Kstars

KStars is a Desktop Planetarium for KDE.I live in Bangalore and hence I have configured Kstars for this location.I just open the program , see the sky map and then go to the terrace of my building to watch the sky.Its wonderfully acurate.If you have a laptop you can just carry the system up and see the performance of this software.Its FREE and most of the linux distributions come with this package.Modern telescopes also can be connected to this software for go-to facility though i have not tried it yet!

Which linux distro(flavour) will suit you?

A very good question indeed for beginners.visit http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/ if you want guidance to decide the distro that will suit your computing needs.I tried through those pages giving my answers to the questions that were asked ,and finally they presented the list of recommended distros!Give a try!!

linux and Astronomy!

Try for a search in google with linux+astronomy as search text.You will be surprised with the search results!
The opensource community has developed and hosted so many wonderful programs for Astronomy related software.One of the software I tried recently is OpenUniverse(.org).It offers 3D simulation of solar system.You can fly near to a planet and observe it and do so many other things.There are tons of Astronomy software for linux ,but Linux for Astronomy CDROM project has compiled these programs in CD format.Worth giving a try!