If celestia limited one's velosity to lightspeed, we would all get very tired of using it as it would take years to see even the closet star!
Unfortunately, stars and galaxies dont have any orbital information in celestia to accurately depict time's influence on their position. I can understand why.
If my understanding of relativity is correct, a person accelerating through space also accelerates though time. The faster one accelerates, the faster the surrounding universe appears to accelerate through time. Correct?
An object traveling (not accelerating) at 1,000,000 KPH away from Earth can also be considered stationary because we are using earth as a reference point. Who is to say earth is not travelling 1,000,000 KPH away from the object and the object is actually standing still?
We can, however, measure an object's acceleration if our reference point is known to not be accelerating. Only then can we definately say an object is truly moving at a certain velocity and our reference is not. Even then, its not really moving away, its accelerating in a direction!
Also it should be said that gravity plays a big part, to say the least. One can travel through time merely by parking one's spacecraft near a black hole! Gravity at a high enough strength will send you through time just as acceleration through space would.
Gravity's influence is what pushes us all through time at the rate at which we experience it. Without gravity, there is no time. There is technically no difference between acceleration through space and gravity. Their effects are identical. They are indeed the same phenomena whos effects are indistinguishable from one another.
Celestia is so good at conveying the immense size and scope of our universe. I think incorporating time and gravity into it would be phenomenal as well as highly educational. I can begin to see the difficulties that would arrise in applying such a feature to Celestia... sigh...
So, my question/comment/suggestion is, how can the true dimension of time be added to celestia? I realize there may not be an answer, however, I think it makes for interesting discussion at the very least! Also, can gravity be implemented? It would be great if a star would tug at my POV and allow me to fall into orbit. Even if there is no gravitational effect on time, Gravity would be cool!
Anyways, I would like to see what others think about all this. If any of my assumptions regarding space/time are incorrect, I would really lilke to know! What I have said here is merely my understanding of what I have learned about space/time. I am an artist by proffesion, not a physicist.
~p1LL