Welcome to Project AstroFly

AstroFly is a software project, which is intended for educational use; thus, if you are interested in astrophysics, it may help you to expand your knowledge about our Universe. Its main purpose is to present the three-dimensional models of our neighborhood in our own Milky Way Galaxy on a personal computer. The 3D models are based on the remarkable Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues, which are the products of the European Space Agency's Hipparcos Space Astrometry Mission.

Because of the "CAD-style" approach explained in the next section, an observer is not bound to our Earth in this software; moreover, the Earth itself and all other non-stellar objects are not concerned by AstroFly.

More info:   History |  Features |  Examples |  Download |  Donation |  Feedback

Project's History

After we had obtained the Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues in 1998, we started to import the 3D coordinates of stars into a Computer Aided Design (CAD) system in order to create a 3D visual model and to enjoy the so called "fly-through" feature. Because any change in a set of displayed stars required a new process of converting and importing data into a CAD system, we decided to develop a special application, which would be able to filter stars dynamically by many parameters and provide some useful features of CAD systems.

Although the development is very complicated and slow (the biggest troubles are described in the AstroFly Help), the current version of AstroFly contains a lot of interesting features, and we hope that some new ideas will follow. Currently, we are trying to develop a new edition of AstroFly-- AstroFly Galactic Edition.

Features

• You can fly anywhere in space.
  
  
• Each star is depicted with its "real" color.
  
  
• You can filter stars by many parameters.
  
  
• Simplified Wireframe of Our Milky Way Galaxy is available.
  
  
• You can check a star in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
  
  
• Finding a famous star by its names is available.
  
  
• You can study constellations.

Some Practical Examples

• What would you see from Proxima Centauri when you looked towards our Sun?
  
  
• What colors are stars of the famous constellation of Orion?
  
  
• What fraction of our Galaxy is mapped in visible light?
  
  
• What is the position of our Sun in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram?

System Requirements

• Hardware:
  
  • Processor: Intel® Pentium® or better (Pentium® 4 is recommended)
  • RAM: 128 MB is a recommended minimum
  • Graphics System:
    • A graphics card with hardware accelerated OpenGL® is recommended
    • 1280 x 1024 resolution is recommended
  • Disk Space for Installed Files:
    • AstroFly 3.0 Basic Package: 7 MB
    • AstroFly 3.0 Plus Package: 27 MB
• Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP

Download

The current version of AstroFly consists of two packages. The AstroFly 3.0 Basic Package contains installation of the AstroFly's executables and the star database derived from the Hipparcos Catalogue; the AstroFly 3.0 Plus Package, installation of the star database derived from the Tycho Catalogue.

If you want to use the AstroFly 3.0 Plus Package, it must be installed into the same directory as the AstroFly 3.0 Basic Package.

Download the AstroFly 3.0 Basic Package. Size: 6.9 MB (7 197 715 bytes)
(Content: AstroFly's executables, star database derived from the Hipparcos Catalogue)

Download the AstroFly 3.0 Plus Package. Size: 19.6 MB (20 524 053 bytes)
(Content: Star database derived from the Tycho Catalogue)

Feedback

If you want to comment on anything in this project or if you find any errors or bugs, please send us an email to: astrofly@anumajor.com