Right on Rassilon . With Celestia as open source , iv'e used it ot learn the computer 3.5 years a go i was computer (illitaeate )?
with being abeb to add and contribute i have learned gimp, vc7++.net how to biuld a web site , html, php, some c , and the ins ands outs of win XP
for me open source is the way to go the two way dialog cant be beat .
Celestia vs Starry Night
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Exposed
For those of you that think Celestia is as good as Starry Night in anything, I need your help. I just purchased an 8" Celestron Dobsonian telescope (discontinued, I know). No goto gimmicks, just money spent on optics. I need a program that will help me find objects when I'm out stargazing.
Celestia allows you to watch the sky from the Earth's surface, but just how helpful will it be to find and track specific objects in the sky with my telescope? I tried fiddling around with it myself, but all I'm able to do is take myself down to the surface and look at the sky....nothing else to actually aide me in any way. I cannot even pinpoint certain objects, such as the ring nebulae (M57), with the search object function.
I downloaded a program called "Winstars" and it was enormously more helpful. Night sky looks exactly the way it should for my location and time, and I can pick any planet or deep space object and it will help me guide my scope there. It even tells me the rise times for objects I'm looking for but not viewable yet. Starry night is supposedly far superior to this free program, but their free trials seem to be suspended at the moment.
Is there anything I can do to make Celestia remotely useful as these other programs?
Celestia allows you to watch the sky from the Earth's surface, but just how helpful will it be to find and track specific objects in the sky with my telescope? I tried fiddling around with it myself, but all I'm able to do is take myself down to the surface and look at the sky....nothing else to actually aide me in any way. I cannot even pinpoint certain objects, such as the ring nebulae (M57), with the search object function.
I downloaded a program called "Winstars" and it was enormously more helpful. Night sky looks exactly the way it should for my location and time, and I can pick any planet or deep space object and it will help me guide my scope there. It even tells me the rise times for objects I'm looking for but not viewable yet. Starry night is supposedly far superior to this free program, but their free trials seem to be suspended at the moment.
Is there anything I can do to make Celestia remotely useful as these other programs?
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HankR
Exposed,
Celestia isn't really intended for the purpose you're wanting to use it for. Celestia is intended for traveling through space, not staying on Earth. Eventually, Celestia will likely provide better support for surface operations (on planetary bodies in general, but including Earth), and may then be more useful to you. But even then, a program more oriented toward eathbound astronomy may be more suited to your needs.
- Hank
Celestia isn't really intended for the purpose you're wanting to use it for. Celestia is intended for traveling through space, not staying on Earth. Eventually, Celestia will likely provide better support for surface operations (on planetary bodies in general, but including Earth), and may then be more useful to you. But even then, a program more oriented toward eathbound astronomy may be more suited to your needs.
- Hank