Sometimes it is just not practical to go out and look up at the night sky. For example, there isn't much to see if there is a thunderstorm raging in your area. Or maybe it is forty below outside (as it can be at night in Wyoming from time to time).
On those occasions it is helpful to have a desktop astronomy software for your computer or mobile device. Some of them are free and some are fairly expensive.
My favorite free software is called Stellarium. It is a FREE open source software that displays the sky in a "dome view" format, just like if you were outside.
Besides having all the features you'd expect in a desktop planetarium software, Stellarium is multi-platform. Linux, Mac OS, or Windows all support Stellarium (although I have found some quirks when using it with my Mac).
I will be using screen-shots from Stellarium from time to time so I wanted to give those hard working folks all the credit for the cool sky images.
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