I recently took a look at a lot of different programs including Starry
Night, TheSky, hnsky, Astroplanner, and SkyMap Pro.
At this point I like SkyMap Pro 9 the best
www.skymap.com
The site has a free demo version that is almost completely functional.
If you plan to bring your laptop to observe then you really need to try the
software on your laptop in the dark. Several programs have nice interfaces,
but they are more difficult to use when you have difficulty seeing the
keyboard. Astroplanner requires a heftier PC then I have. Starry Night 4
got the reputation as being buggy. Hnsky has really nice integration with
dss images.
I like SkyMap since it offers planning, logging, incremental display as you
zoom, interface with the LX200GPS(not something you said you were interested
in), integration with RealSky and dss images. I have not tried the latter
feature since my copy of the full program is on order.
As one person said this is a personal thing.
Rob Hawley