|
I think some of you might find this interesting. A sundial customer recently sent me a link to a program called Celestia. It's an open source (ie. free) 3D visual simulation of the solar system. You essentially fly around in space looking at a stunningly accurate recreation of the solar system and universe. It was written by a bunch of PhD astronomy students for fun. Here is the link to the main page where you can read all about it and see a gallery: http://celestia.sourceforge.net/ The software has detailed moving 3D recreations of planets, moons, asteroids, and man-made objects. You can set it for any time or date and run it in real time, or you can speed up time and watch everything rotate around. You can also lock the virtual camera into a synchronous orbital position around any object. It is also interesting to see things from different points of view. They have both PC and Mac versions, and it really is free. If you get it to run, hit the "D" key for a demo. One might even be able to see a solar eclipse from the moon (if one learns how to use the controls better than I have :-) Of course, I would love to see any particularly stunning screen shots from any of your adventures! Have fun, Jim Tallman www.artisanindustrials.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
