Celestia – Real-time 3D visualization of space

140 pointsposted 5 months ago
by LordNibbler
(celestiaproject.space)

33 Comments

vodou

5 months ago

Great project! Been using it for years together with VTS [1] to visualize real-time and propagated satellite positions and attitudes, and also star tracker and payload "beams".

[1] https://timeloop.fr/vts/

dysoco

5 months ago

When I was a kid I used to play a bit with Celestia, but I remember I was pretty scared whilst using it... there was some kind of dread/anxiety I felt just looking at the vast void of space and something giant like Jupiter or Saturn next to it, I always thought an UFO or something was gonna pop out of nowhere.

I don't know if this feeling is common or not but I do remember reading about someone here on on Reddit feeling a similar thing, I believe it to be similar to thalassophobia.

Rooster61

5 months ago

This. While it wasn't Celestia (I was playing around with Orbiter), I ran into a very similar, very specific scenario. In Orbiter, you can fly to planets using orbital mechanics a la KSP but on a true scale. Frustrated that I was having trouble getting to Saturn using a Hohmann transfer, I eventually said fuck it and just input coordinates that put me just a little ways outside of Saturn's atmosphere.

Upon hitting the button to warp to the coordinates, I was presented with an entirely flat, beige plane. Thinking I had screwed up the coordinates, I began zooming out. Since Orbiter renders to scale rather than the scaled down planets in KSP, I began to realize that there was no mistake, and just how small my ship was relative to Saturn. It literally gave me a shiver. It's so hard for us humans to really perceive how mindbendingly big things are in space in a direct sense.

Verdex

5 months ago

I have maybe 2 hours total usage time with celestia from years ago.

I still occasionally have pseudo nightmares from the pov of using celestia to orbit 'scary' celestial objects.

I'm not exactly sure what the deal is because I never had any conscious reactions to using the program. But apparently it made some sort of impact.

aeve890

5 months ago

Same! I lost days looking for the most distant galaxies and traveling to them. I always felt the same anxiety of the emptiness thinking why the universe doesn't give us a way to explore it, why I was born so early or in a _lame low tech planet_ (in a lame low tech country) or how incredibly diverse could be the life out there. I remember being fascinated by the sheer number of galaxies and then "wait, this app doesn't even zoom _into_ galaxies", which is another level of infinityness, and that was just overwhelming. Man, I feel depressed now.

florbo

5 months ago

If you want to fly around galaxies and feel insignificant, Space Engine is pretty good for that. It's not a true simulation, as most things are procedurally generated unless an addon is installed, but it certainly captures the scale of things.

aeve890

5 months ago

I gotta check. Now I got my fix with Elite Dangerous.

septune

5 months ago

Decades ago, I patched Celestia to add a Star Trek–style warp speed selector, only to realize that even at maximum warp, I was still crawling along like a snail. At least it was a fun hack.

moritonal

5 months ago

One thing I kind of always want to see when I find cool resources like this are "How are you funded?". Because if it's not clear then have to there's a high risk it's a rug-pull, virus or might one day be either. There's just too many secretive "Here's a super free perfect tool for you!" rug-pulls out there.

"We're funded by the goodness of a team of volunteers" is a great answer.

aarond0623

5 months ago

Celestia had been operating for years. I was using it 20 years ago.

dotancohen

5 months ago

Are you new to the concept of open source?

moritonal

5 months ago

That's rude. Yes, I've contributed to a few. However, here is a list of open-source software that've notoriously turned to unethical decisions when pressured into getting funding.

Audacity: Free until 2021 when they were bought and introduced telemetry.

Streamlabs: Open-source but tried to monetise and attack the OBS brand

Bitwarden forks: Various forks of open-source code that included monetisation

OpenOffice: Great desktop apps until bought by Oracle

CCleaner: "free" software that contained trojens.

HoverZoom: Chrome plugin sold by original dev, new update included spyware and ads.

As I said, I don't mind if the answer is "we are volunteers who love this", but I do ask that formal webpage presenting a product, that even has an FAQ page, explains it's funding model. Their github (https://github.com/CelestiaProject/Celestia) is much better at this.

OrderlyTiamat

5 months ago

It is my experience that if there is a github for a project like this, that's usually a much better source of information than the landing page.

dotancohen

5 months ago

How is asking about your experience rude? Lots of people have no clue what open source is. I'm sitting next to two of them right now.

Being offended so quickly, I'm tempted to ask if you're new to the internet ))

hdNLouie

5 months ago

moritonal, did you also just `conveniently' forget: Github? And heinous:

openAI: Microsoft has invested US$13 billion in OpenAI, and is entitled to 49% of OpenAI Global, LLC's profits, capped at an estimated 10x their investment.

moritonal

5 months ago

Sorry, but I don't understand your comment. Github exists sure, but many open source projects have turned sour due to bad funding models. And OpenAi, isn't any of the things it says it is.

i4k

5 months ago

This website does not work with Oculus Quest browser, it goes to the "oh noes" page, i guess the meta browser has some issues with the bot detection algorithm.

lifeinthevoid

5 months ago

Brave also exhibits this behavior, turning off shields fixes the issue.

sintezcs

5 months ago

Is it possible to run it on Meta Quest 3? Or maybe someone could recommend the similar project for a VR headset? Thanks!

aktuel

5 months ago

Is there an option to increase the font size? The text is unreadably small on my 28" 4k display.

CodeCompost

5 months ago

I'm surprised there isn't a version that runs on browsers using Emscripten.

trklausss

5 months ago

Now somebody gotta do it as a mod for KSP, it would be sick to have this level of detail and launch missions through the solar system.

Yes, I know Real Solar System is a thing, but still :D

user

5 months ago

[deleted]