Celestia Forums

Can I use Celestia to view a correctly working heliocentric model from different angles?

I'd like it to show animation of the sun rise and set year round as If I were an observer on the earth as well as from just beyond the Moon. I'd need to be able to play this in real time and also in slower speeds so i can check the sun rise and sets against the position of sun and earth in different months.

Is any of this possible with Celestia? If not, can you guys suggest another program that displays content in 3d that will do the trick?

Thanks, Krylok

yes. in terms of accuracy, Celestia is built with vsop orbits, which is more than accurate enough for what you plan to use it for. you can set your observer relative to any body or reference point. however, the earth model is a simple spheroid so it won't work like an accurate planetarium since there's no terrain model. however, again, it's accurate enough for what you want to do. you can choose follow or rotate with an object, stay the same relative to 2 objects, speed up, slow down, all with pre-defined keys. even if you find something you can't do, there's almost certainly a more experienced user that can make an add-on for you.

here are some examples i did in 10 seconds.

Great, Thanks. I'll have to study the user guide and figure this out. Beats spending 250 bucks for Starry Night.

Krylok

there is also a plugin that dose this ,for sunrise and sun set for earth

http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/show_addon_details.php?addon_id=1563

and for other places
http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/show_addon_details.php?addon_id=1634

and the ongoing "Ephemerides"
http://forum.celestialmatters.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=468
and the latest update version 3.7
http://forum.celestialmatters.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=468&start=60#p13885