Celestia is becoming more and more famous, and lots of new folks want to take Celestia journeys. Many don't yet know how to operate the program and although scripts are wonderful tools, they tend to be short and have very limited explanation. When done using them, a user still doesn't know much about operating Celestia.
Celestia Educational Activities take visitors and students on extended journeys through Celestia space, provide detailed descriptions of what they are seeing, and teach them how to operate the program. However, they all require significant time to take the journey, and require downloaded add-on files. Some of them require over 200 MB of add-ons. This may or may not be a problem for folks on slow internet connections, or for students in schools with limited class time to devote to a space tour.
What was needed was a fairly detailed but relatively short tour of the Celestia universe that would not take a traveler too long and does not require any add-on files.
I'm pleased to release just such a new Celestia Educational Activity. Its a short Introductory tour of the Universe. It takes about 1 hour, explains quite a bit about how to operate the program and takes the user to some highlight spots in Celestia. It requires no add-ons, and even comes with a worksheet for teachers to print out and use with their students. It is an ideal lesson plan for 7th -12th grades or for anyone who simply wants to get familiar with the universe offered by Celestia. Taking this journey will also give you an excellent feel for what the other 8 Educational Activities are like.
The Introductory Celestia Tour of the Universe is written in MS Word but can also be viewed by the free software available at http://www.openoffice.org/
It is now available on my website at http://www.fsgregs.org/celestia, and at the Motherlode education page, located at http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/educational.html. It will also be available shortly on the main Celestia page at Shatters.net.
Enjoy
Frank