Celestia

[ev0|]

I know Ripgut has this in his sig, but I thought that now we have a Science section, we should also have a thread for this awesome program :

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Tip : type "g" to go to objects you select. Make sure to turn options on in the program too.

Runs quite fast on even not so super fast hardware, such as my humble Geforce 5600U.

Enjoy !

P.S. Be sure to check the add-ons at http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/

*edit Thanks !

Edited September 22, 2005 by ev0|

[vincent]

Astronomical objects calculator

http://www.maa.mhn.de/

LUNAR OCCULTATION WORKBENCH

This program computes occultations by the moon of eight planets and 54 thousand stars. Two versions. I'm putting up the smaller one. See homepage for more info. (8MB)

http://home.plex.nl/~gottm/doa

SKY-CALENDAR

This program opens with a bar-chart representation of the days of the month from top to bottom, with a graphic of each day from day to night to day. As you pass the mouse around the screen, events like the passage of the moon, planets, etc. track along the day bar and up and down the month graph. Includes a planet finder window that also shows a moving graphic of the planets visible from where the mouse in positioned.

http://www.skycalendar.com/skycal/index.html

MERIDIAN

Calculates many planetary events. Position of planet satellites and phases of planets. Rise and set times and much more.

http://www.merid.cam.org/meridian/index.html

[Glowstick]

If anyone wants to get an idea about the size of the universe, install the WMAP and redshift dataplots in Celestia. Then scroll out until the indicator says 18bn lightyears.

[vincent]

ANALEMMA

Displays a full year of solar visibility. Includes sunrise/sunset, equinoxes/solstices and dates of earliest/latest sunrises/sunsets.

http://www.analemma.com/

IRIS

Iris offers numerous and powerful functions of image processing in the field of the digital astronomical images. It is particularly optimized to exploit the images that come from CCD or DSLR cameras. Iris can load and save images in the formats FITS, PIC (proprietary format), raw or BMP. (2.5MB)

http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm

PLANET VISIBILITY

This program presents a simple 3-color graph that tells, when a planet (or moon, sun) is visible from your location.

http://www.alcyone.de/PVis/english/ProgramPVis.htm

[ev0|]

Also would like to suggest users use 1.4.0 pre6 release instead of the 1.3.2 release. Has more features. Check : http://shatters.net/~claurel/celestia/files/

[vincent]

Thanks ev0| :)

[kevcart3]

I've used celestia a bunch of times on Linux, I have to say, it's one of the coolest programs that actually teach you something I've ever seen! :D

[Prometheus]

I would use it but it doesnt seem , usefull to me at the moment.

[Pox]

love this software, been using it about a year or so. It's annoying downloading individual expansion s from motherlode tho... are there any 1 shot installers with high-res textures and detailed models for most of the solar system?

[takai003]

Wow, Celestia looks awesome. I'll have some fun playing around with this.

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

hmm, since when do we have a science section? did i miss something? all the furuious debates by mods how we dont need one and something about not enough posts etc???

[Pox]

there's a post about it in the Site + Forum Issues forum... go check it out.