Ok, so there were my kids paying around with knoppix when they ran
across 'kstars'.  In-computer planetarium.  It's right cool.  Being
more gnomey than kdey, I hadn't been to the other side.  It certainly
resolves one problem I had with looking at 'stars' when I was a kid.
"Mom look!  A star!"  "Which one?"  "I dunno, but it's IN THE
TELESCOPE."  "How nice, dear."

Of course telescopic star gazing still suffers from "that's just a spec
of light" even when it's a planet in the telescope.  Particularly
after I think "I've got a planetarium program now that shows specs of
light, information about them, and is inside."

:-)

Anyway, if you want to relive childhood memories or assist your kids
with accurately naming stars/constellations/panets, check out kstars.

Available in a package format of your choice.

David