Tech Blog

[#1]

Winter in Canada means cold winter nights -- nights that, if you're on the prairies, are usually cold, crisp and clear. Which means perfect evenings for stargazing.

But if you're temperature challenged, live on the 'wet' coast, or are located in much cloudier environs, then perhaps these two astronomy software applications can help. Bonus points...they're Linux, OSX and Windows rated.

From the ground up
I was first exposed to Stellarium a bunch of years ago. Back then, it was a cool, yet resource heavy desktop application. Now, it's even cooler with the improvement in hardware and user interface, it's a very snappy and responsive personal planetarium. To quote the developers:

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.

The view from Edmonton, looking at Orion, as I was writing this post.

The Orion Nebula

 

 And just above Orion, the Horse Head Nebula

As you can see, it's really a planetarium simulator. Select any location on the planet, (and this is cool) at any time in the planet's history, and you can check out the celestial configuration that say, the ancient Mayans saw when creating their civilization.


To infinity, and beyond!
But, if you really want to stretch your legs and look around space, the final frontier, you should check out Celestia.

Rounding the far side of the Moon

Unlike Stellarium, in Celestia you're not tied to planet Earth. Instead, you're free to roam around the solar system, galaxy and universe, exploring 'Space, the final frontier'.

On to Saturn, and her moons.

Oh, thanks to Celestia fans and an active user community, your not even limited to this universe, you can explore fictional universes including Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica.

Wait a minute...

So should your sky be cloudy, yet you have a need to explore space and see how insignificant our planet is in the grand scheme of things, do fire up your computer and check out Stellarium and Celestia. Not the same as a crisp -20 degree evening of stargazing, but it'll do in a pinch.

Message Edited by bgrier on 12-08-2009 11:32 PM

[#2]

This is an interesting topic. Does anyone knows that water was found on the moon and MJ actually own a plot of land there too.