Virtual starry sky over Masoala
starry sky cap masoala
Want to spend a tropical night on the top of the old French lighthouse at Cap Masoala? The free open source planetarium software Stellarium can make this dream come true (you even don't have to worry about dangerous moskitos or tropical rainfalls...) if you use it in combination with this customized panoramic landscape. Just follow these simple steps:
  1. Download the planetarium software Stellarium (for free!)
  2. Download the customized landscape cap_masoala.zip (also for free!)
  3. Follow the steps indicated in the readme.txt-file that comes within the cap_masoala.zip
  4. Start Stellarium. Select the landscape Cap Masoala in the sky and viewing options window
  5. Dim the lights, lean back and enjoy the tropical night at Cap Masoala!

    Stellarium is available for Mac and Win

Virtual sunset at Cap Masoala. This movie was taken as a screenshot from Stellarium. The software provides much smoother playback.
Stellarium is very easy to handle and offers a variety of interesting features, for example:
   • Sky can be displayed with or without landscape and atmosphere
   • Different levels of light pollution to give a more realistic view
   • Constellation lines, names or art can be activated
   • Names of stars, planets and deep sky objects
   • Powerful zoom-function (what about a short trip to Jupiter?)
   • Easy to handle time control
   • Customisability (add scripts, landscapes, constellation images,...)
   • and much more!
Stellarium is an open source software that is permanently improved and developed.
Some screenshots showing the customized landscape "Cap Masoala" in Stellarium:

View to the west from the top of the lighthouse (top created in Adobe Photoshop)

Nice view with moon and shooting star

A lot of additional information can be displayed
back to the lighthouse