Astronomy for fun (education, science, whatever). Nightfall is an interactive application to simulate eclipsing binary stars, and to produce animated views, synthetic lightcurves and more. Takes into ... More

Astronomy for fun (education, science, whatever). Nightfall is an interactive application to simulate eclipsing binary stars, and to produce animated views, synthetic lightcurves and more. Takes into account the non-spherical shape of close binary stars, mutual reflection, and some other effects. Comes with documentation, on-line help, and lots of observational data of real binary stars. Supports the Gnome desktop, but doesn't require it.  [edit]  Less