Stellarium simulates a realistic sky on the screen of the PC, like it could be seen by naked eye or with a telescope from anywhere on the earth and at any time. Stellarium may be used by anybody, but in particular it may be useful to teachers for exploring the night sky and the basics of the celestial sphere. It is also a useful tool for amateur astronomers who wish to plan an observing session.

Aladin is an interactive celestial ATLAS? for the visualization of digital images available in VO format, together with a selection of large area sky surveys. It also displays the nicest images taken with the NASA Hubble Space Telescope. Aladin allows to mark on images the positions of the celestial objects contained in the astronomical catalogs available in international archives like Simbad and VizieR at the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS). Aladin has several built-in functions that allow image handling and a quick analysis. All professional applications developed for VO are available to Aladin.

Note: In order to use the simplified version of Aladin open the menu EDIT > USER PREFERENCES > PROFILE, select “undergraduate” and restart Aladin.

SimPlay is a fast viewer of astronomical images available online. SimPlay accesses Simbad catalogs and allows the user to mark on the images the position of astronomical objects selected by category (e.g. stars,galaxies,x-ray sources, etc.).