Tip #3209 - Celestia
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Celestia
I just finished testing Celestia, a space simulation program, and boy
do I feel small and insignificant!
Did you ever wish
that you could fly through space? Take a closer look at the celestial
bodies that majestically occupy our universe? From the surreal rings of
Saturn to the minute detail of an impact creator on the surface of some
moon, this week's download will not only take you there, but you’ll
be arriving in style.
Celestia
is a real time space exploration program that allows a user to fly through
the universe viewing anything they want in stunning detail that rivals
that of a Hollywood production. You can select planets, moons or anything
in the solar system, for that matter, and pivot, spin and zoom in and
out, all with a few mouse clicks or keyboard strokes.
Celestia is an unbelievable
training aid for anyone interested in learning more about the universe
we live in. The creators of Celestia have gone to great effort to keep
the program scientifically accurate so that you, the user, get an authentic
real to life experience.
Add
Ons
Although Celestia
is a terrific program on its own, I believe the thing that pushes it over
the top is its add ons, which are additional programs you can pick ala-carte
to download and install from some of their support sites. These add ons
range from awesome educational tours through space to new content, such
as new planets and even spacecrafts. Of course, they also have Star Trek
and Star Wars add ons to add validity to the whole thing. These are the
real meat and potatoes of the program, in my opinion. User created models
that really add life to your Celestia install.
Celestia can take
a little time to get the hang of, but you usually find that with more
robust programs. Luckily, however, the site has some great resources that
you can use to help you figure out any aspect of the program and how to
use it.
Manual:
There is a comprehensive manual you can download that will discuss
all the ins and outs of the program. Things like how to navigate through
the solar system, how to change settings and how to use the tools in order
to better command your experience. Those are but a few of the things discussed
in the manual. There is even a “Getting Started” guide that
will help you get ahold of the program's concept a little better and gain
a better understanding of what exactly to expect for in Celestia.
Forum:
They have over 4,600 members on their message board, which covers
almost every imaginable topic under the sun. If you need help with an
add on, come out here. If you would like to see how to use this as an
educational tool, go to the forum. If you don’t see a posting for
something you're interested in, simply start a new thread and someone
will answer you shortly.
Features:
- Learn the unbelievable
size and magnitude of our universe firsthand with a journey from the
surface of Earth to the farthest reaches of our observable universe
and do it at hyperspeed.
- Take up station
on our mighty sun and watch solar flares rising off the surface in motion
or count its sunspots as you measure its rotational period.
- Hover over each
of the planets in our solar system as they rotate slowly below you.
See clouds drift by (where applicable) and shadows being cast on mountains
and craters as the sun sets low.
- Fly along with
Mariner 10 on its historic fly by of Mercury.
- Visit the searing
surface of Venus and view it in a panoramic 360 degree vista from the
surface.
- Take a spin down
to the Earth’s surface in your own hyperdrive spacecraft. Skim
over the oceans of Earth as you fly below the clouds. Soar back into
space to see the lights come on in the cities of Earth.
- Be present as
Apollo 11 lands on the moon in 1969 or drop by Sputnik 1 in 1958 shortly
after its launch.
- Journey from the
Earth’s surface up to rendezvous with the International Space
Station or the Hubble Space Telescope as they orbit Earth every 90 minutes.
Attempt a difficult docking at the ISS Shuttle port.
- Discover Mir as
it passes over the Russian homeland with its cosmonaut crew onboard.
- Hover over Mar’s
Gusev crater and Meridiani Planum and drop down to the surface to visit
Spirit and Opportunity at their landing sites, then fly over to Olympus
Mons and Valles Marineris and fly through the canyon on a virtual fly
by.
- Be there in 2004
when asteroid 2004 FH misses a direct collision with Earth by a hair’s
breath. Stand watch in the year 2029 when a new asteroid will approach
Earth on a possible collision path.
- Observe a spectacular
lunar eclipse of our own moon and a total solar eclipse on Earth.
