[snip]
> Other than that... what do folks usually use astronomy
> software/databases for? (i.e., what good will it do me
> that accurate paper-charts won't?)
For simple, flexible display of what part of the sky is up on a given
date, time, and place, it's hard to beat the old Skyglobe shareware
program. The demo is DOS only and behaves well atop Win98. There is a
Win3.1 version that ran well on 3.1 but blows on W98.
It includes the Messier catalog and some NGC objects, planets, 134,000
stars to mag 8.8. Very limited ability to add comets.
It's wonderful for planning, but not deep enough to use as a
substitute for a comprehensive atlas such as Uranometria 2000, or even
Sky Atlas 2000.
Lots of pointers to software on Bill Arnett's software page,
<http://www.seds.org/billa/astrosoftware.html>, including downloadable
demos.
-- Jim Van Nuland, San Jose (California) Astronomical Association <a href="http://www.svpal.org/~jvn/ ">JVN's web site</a>