Stellarium --- Free OpenSource Planetarium

[Claverhouse]

Just found this: Stellarium (http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/)

A French free OpenSource Planetarium for Linux, Mac and Windows.

It renders the skies in realtime using OpenGL, which means the skies will look exactly like what you see with your eyes, binoculars, or a small telescope

in version 0.8.0



sky


over 120,000 stars from the Hipparcos catalogue with info
asterisms and illustrations of the constellations
images of nebulae
realistic Milky Way
very realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset
the planets and their satellites


It includes a FAQ (http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ), plus there's a PDF User's Guide.


A graphics card capable of rendering OpenGL. A Riva TNT2, released in 1999 or 2000, should do. Stellarium is also fairly processor intensive, so you will get higher framerates with faster processors. Any reasonably recent computer should be able to run Stellarium. Furthermore your computer should be running a Linux, Windows or MacOSX operating system.
To give you an idea of what's possible, we've had success with these older computers:

Pentium III 800Mhz, 128MB RAM, Intel on board graphics (under Windows XP).
AMD K6 400 Mhz, 256MB RAM, Nvidia Gforce2 AGP, DirectX 9.0 (Windows XP)


The download .exe file is 18.70 MB... so I guess the other two will be as bulky.


I'm not that interested in the stars, but it looks neat.


Claverhouse :ph34r:

[Carebear]

Great link!

Also, if you'd like to travel the entire universe in 3D, http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ will be a dream come true.

Edit: You'll need a good 3D card by the way. Ah, and it's free as well. An you can download addons to it, like dynamic surface with sunspots and solar bursts for the sun, better textures for the other planets in our system etc. You can even download fictional stuff like the death star etc. I have Spiff (Calvin) orbiting Jupiter.

Enable the zodiac signs (or what ever the name is), magnify the luminity of the stars (to see better, bt only if your card can handle it), then zoom out and see how they all are found in a tiny arm of our universe. The experience is mindblowing. I've wasted hours on hours here. Makes you think about life in a new way.

I can't see how any INTP would find this program boring.

2nd edit: Should I have created a new thread instead? I'm kind of hijacking yours now, Claver. That wasn't really my intention. Your post just reminded me of Celestia, and I thought it fitted here.

[Claverhouse]

No, that's fine, the more stuff the better. And it would be redundant to have two threads.

Anyway, that 3D stuff... my new ( well, old but it's OK ) Gainward card FX5600 has NVidia drivers and it's got these 3D panels on Display Properties... Do I need 3D glasses or something ? It's new stuff to me, and the NVidia manual is like 100 pdf pages...


Claverhouse :ph34r:

[Superstring]

Just found this: Stellarium (http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/)


Neat program!

Pluto sure is a pesky little bugger to fix a telescope on!! LoL

[Carebear]

No, that's fine, the more stuff the better. And it would be redundant to have two threads.

Anyway, that 3D stuff... my new ( well, old but it's OK ) Gainward card FX5600 has NVidia drivers and it's got these 3D panels on Display Properties... Do I need 3D glasses or something ? It's new stuff to me, and the NVidia manual is like 100 pdf pages...


Claverhouse :ph34r:

I'm not quite sure I understand your question. You never get real 3D from a graphics card, only a 2D image that emulates the 3D experience (without coming anywhere close to the real 3D experience. A few cards do ship 3D glasses and settings for your card to give that IMAX 3D feeling, but they generally don't work as the advertizement claims. The thing with 3D cards is simply that they have enough datapower to calculate and process the relative positions of a lot of 2D points and move them as if they were moving in three dimensions. (I'm not sure at all that this answers your question.)

[Claverhouse]

No, but thanks. Display Properties for the card has Stereo settings: if I enable the Stereo Properties I have to select the Stereo Type, such as:
Dual VGA Output [Dep3d]
Anaglyph RED/Blue glasses
White Line code glasses
Direct 3-Pin VESA Connect
Phillips
Planar Mirror left/right
etc.

If I choose any, including VGA it goes into test mode and says I shall need to activate the stereo glasses...

I'm probably not missing much.


Claverhouse :ph34r:

[Carebear]

No, but thanks. Display Properties for the card has Stereo settings: if I enable the Stereo Properties I have to select the Stereo Type, such as:
Dual VGA Output [Dep3d]
Anaglyph RED/Blue glasses
White Line code glasses
Direct 3-Pin VESA Connect
Phillips
Planar Mirror left/right
etc.

If I choose any, including VGA it goes into test mode and says I shall need to activate the stereo glasses...

I'm probably not missing much.


Claverhouse :ph34r:

Aha! Yes, stereo means it'll send out signals coded for different types of 3D glasses, some of which might actually give an effect similar to that of IMAX 3D. For instance will the red/blue settings show two images onscreen, one blueish, the other one skewed slightly to the left or right reddish. This will look like puke unless you wear blue/red-glasses I guess, but with such glasses, one ey will only pick up the red signals, while the other only picks up blue, giving a 3D effect.

It'd be fun to test for a couple of hour I think, but if you don't have the glasses, it's not worth the time and effort to aquire them. The few different types I tested made me nauseous after a few minutes. :)

[Claverhouse]

Many thanks. It does sound like something I don't need :)

At least I can give up studying that panel...


Claverhouse :ph34r:

[airjaw]

I could probably spend a year in there just exploring and losing myself so I'm going to have to abstain for the time being