- Position yourself
above Jupiter and watch as its large moons drift across the face of
the planet, casting multiple eclipse shadows on its banded clouds and
Great Red Spot.
- Examine the volcanoes
on Jupiter’s very active moon as you pass above it.
- Hover far beyond
Saturn, speed up time and count its many moons revolving around its
magnificent ringed body like pearls swirling on an invisible necklace.
- Be there when
the spacecraft Cassini arrives in Saturn space in 2004 and drops the
Huygens probe into the atmosphere of Titan in January 2005. Follow Huygens
down to a parachute landing on Titan’s surface.
- Engage in a dangerous
maneuver and plunge through Saturn's rings in the Celestia spaceship.
- Journey to the
frozen wasteland of Pluto and its three moons and see their icy coldness
for yourself.
- Take up station
behind comet Halley in 1986 as its gaseous lavender tail streams out
behind it near Earth.
- Seek out Planet
10, Sedna and Quaoar, Kuiper Belt objects that are our Solar System’s
newest “planets.”
- Fly out to the
edges of our Solar System and follow Voyagers 1 and 2 as they speed
away from their creators back on Earth, headed on a one-way journey
to distant stars.
- Experience a rendezvous
with and fly by of the speeding asteroid, Gaspra.
- Witness the impact
of the Deep Impact spacecraft onto the surface of comet Tempel 1 in
July 2005.
- Travel forward
in time to the year 3000 CE to be there as giant mirrors melt the Martian
polar ice caps and help to terraform Mars into a verdant world of water,
plants and cities of the future.
- Set your ship
at a faster-than-light speed and sail to Rigel Kentaurus A, located
4.3 light years away.
- Travel far into
the future and rendezvous with a colossal rotating Space Station as
it orbits Earth.
- Journey to the
edges of a massive rotating Black Hole as it spins near its stellar
companion. Witness another Black Hole swallowing its companion star.
- Travel to the
heart of Betelgeuse, a distant Red Supergiant star that will Hypernova
someday.
- See stellar creations
from deep within the Rosette and Eagle Nebulas, giant stellar nurseries.
- Observe for yourself
the deep field galaxies that were photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
- Count the pulses
of the new pulsar in the Crab Nebula, spinning before you at over 30
times a second.
- Contemplate the
future and witness the end of Earth, as it is swallowed by our swelling
Red Giant sun billions of years from now.
- Jump at hyperspeed
beyond our Milky Way and cruise on over to the Andromeda spiral galaxy,
M 87 located in the rich Virgo Cluster or the beautiful Whirlpool galaxy
or visit over ten thousand galaxies, accurately drawn.
- Be witness to
the future of space travel as you cruise next to Cosmos, a revolutionary
new spacecraft that may someday “sail” on a wind of pure
sunlight (it has no engines).
- Travel backward
in time four billion years to witness the planet “Orpheus”
catastrophically collide with Earth to actually form our moon.
- Learn what efforts
are being taken to discover if extraterrestrial intelligence exists
in the universe.
- Travel in tandem
with the USS Enterprise commanded by Captain Picard, as it battles the
Borg Empire.
- Travel in the
whimsical world of Hollywood and visit the Star Wars® worlds of
Tatooine, Endor and Hoth. Fly next to the Imperial Death Star or Star
Destroyer as the Millennium Falcon swoops in for an attack.
- Explore over 20
different fictional solar systems, many complete with meticulously detailed,
exotic alien civilizations, terraformed moons, futuristic space stations,
entire space fleets, wormholes and interstellar extraterrestrial spacecraft.
If you are interested
in downloading this fantastic program, you may want to look over the system
requirements, especially if your PC is over three years old. Things just
might not work right.
You can get your copy
of Celestia now and join the over 2.7 million people in over 25 countries
traversing our solar system.
You can download Celestia
here.
Hope you enjoy!
~ Chad Stelnicki
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