Newbie's "Must Have" list?

AllenTC2 · Post #1by **AllenTC2** » 13.09.2006, 02:06

This is simply an awesome program. I'm not a physicist, amateur astronomer, computer programmer or Trekkie. But I still fire up the company projector and lap-top and start at the hotel wall for hours! LOL

Anyway, I have just added a Hubble add-on and (I think) the Mariner 10 & 11 add-ons.

Can anyone recommend any other "must have" add-ons?

Thanks!!

Cham · Post #2by **Cham** » 13.09.2006, 02:14

All probes models are "must have" to me. Also, all of ElChristou models (Atlantis, Liberty Bell, Vostok) are absolute "must have" (you must try them all, or I'm gonna put a contract on your back!). I also suggest you try some of my own black holes addons (downloadable from the Motherlode). Many high resolution textures for the Earth and Mars are also "must have".

AllenTC2 · Post #3by **AllenTC2** » 13.09.2006, 02:21

Thanks!! I'll try those.....will my laptop choke on the high res textures?

Cham · Post #4by **Cham** » 13.09.2006, 02:22

AllenTC2 wrote:Thanks!! I'll try those.....will my laptop choke on the high res textures?

It's very likely.

AllenTC2 · Post #5by **AllenTC2** » 13.09.2006, 02:27

Thanks for the vote of confidence!! LOL

Can you recommend a specific Earth / Mars texture that might be suitable for a laptop? I've got a IBM Thinkpad if that helps any.

Again, thanks for the help!

LordFerret · Post #6by **LordFerret** » 13.09.2006, 03:15

I happen to like the 3D objects (nebula) created by " jll "... stunningly beautiful. Then again, everything I've run across at The Motherload is to marvel at. :wink:

Starshipwright · Post #7by **Starshipwright** » 13.09.2006, 03:29

Celestia and the universe of Celestia is so large that in order to give a "must have" list you need to know what a person is looking for.

But by far the greatest "must have" is Seldon's Guide to Add-On's that you can find at:

http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/addon-intro.html

This will help you with any type of add-on that you might want to use.

Also check out his list of resources for Celestia:

http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/

So check it all out, decide what you want, and create your own "universe" :wink:

AllenTC2 · Post #8by **AllenTC2** » 13.09.2006, 12:36

That's a great resource!! Thanks! A lot of it is currently over my head, I'm computer-literate at about a 3rd-grade reading level! LOL

As for what I'd like.......well, I guess right not, just some of the major satellites, probes/landers and maybe some of these new planet textures. I think since I'm on a laptop, I'm somewhat limited to what I can really make use of. For example, I downloaded the following so far.....

ISS with Endeavor.......gorgeous 3D model, but I think I can't display a lot of detail. All the solar panels (indeed, 98% of the whole station) are gray. The only color is the docked Soyuz modules and some of the markings on the Endeavor.

Hubble telescope.....looks fine so far as I can tell.

Atlantis and the Mars Global Survey probe......As Cham threatened to put a hit out on me, I felt I had to have these. Both seem to be working well.

Anyway, based on what I've read in the documentation I downloaded, I can actually download (for example) the Viking landers....and see them reach and land on Mars?? Can the same be done with the Apollo landers?

bh · Post #9by bh » 13.09.2006, 12:49

AllenTC2...with the ISS/Endeavour model you will need to download the texture packs for both the shuttle and iss. Get them from the www in this post below.

Have fun!

parduz · Post #10by **parduz** » 01.10.2006, 23:23

I join to this topic to ask about textures (mainly earth):
I see that hires textures comes from various artists, some of them i remember there's already long time ago.
Can someone explain what difference/compatibility issues/perks and flaws there's between various textures packs?
I don't like so much the idea to download gigabytes of maps and try each pack, i'm in a shortage of disk space. So i'm asking to experts