Cool stuff for the space freaks among us.(Dialup Warning!)

[Solon]

I don't know how many of you know about this but there is a program out there called Celestia, it kicks ass, consider it a space exploration program where you can tour the Solar System, using the latest data from satelites and xyz cooridnates as possible. Includes an addon ability so such things as orbital changes for space craft and such could be accurately updated. It includes a catalog of 100,000 stars, expandable, with an additional download, to a catalog of about 3 million or so stars. It runs on Windows, Linux, and MacOS, including other OSes if you compile it for them. Note, Linux version comes with Autopackager, nifty little program, makes it as easy to install as a Mac or Windows program.

You can find it here: http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

You can find all sorts of addons and updated data here: http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/

Now, to give you my version of a tour, so to speak.

Here's Hubble:


OK, now, some people mentioned Space Elevators on here, so here's what it MAY look like in the future, this particular space elevator is anchored on an artificial Island in the Indian Ocean:

Look at the text in the top left corner, that is the distance from the camera to Earth, and its only about a couple of kilometers from the end of the Elevator, just to give you an idea of scale.

Ever wondered what a Martian horizon on the bottom of Valles Marineris looks like, even includes constellations(yes you can use the program as a constellation tracker).


Now, how about somthing that isn't so big, but became famous for another reason entirely, the Ida/Dactyl pair.


Now, this program isn't limited to just our Solar System, other Solar Systems exist, when we know of them, as this example gives:


Now for something truly Conceptional, we know that some of the Exoplanetary Gas Giants exist in the "Goldilocks Zone" of their Solar systems, so here is a view from a habitable Moon around such a Gas Giant, its entirely fictional, obviously, but certainly such moons could theoritically exist.


Just thought it would be best to post this here, I will say this program WILL push you computer to the limit, I couldn't show Virtual Textures, to give an example, my computer can't handle them. Those are surface textures for planets that load higher resolution textures depending on how close you get to the surface, some are down to meter or less scale, even a greater resolution than Google Earth in some cases.

[Old and In the Way]

1. very cool.....it puts things in perspective.

thanks for sharing!

[madrchsod]

2. thanks

just downloaded the program

[YankeyMCC]

3. cool thx

[Beelzebud]

4. Thanks for sharing this! I hadn't heard of it.

It's great! Very cool program. I love some of the addons.