Part I of this series covered a simple Linux planetarium program, KStars. But there are some questions KStars isn't very good at answering, like the question that began Part I: "What the heck are those really bright 'stars' in the sunset sky?" For viewing closeups of planets, monitoring the motion of the planets, getting precise predictions of events like eclipses, and other such information, you'll do better with a more powerful tool: XEphem.