Dear Susana:
Selden is correct about numbering of the Activities. The current Exploration/educational Activities, written or planned are:
Activity 1.2 - an introductory tour of the universe from the surface of Earth to the edge of our solar system. The focus is on scale and size of things in space. It makes a variety of stops in our local area. * will be posted on my website soon (by mid-December)
Activity 2.2 - a continuation of the tour of the universe from the comets out to beyond the Milky Way. It discusses just how big the universe is. It stops at several stars, nebula and galaxies. * will be posted on my website soon (by mid-December)
Activity 3.2 - the Inner Solar System - a detailed planet by planet tour of the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars and their moons. ** Posted on my website now, along with required add-ons.
Activity 4.2 - the Outer Solar System - a detailed planet by planet tour of the Asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, the comets and their moons. ** posted on my website now, along with required add-ons.
Activity 5.2 - the Terraforming of Mars - a fascinating journey into the future to examine what Mars may look like in the year 3000, after humans have terraformed it. *will be posted on my website in January - requires large add-on file.
Activity 6.2 - the Life and Death of Stars - a detailed, elaborate journey through the complete life cycle of stars, with over 25 stops to everything from star forming nebula and rotating protostars to exploding Red Giants, neutron stars, supernova and black holes. ** posted on my website now, but requires a large 5-part add-on zip file download from that site as well.
Activity 7.2a - the Spacecraft of Celestia - a detailed, educational writeup and tour of the spacecraft of Earth and Moon, stopping at such famous craft as Sputnik, Explorer, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Soyuz, Mir, the ISS and Hubble. *under development - will be ready and posted on my site by Christmas.
Activity 7.2b - the Spacecraft of Celestia - beyond Earth - a continuation of 7.2a, covering the many craft we have sent to the planets, including Mariner, Pioneer, Voyager, Magellan, Mars Odyssey, Pathfinder, Cassini, Venera, Near, plus a great tour of some of the fictional spacecraft of Celestia such as the USS Enterprize and Borg Cube from StarTrek, the Deathstar and tie fighters from StarWars and the Discovery and massive Space Station V from the movie 2001, a Space Odyssey. * under development - will be posted on my website during or after Christmas break.
Activity 8.2 - the Primitive Earth and Moon - will be an exciting tour of our early solar system, when a massive planet (Orpheus) crashed into Earth and created the Moon. * under development - will be released hopefully in January or February.
John Van Vliet is also graciously hosting these activities in HTML format on his own site, one at a time as they come on line.
To truly enjoy them, you will need to download lots of add-ons that will tax your computer's CPU and Video RAM. If possible, I urge you to buy and install a good graphics card for your computer. A reasonable Nvidia GeForce 4 or FX video card can be obtained for under $100 now on some websites (see Tigerdirect.com for great deals).
Feel free to e-mail me with questions or comments. We hope you enjoy these activities.
Regards,
Frank
Hello all, would anyone be able to tell me where I can find Celestia Exploration Activity 8.2 The primitive earth and moon? It is nowhere to be found at the shatters celestia home and I would very much like to use it!? And where are all the prior activity guides that can no longer to be found? Would be nive to know.