Han Kleijn's
Hallo Nothern Sky

Hallo Northern Sky, or HNSky for short, is a free planetarium program for Windows designed and written by Han Kleijn. The software runs under Windows'95 / 98 / NT / 2000 and he has a 1.62 version available for Windows 3.1 users.

At its most basic it is about a 1.2MB download which covers 10,607 deepsky objects and all stars to magnitude 8.0!

Several software 'add-ons' are available on his page also for free download, such as a large SAO star database to magnitude 9.5 and a PPM star database to magnitude 10.

The software displays all the planets, the Sun, the Moon and the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, Mars, Uranus and Neptune and a few hunderd asteroids and comets.

Click for a larger image

One download I found especially helpfull is Tom Lorenzin's "2000 Plus Deepsky Database" that is also available for free.

This is a Windows help file that is activated in HNSky by clicking on a DSO. The information is a great compliment to Han Kleijn's already very complete software. I found this a great function on nights out with the binoculars as well as the LX-50.

HNSky also has a well acomplished "night vision mode" that manages to change nearly _everything_ in Windows to a red/black color scheme.

Also available for download are the TYCHO-2 databases converted for use with HNSky.

TYCHO-2 ia a star catalog that contains 2.5 million stars and is free and available from CDS (Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg) webpage.

The stars in the HNSKY files are sorted from bright to faint with an accuracy of 0.1 magnitude.

Shown at the right is the Objects dialog box where you can select the display complexity and density of stars and DSO's as well as limiting magnitude and on screen size / brightness.

After searching around for planetarium programs I've found Han's sotware to be a very stable and easy application to use. If computer controll of your scope is not an issue then this software, and its price, are hard to beat.

I have to mention that I'm not getting anything for writing good things about this program. I downloaded it, loved it and use it constantly. Great work Han. Cheers!

Download HNSky from Han Kleijn's home page at: http://www.hnsky.org/software.htm