When I was a kid I used to play a bit with Celestia, but I remember I was pretty scared whilst using it... there was some kind of dread/anxiety I felt just looking at the vast void of space and something giant like Jupiter or Saturn next to it, I always thought an UFO or something was gonna pop out of nowhere.
I don't know if this feeling is common or not but I do remember reading about someone here on on Reddit feeling a similar thing, I believe it to be similar to thalassophobia.
This. While it wasn't Celestia (I was playing around with Orbiter), I ran into a very similar, very specific scenario. In Orbiter, you can fly to planets using orbital mechanics a la KSP but on a true scale. Frustrated that I was having trouble getting to Saturn using a Hohmann transfer, I eventually said fuck it and just input coordinates that put me just a little ways outside of Saturn's atmosphere.
Upon hitting the button to warp to the coordinates, I was presented with an entirely flat, beige plane. Thinking I had screwed up the coordinates, I began zooming out. Since Orbiter renders to scale rather than the scaled down planets in KSP, I began to realize that there was no mistake, and just how small my ship was relative to Saturn. It literally gave me a shiver. It's so hard for us humans to really perceive how mindbendingly big things are in space in a direct sense.
Same! I lost days looking for the most distant galaxies and traveling to them. I always felt the same anxiety of the emptiness thinking why the universe doesn't give us a way to explore it, why I was born so early or in a _lame low tech planet_ (in a lame low tech country) or how incredibly diverse could be the life out there. I remember being fascinated by the sheer number of galaxies and then "wait, this app doesn't even zoom _into_ galaxies", which is another level of infinityness, and that was just overwhelming. Man, I feel depressed now.
If you want to fly around galaxies and feel insignificant, Space Engine is pretty good for that. It's not a true simulation, as most things are procedurally generated unless an addon is installed, but it certainly captures the scale of things.
Great project! Been using it for years together with VTS [1] to visualize real-time and propagated satellite positions and attitudes, and also star tracker and payload "beams".
Decades ago, I patched Celestia to add a Star Trek–style warp speed selector, only to realize that even at maximum warp, I was still crawling along like a snail. At least it was a fun hack.
One thing I kind of always want to see when I find cool resources like this are "How are you funded?". Because if it's not clear then have to there's a high risk it's a rug-pull, virus or might one day be either. There's just too many secretive "Here's a super free perfect tool for you!" rug-pulls out there.
"We're funded by the goodness of a team of volunteers" is a great answer.
That's rude. Yes, I've contributed to a few. However, here is a list of open-source software that've notoriously turned to unethical decisions when pressured into getting funding.
Audacity: Free until 2021 when they were bought and introduced telemetry.
Streamlabs: Open-source but tried to monetise and attack the OBS brand
Bitwarden forks: Various forks of open-source code that included monetisation
OpenOffice: Great desktop apps until bought by Oracle
CCleaner: "free" software that contained trojens.
HoverZoom: Chrome plugin sold by original dev, new update included spyware and ads.
As I said, I don't mind if the answer is "we are volunteers who love this", but I do ask that formal webpage presenting a product, that even has an FAQ page, explains it's funding model. Their github (https://github.com/CelestiaProject/Celestia) is much better at this.
moritonal, did you also just `conveniently' forget: Github? And heinous:
openAI: Microsoft has invested US$13 billion in OpenAI, and is
entitled to 49% of OpenAI Global, LLC's profits, capped at an
estimated 10x their investment.
Sorry, but I don't understand your comment. Github exists sure, but many open source projects have turned sour due to bad funding models. And OpenAi, isn't any of the things it says it is.
Hidden well enough on the linked site, but easy to find in search; there are mobile versions which work well on tablets etc I just found out. That's this monday lost!
This website does not work with Oculus Quest browser, it goes to the "oh noes" page, i guess the meta browser has some issues with the bot detection algorithm.
I don't know if this feeling is common or not but I do remember reading about someone here on on Reddit feeling a similar thing, I believe it to be similar to thalassophobia.
Upon hitting the button to warp to the coordinates, I was presented with an entirely flat, beige plane. Thinking I had screwed up the coordinates, I began zooming out. Since Orbiter renders to scale rather than the scaled down planets in KSP, I began to realize that there was no mistake, and just how small my ship was relative to Saturn. It literally gave me a shiver. It's so hard for us humans to really perceive how mindbendingly big things are in space in a direct sense.
I still occasionally have pseudo nightmares from the pov of using celestia to orbit 'scary' celestial objects.
I'm not exactly sure what the deal is because I never had any conscious reactions to using the program. But apparently it made some sort of impact.
[1] https://timeloop.fr/vts/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dxMnahknnVjrckqWOyJhvuS8IA0...
from: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Celestia
https://github.com/celestiamobile/MobileCelestia/releases
"We're funded by the goodness of a team of volunteers" is a great answer.
Audacity: Free until 2021 when they were bought and introduced telemetry.
Streamlabs: Open-source but tried to monetise and attack the OBS brand
Bitwarden forks: Various forks of open-source code that included monetisation
OpenOffice: Great desktop apps until bought by Oracle
CCleaner: "free" software that contained trojens.
HoverZoom: Chrome plugin sold by original dev, new update included spyware and ads.
As I said, I don't mind if the answer is "we are volunteers who love this", but I do ask that formal webpage presenting a product, that even has an FAQ page, explains it's funding model. Their github (https://github.com/CelestiaProject/Celestia) is much better at this.
openAI: Microsoft has invested US$13 billion in OpenAI, and is entitled to 49% of OpenAI Global, LLC's profits, capped at an estimated 10x their investment.
[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=space.celestia...
Yes, I know Real Solar System is a thing, but still :D