3D Stars

Using accurate stellar distance data derived from the Hipparcos mission, 3DStars provides you with a way of visualizing how the sky would appear from off-Earth vantage points. In fact, you can view the heavens from positions thousands of light years away from the Sun.

Unlike The Digital Universe, which has been optimized for accuracy at the expense of speed, 3DStars is written to perform its required calculations extremely quickly, ignoring many subtle effects on the apparent position of objects that are really only important in accurate Earth-based views of the sky. 3DStars is capable of rendering the appearance of the sky at several frames per second.

Extended information about stars is not available in 3DStars, nor does it consider objects in our solar system. If you require this kind of functionality, use The Digital Universe.

3DStars requires a PowerPC (PPC) Amiga to operate, it will not work on a 68K-based machine.

For maximum effect, turn off the lights and enjoy using the simulation to discover the universe from a whole new perspective! Even better, if you get hold of a pair of Red/Blue 3D glasses you will optionally be able to view our local galactic region in glorious 3D. This also assumes that you would have eyes a few light-years apart rather than just a few cm !

3D Stars is automatically registered to users of The Digital Universe, others can register via donationware here.

The non-registered version is perfectly functional but does have a nag requester which periodically will require some user interaction.