Astronomy Software With Updates

I am looking for a Astronomy Software “Planetarium/Sky Simulation” that can be updated with available recent celestial data, almost similar to Operating System Updates or, Anti Virus Live Update. I do not want to be stuck by the data that’s been compiled at the time of the Software Release.

Any suggestions!

Most packages use external catalogs for their data so you can pick and choose.

A good starting place is Cartes du Ciel, a powerful freeware package that is comprehensive and powerful. It is available in several languages. Before it came along I was using a couple of commercial packages but no longer.

As an example, it has a nice feature to update the comet data. Hook up to the internet, click on the update comet information button and it does the rest.

www.astrosurf.com/astropc

jon isaacs