Stellarium software, look at stars real time.

http://www.stellarium.org/


This software shows you the stars in real time. And the moon as well. It's a computer graphic, not the real stars, but you punch in your location during setup, then when you open it up, it shows you where the sky is LIVE.

So you can identify what you are looking at outside. Or see if what you are looking for is even in rotation at the moment.

I learned where Orion was from it, and Betelgeuse, the red super giant.

Also learned the name of some of the other stars I see and didn't know what they were, like Sirius and Casiopiea.

It's got an option to turn on atmosphere, so you can see the effects of the sun or the moon, or you can black it all out and just see the stars.

how do you change the location? (like where you are viewing the sky from?) i just downloaded it and it says i'm looking at it from Paris

Nevermind. I figured it out. This is so amazing. Now I can look at the stars on a cloudy night. Thanks for sharing!

yeah, it's a lot of fun in the winter time, when the cold front come through and the sky is super clear, and you go out and can see all those stars, then go back in and see what the names are.

I tried to put it on my laptop, but it didn't have enough power to run it. Kept locking up.