About the program:
Hallo northern sky (HNSKY) is a free multifunctional program that simulates the starry sky on the user's desktop. Fans of astronomy will like the software from Han Kleijn, which is called Hallo northern sky, which in translation reflects the essence of the work of this program (Hello, northern sky!). In essence, this utility for Windows operating systems is a telescope complex with an encyclopedia of the starry sky. Hallo northern sky can also be useful for educational purposes, especially since it is distributed completely free of charge. The Hallo northern sky interface is quite well Russified, and having some ideas about the structure of the starry sky, it will not be difficult to understand the management of the program.
Hallo northern sky has in its database detailed information about 30,000 objects of the firmament. With the help of extensive tools located on the left side of the desktop, you can zoom in and out of individual areas of the studied outer space. They can be individual planets, star systems, various galaxies, comets, asteroids, etc., colors are preset for each group of objects, which can be selected at your discretion in the program settings.
The Hallo northern sky utility contains encyclopedic information about stellar objects, including information about the location on the map, the possibility of observation at one time or another, mass, features, and even a schematic representation of the location of a star in a constellation. The control of the "telescope" in it is very simple and consists in translating the cursor arrows. When you click on a schematic image of a space object on the map, a menu appears that provides an opportunity to get acquainted with information about it.
Recently, the Hallo Northern Sky program supports working with the UCAC2 catalog, because this catalog is not yet complete, then a plugin has been made in the program that allows you to take the missing sections from the GSC catalog.
In addition, the Hallo northern sky program implements solutions that allow you to calculate the distance between the stars. The program is periodically updated, which allows maintaining the relevance of existing information and introducing new information on numerous space objects. The program has a well-chosen approach to the consideration of the firmament, manifested in the three-dimensionality of the image in question. Among similar utilities, this method of space exploration is characteristic only of the Celestia program
In general, the Hallo northern sky utility is a home planetarium that can please any fan of the starry sky. There is a possibility that it will be especially appreciated by urban residents, because due to the large night lighting, it can be very difficult to see the twinkling of stars in the city sky, even in clear weather.
http://hnsky.org/help/uk/hnsky.htm#introduction - Program features.
http://hnsky.org/history.htm - History of changes.