you prefer Program X, please use it. If program Y is better suited for some job than Stellarium currently is, it is only sane to use Program Y instead of waiting for *somebody* to add all features of Program Y to Stellarium. The fastest way to get some feature into Stellarium, especially particular hardware support for expensive telescopes, is to implement it yourself.
Understand the license:
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
We welcome contributions in code and (reasonable) ideas, but lack the human resources to implement every idea ourselves. YOU can help with reasonable suggestions. WE will decide what WE are going to develop. If YOU urgently need something not within OUR interest, YOU can do it, and WE can decide whether we like it enough to include it, or not. WE can not implement everything that has been vaguely suggested. And yes, we even have ideas and see room for improvements not listed in the issues here. Some of these improvements will make Stellarium more stable, others more accurate, others bring more objects. Along the road new problems may occur. All require development time.
Everybody can register an issue. The more detailed it is described, the clearer somebody else can understand and could take up the challenge of implementing it when the author of the issue is not able to develop this himself. Such issues may wait for 2 days or 10 years (or more. Known record is 13 years.) before implementation. Given that the very few (2-3 can be said to be active at the moment) developers of this project are not paid for the time they invest in development, we have no obligation whatever to develop anything, but may or may not be inspired and excited enough about also implementing your idea. Mostly we develop stuff which we need ourselves in research, lectures, or under the night sky, and have tons of ideas for more, but simply no time for them.
The easiest way to find your graphics card is to run the DirectX Diagnostic Tool:
- Click Start.
- On the Start menu, click Run.
- In the Open box, type "dxdiag" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK.
- The DirectX Diagnostic Tool opens. Click the Display tab.
- On the Display tab, information about your graphics card is shown in the Device section. You can see the name of your card, as well as how much video memory it has.
The easiest way to find your graphics card is to run lspci tool in terminal:
lspci | grep VGA
- Open the Start menu and right click on Computer. Select Properties.
- Select Advanced system settings.
- In the Advanced tab, select Environment Variables.
- Select New.
- You will now be able to enter the environmental variable. Most environmental variables are given to you in the form Variable_name=Variable_value. So if you were given the environmental variable QT_ANGLE_PLATFORM=d3d9, you would enter QT_ANGLE_PLATFORM in the Variable name field and d3d9 in the Variable value field.
- Select OK. You should now see the new Environmental Variable that you created.