The best way to get to know the local sky remains going outside and looking up, regardless of the resources at our disposal. However, we cannot deny the value of astronomical information available online. The Aladin Desktop project concentrates much of that information under a single interface, creating a fabulous free celestial atlas that anyone can download.
Consider the enormous amount of astronomical data collected by every telescope, mission, and probe: compiling and organizing that information is virtually impossible for an individual, but the good news is that we now have access to fabulous tools that have done that heavy lifting over the years.
A great example is Aladin Desktop, created in 1999 by the Strasbourg Astronomical Data Center. It is one of the best digital celestial atlases, with more than 30,000 collections available, and the backing of two other projects from the Center: SIMBAD (database of extrasolar objects) and VizieR (catalog service).
The sky is one click away with Aladin Desktop
The Aladin Desktop interface transmits the feeling that we are not facing an application for beginners, but there is no need to worry. The most effective way to start our exploration is following the program's own recommendation: write the desired object in the Command section. Within seconds, Aladin will present a high-resolution image and download any necessary secondary resources.
One of the most interesting aspects of Aladin is that it allows us to load data from multiple missions at once as planes, and switch from one to another effortlessly. Personally, I think DSS Colored (one of Aladin's default selections) is a good starting point, but I also suggest activating SIMBAD within the Database category to get even more information.
Aladin Desktop is free, open source, and available for several operating systems. For Windows specifically, the best option is to get its MSI installer with dependencies already included, but its beta version is only distributed as a .jar, so you'll need Java. Download it!
Official website and download: Click here
