Freethought & Rationalism Archive

bluefugue · 04-16-2002, 05:08 PM

If you're interested in astronomy and have a decent 3D video card, check out <a href="http://www.shatters.net/celestia" target="_blank">www.shatters.net/celestia</a> . The program "Celestia" is only an 11 meg download (!) but it contains a fully 3D, fully rendered model of the solar system and indeed the galaxy. You can zoom in on any planet, star, etc., and watch them rotate/revolve in real time (or in 10x, 100x, 1000x etc. real time, which tends to be more dramatic). If you have a card with pixel/vertex shaders (i.e. a Geforce 3), some of the effects are really spectacular. This is definitely the neatest free program I've ever seen.

Aethernaut · 04-16-2002, 05:31 PM

For an amature astronomer that program rocks!

-SK

Christopher Lord · 04-16-2002, 11:18 PM

Oh man thats fun. Spent an hour zooming around in that thing. It's interesting viewing the constilations from a distant star. I wouldn't expect such an image to imerge from our sky drawings (a nice 3D starburst, with all lines appearing to point back at sol) but I guess it makes sense.

thanks for the link

Daydreamer · 04-17-2002, 09:53 PM

Playing with that program is cool.

Watching my roomate's face when I zoomed in on Earth, then shouting "Second star on the right and strait on till morning", however, was priceless

Whoever made this program deserves an award.

nogods4me · 04-18-2002, 02:21 AM

oh man is that cool or what, and I just downloaded the low-res version cause my home PC only has 8meg on the vid card and it still blew me away. , wonder if the boss would mind me downloading the hi-res version at work?

Solsticin · 04-19-2002, 10:51 PM

WOW!!! Me and the wife are having a ton of fun playing with this! Thanks!

btw, if you have a really good 3d card (I have a GF3 Ti 500) turn all the options on and crank up the stars. It's amazing

Oh, and crank up the time and watch the solar system move from Earth's perpective. SWEET!

echidna · 04-22-2002, 01:12 AM

Cheers for that, just sent it to my brother-in-law who's almost finished his course in celestial navigation.

04-16-2002, 05:08 PM	#1
bluefugue Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 1,427	Cool download! If you're interested in astronomy and have a decent 3D video card, check out <a href="http://www.shatters.net/celestia" target="_blank">www.shatters.net/celestia</a> . The program "Celestia" is only an 11 meg download (!) but it contains a fully 3D, fully rendered model of the solar system and indeed the galaxy. You can zoom in on any planet, star, etc., and watch them rotate/revolve in real time (or in 10x, 100x, 1000x etc. real time, which tends to be more dramatic). If you have a card with pixel/vertex shaders (i.e. a Geforce 3), some of the effects are really spectacular. This is definitely the neatest free program I've ever seen.

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04-16-2002, 05:31 PM	#2
Aethernaut Regular Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 422	For an amature astronomer that program rocks! -SK

04-16-2002, 11:18 PM	#3
Christopher Lord Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Toronto Posts: 808	Oh man thats fun. Spent an hour zooming around in that thing. It's interesting viewing the constilations from a distant star. I wouldn't expect such an image to imerge from our sky drawings (a nice 3D starburst, with all lines appearing to point back at sol) but I guess it makes sense. thanks for the link

04-17-2002, 09:53 PM	#4
Daydreamer Regular Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: San Diego Posts: 221	Playing with that program is cool. Watching my roomate's face when I zoomed in on Earth, then shouting "Second star on the right and strait on till morning", however, was priceless Whoever made this program deserves an award.

04-18-2002, 02:21 AM	#5
nogods4me Contributor Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Baltimore, MD USA Posts: 17,432	oh man is that cool or what, and I just downloaded the low-res version cause my home PC only has 8meg on the vid card and it still blew me away. , wonder if the boss would mind me downloading the hi-res version at work?

04-19-2002, 10:51 PM	#6
Solsticin Regular Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Grand Prairie, Texas Posts: 435	WOW!!! Me and the wife are having a ton of fun playing with this! Thanks! btw, if you have a really good 3d card (I have a GF3 Ti 500) turn all the options on and crank up the stars. It's amazing Oh, and crank up the time and watch the solar system move from Earth's perpective. SWEET!

04-22-2002, 01:12 AM	#7
echidna Veteran Member Join Date: May 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 2,832	Cheers for that, just sent it to my brother-in-law who's almost finished his course in celestial navigation.

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