Map of the Heavens

I have been using Starry Night for quite some time now. Almost three years if I am not mistaken. The package is very nice indeed, but a bit heavy for my old Celeron. I finally got tired of waiting an eternity for the screen to scroll.
Then I remebered a nifty package called Cartes du Ciel (CDC). CDC works on Linux and Windows. The core installer for the Windows version is around 9 MB. In addition you can download most of the standard catalogues. I'd recommend both the Hiparchos and the Tycho. If you are going to use it alongwith a telescope, I would also suggest a few of the deep sky ones. You might have to tweak the colour setting to your personal preferrences. I find the default to be very irritating.
Also if you are planning to install it on your laptop and take it outdoors there is a night vision mode is available.
One thing I find very nice is the ability to mark out telescope fields on the sky charts which makes it very easy to star hop to Messier Objects.
Enjoy your cloudless skies.

Here are some links:
Wiki Page : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartes_du_Ciel
Home Page : http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/

Some Screenshots :

Telescope View

Night Vision Mode