I figured out why Celestia is FREE

[JimHarvie]

It has been just over a couple of months now that I have had Celestia. I could not at first understand why the program is free although I could see why people get so into doing models and providing ssc files. Because it is addictive. The pizza boxes are piling up and I am eying that old car outside and wondering what kind of video card (s?) I could get for it.
If the program cost money there would be huge liability issues, what with all the people losing their jobs because they stay home to play with it. When a complete non-techie like me can spend a few hours and write a cel that can take him all over the solar system in 10 minutes, and then "borrow" the projector from work to see it, well, that is addictive.
This is to say nothing of the hidden agenda behind this insidious program. Getting people hooked on astronomy may seem harmless enough but my eyes are sore from reading and trying to learn just a little of the math involed hurts my head. If this program cost money I would steal it if I had to. The money, not the program.
PS. Go to Gaspra and play with rotaing around it. It makes the most wonderful image of a dinosaurs fossilized head!

[BrainDead]

Welcome to the most addictive stuff on Earth. This is worse than cocaine,
heroine, and all the other "Good Feeling" drugs on Earth.

When a program written by theoretical physicists grabs the soul of a working man
(in my case a simple forklift driver) it makes you wonder why the
folks in your schools couldn't do the same thing. If I had been this
excited over science in high school, I might have grown up to be somebody
with a couple letters of the alphabet after my title.

At any rate, enjoy, my friend. When a subject can excite ALL kinds of people,
then it MUST be worth your time and energy.

Take care, Bob

P.S. - I'm playing with the Kuiper Belt at the moment. Talk about expanding
your mind...

[Reiko]

I showed my mom this program and she has never been interested in astronomy before but she can't stop playing with celestia either.
She is now a celestia addict lol

[Red1530]

Equally addicting is astronomy in general.

[dvr]

You got that right m8ty ! Since I blew out my back, I can't count the hours I've spent in front of my PC exploring and modifying the universe to suit my needs. I've run into a few problems here and there but generaly it was due to some mistake I've made. I have mentioned it at another forum I belong to and the feedback has been good.
One member raised an interesting point. It would be great if there was a way to incorperate a starship cockpit on the overall view. You could toggle between an interiore and exteriore view with a hot key.I'm a bit of a goit when it comes to computers(started this spring )and have only just gotten the hang on adding the add-ons in their proper places

[John Van Vliet]

there is a project to do just that it's called Mostly Harmless
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mostlyharmless

http://mostlyharmless.sourceforge.net/index.htm


but is is on hold and for know almost dead

[fsgregs]

A cockpit view is already incorporated into the educational version of Celestia. There is also a Celestia "spaceship".

See this forum posting for details.

http://shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10353

Regards

Frank

[dvr]

I had tried using the edu. version but it will not run properly on my PC so long as I have the other unit installed. I kept getting error messages and it would shut down. I have a lot of time invested in v1.4.1 via the add-ons and want to keep it as the primary version on my PC. If I find a work-around solution I will post it.
Thnx for the input though Frank.

[fsgregs]

dvr:

That's the first I've heard of a problem running Celestia-ED. Both versions should run fine, since they load in different folders.

Send me a private message detailing what happens specifically (what error messages, etc.) and I'll walk you through a fix.

Frank