Sunday, May 14, 2006
Stellarium
Ever want to know more about Astronomy? Ever want to be able to view the sky from anywhere in the world or from the surface of another planet, while never having to leave the comfort of your arm chair? Well now it is possible, using Stellarium as one of the tools to explore your arm chair universe. With this you will not only be able to see the night sky... but the universal time machine.
Today's Cool Pick Of The Day is Stellarium is free GPL software which renders realistic skies in real time using openGL. With Stellarium, you can view the heavens as if looking thought your naked eye, binoculars or a small telescope. Stellarium is also used in planetariums or to control projectors such as those created by Digitalis Education Solutions.
It can be run on Linux, MacOS X, and MS Windows. What packages you need for Linux are: OpenGL implementation, SDL, Zlib, libpng. I use Red Hat AS 4 and I installed SDL in the Bolo C.P.O.T.D.
Navigating around Stellarium can be done via the mouse and keyboard keys. You can look around by mouse dragging or moving your mouse against the edges of the window, using the scroll mouse wheel to zoom in and out, and there are many keys to press for constellation drawings, mapping grids for RA and DEC as well as Alt/Azi, ecliptic and equator lines, etc. Another wonderful feature is "Time Travel" which allows you to time index or jump to a specific time and date and see the celestial view from your current vantage point at that specified moment in time. A full description of keyboard control can be found at the Keyboard Actions section of the Wiki.
There are over 100,000 objects in the catalog. All stars from the Hipparcos catalog, also included are the planets of our solar system, and their natural satellites, all Messier objects, all NGC objects, planet orbits, meridian line, cardinal points, azimuthal grid, equator line, equatorial grid, ecliptica, asterisms, names of the constellations, equatorial/azimuthal mount, constellation boundaries, Nebulae, to name a few. Observation from another planet and as solar system observer is also possible.
To enhance the viewing experience, there are different projections available: Perspective projection, fisheye projection, "old_style" texture projection, spherical panorama projection and stereographic projection. Also, realistic atmosphere, constellation art based on Greek mythology, surface fog, star twinkling, and meteor showers. And full customization such as adding your own landscapes, constellation images, scripts, and your own deep sky objects, further enhances the viewing experience.
By using scripting it is possible to record and play your own shows. You can do this by either using the script input window or loading it through the text user interface.
Getting and Installing Stellarium
wget http://superb-east.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/stellarium/stellarium-0.8.0.tar.gz
tar zxf stellarium-0.8.0.tar.gz
cd stellarium-0.8.0
./configure
make
paco -lp stellarium-0.8.0 "make install"
Running Stellarium
stellarium
A comprehensive Manual is available. A full description of the Keyboard Actions can be found on their Wiki.
Today's Cool Pick Of The Day is Stellarium is free GPL software which renders realistic skies in real time using openGL. With Stellarium, you can view the heavens as if looking thought your naked eye, binoculars or a small telescope. Stellarium is also used in planetariums or to control projectors such as those created by Digitalis Education Solutions.
It can be run on Linux, MacOS X, and MS Windows. What packages you need for Linux are: OpenGL implementation, SDL, Zlib, libpng. I use Red Hat AS 4 and I installed SDL in the Bolo C.P.O.T.D.
Navigating around Stellarium can be done via the mouse and keyboard keys. You can look around by mouse dragging or moving your mouse against the edges of the window, using the scroll mouse wheel to zoom in and out, and there are many keys to press for constellation drawings, mapping grids for RA and DEC as well as Alt/Azi, ecliptic and equator lines, etc. Another wonderful feature is "Time Travel" which allows you to time index or jump to a specific time and date and see the celestial view from your current vantage point at that specified moment in time. A full description of keyboard control can be found at the Keyboard Actions section of the Wiki.
There are over 100,000 objects in the catalog. All stars from the Hipparcos catalog, also included are the planets of our solar system, and their natural satellites, all Messier objects, all NGC objects, planet orbits, meridian line, cardinal points, azimuthal grid, equator line, equatorial grid, ecliptica, asterisms, names of the constellations, equatorial/azimuthal mount, constellation boundaries, Nebulae, to name a few. Observation from another planet and as solar system observer is also possible.
To enhance the viewing experience, there are different projections available: Perspective projection, fisheye projection, "old_style" texture projection, spherical panorama projection and stereographic projection. Also, realistic atmosphere, constellation art based on Greek mythology, surface fog, star twinkling, and meteor showers. And full customization such as adding your own landscapes, constellation images, scripts, and your own deep sky objects, further enhances the viewing experience.
By using scripting it is possible to record and play your own shows. You can do this by either using the script input window or loading it through the text user interface.
Getting and Installing Stellarium
wget http://superb-east.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/stellarium/stellarium-0.8.0.tar.gz
tar zxf stellarium-0.8.0.tar.gz
cd stellarium-0.8.0
./configure
make
paco -lp stellarium-0.8.0 "make install"
Running Stellarium
stellarium
A comprehensive Manual is available. A full description of the Keyboard Actions can be found on their Wiki.
# posted by TheGuardian : 7:32 PM
