Celestia

astronomy computer program

Celestia is a free 3D astronomy program for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It was created by Chris Laurel and is licensed under the GPL.

Celestia
Original author(s)Chris Laurel
Developer(s)Chris Laurel, Celestia Development Team
Initial release26 February 2001; 23 years ago (2001-02-26)[1]
Stable release
1.6.1 / 10 June 2011; 13 years ago (2011-06-10)[2]
Preview release
1.6.2-beta2 / 20 February 2020; 4 years ago (2020-02-20)[3]
Repository
Written inC++
Operating systemAmigaOS 4[source?], BSD, Linux, macOS and Microsoft Windows
SizeLinux: 27.7 MB
AmigaOS 4: 44.4 MB
macOS: 38.7 MB
Windows: 32.8 MB
Source code: 52.6 MB[4]
Available in28 languages[5]
TypeEducational software
LicenseGNU General Public License
Websitecelestia.space

The program is based on the Hipparcos Catalogue (118,218 Stars) and allows users to display objects from artificial satellites to entire galaxies in three dimensions in OpenGL. Different from other planetarium software, the user is free to travel in the universe.

NASA and ESA have used Celestia, but it is not to be confused with Celestia 2000, ESA's own program.[6]

On 31st October 2022, a Chinese game developer named Linfeng Li created a mobile version of Celestia for android devices.

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References

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  1. "Alpha release". GitHub. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  2. "Celestia: News". celestia.space. 10 June 2011. Archived from the original on 3 April 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  3. onetwothree (20 February 2020). "New bugfix release 1.6.2-beta1 - Celestia Forums". celestia.space. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2020. The 2nd beta of upcoming 1.6.2 (windows version) is published to github.
  4. "Celestia - Browse Files at SourceForge.net". SourceForge. Geeknet, Inc. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  5. "Celestia localization". Transifex. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  6. "Celestia 2000 - Hipparcos - Cosmos". ESA. Retrieved 14 March 2020.