Celestia

Celestia is a free real-time space simulation that lets you experience our universe in three dimensions.

Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.

All movement in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across. A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit.

Celestia is expandable. Celestia comes with a large catalog of stars, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft. If that's not enough, you can download dozens of easy to install add-ons with more objects.

What is new in this release:

• Bug fixes:
• Removed extraneous colons from nearstars.stc
• Fixed truncation of long label strings in East Asian locales
• Increased size of Goto Object dialog to prevent translated strings from being truncated
• Fixed i18n bug with scripting message
• Removed duplicate install of stars.dat.
• Fix code taking address of a temporary result.
• Fixed compile warnings in 1.6.1 caused by redfinition of UINT64_MAX
• Corrected encoding of cel URLs with non-ASCII characters
• Added check to prevent a crash when string decoding fails
• Data file updates:
• Updated extrasolar planets data files.
• Updated solar system locations files.
• Updated numberedmoons.ssc file.
• Updated Galileo add-on.
• Platform-specific changes:
• Linux: Add missing files from extras-standard to Makefiles.
• Windows: Fixed i18n bug [2753461]
• Windows: Save FoV value in bookmarks
• Windows: Added ecliptic line setting to View Options dialog box
• Windows: Fixed i18n bug in Windows Script menu
• Windows: Added link to new HTML help files to Help menu
• Windows: Fixed invisible context menu in fullscreen mode (ATI cards)
• Windows: Fixed menu bar overlapping top of 3D view (ATI cards)
• Windows: Save and restore locations to/from registry
• Windows: Fixed startup crash when using fullwidth utf-8 characters
• Windows: Increased Inno Setup compression settings
• Windows: Allow installer to be run without administrator privileges.
• Internationalization:
• Additional string translations
• Globular clusters
• "Nebula" and "Open cluster"
• World capitals
• Removed r and R commands from localized help files
• Updated translations
• Additional languages
• Added Chinese Traditional translation
• Added Slovak translation
• Added Galician translation by Xabier Cancela
• Added Belarusian translation from
• Added Norwegian translation from FreewareTips
• Added Turkish translation
• Fonts
• Lighter weight Japanese fonts
• Updated simplified Chinese fonts
• Added Belarusian fonts
• Features
• Changed the name of 'Celestial' grid to 'Equatorial'
• Added Runar and Christian's HTML help files
• Added Solstice Mission extension for Cassini in 1.6.1 branch.
• Scripting
• Celx scripting functions:
• Added seturl / geturl commands
• Added synchronizetime / istimesynchronized commands
• Added settextcolor / gettextcolor commands
• Added observer:orbit method
• Added celestia:runscript method
• Made orbitPeriod field available for stars via object:getinfo
• Cel scripting:
• Added boolean occludable parameter to mark command
• Added settextcolor command
• Added mousemove Lua hook
• Code optimization and reorganization
• Fixes for gcc-4.5, and include -ldl for systems that need it.
• More granular setting of CFLAGS.

What is new in version 1.6.0:

• Bug fixes:
• Fix to admit absolute directory notation in VT ImageDirectory
• Implemented encoding of special characters when saving cel URLs
• Fixed flickering of models with missing texture coordinates
• Fixed appearance non-ellipsoid star geometry in pre-OGL2 render paths
• Improved appearance of point stars when multisample antialiasing is enabled
• Fix for crash when viewing a star barycenter in an empty system
• Fixed off by one error assertion testing for number of lights used by shaders
• Windows: fixed UTF8 bugs in tour guide, star browser, and context menu
• Fixed crash bug that was triggerred by xyz and xyzv files with duplicate times
• Fixed bug that caused dim stars in orbits distant from the primary to not be drawn.
• Fixed strange appearance of cloud textures at times in the distant past/future.
• Fixed memory leak in multiview handling
• Fixed ambient light in the ARB shader path
• Fixed bugs in comet rendering (corrects overbright coma)
• Fixed code to compile without errors with gcc 4.3; fixed some warnings
• Fixed g++ compier errors in cmodfix tool
• Fixed search path for Lua scripts
• Fixed numerous bugs that occurred when an object's orbit center was different
• Fixed a bug in the celx function celestia:getscreendimension
• Fixed bug with returning Hubble type for galaxies
• Eliminated error-prone min/max macros; use STL functions instead
• Fixed discrepancy between apparent magnitudes shown in the 3D view and the star browser.
• Change "Day Length" string to the correct and more general term "Rotation Period"
• Show 'planetary companions' message for stellar barycenters (instead of just stars.)
• Improved location drawing so that location labels can be occluded by foreground objects.
• Data file updates:
• Implemented data base globulars.dsc with all known 150 globulars around the Milky Way
• Renamed galaxy database deepsky.dsc into galaxies.dsc
• Implemented SIMBAD compatible cross-listing for globular clusters
• Updated Iapetus texture based on a new Ciclops map from Oct 2008
• Significant update of the database on binary orbits, including SIMBAD compatibility of barycenter nomenclature and alternative names
• Updated the near stars catalog
• Updated texture for Mercury; includes imagery from MESSENGER
• Updated textures for some Saturnian moons: Tethys, Dione, Mimas, Enceladus, and Rhea
• Added CHARM2 catalog of measured stellar radii
• Added model of asteroid Itokawa
• Regenerated star catalog using the new reduction of the HIPPARCOS data
• Cassini updates:
• Updated Cassini trajectory to include extended mission
• Switched to using xyz+velocity files for a more accurate trajectory
• Separated Cassini mission into cruise and orbital phases
• Improved appearance of Huygens separation from Cassini
• Added IAU rotational elements for most major solar system bodies
• Made visible the orbit and label for Pluto-Charon barycenter
• Correctly centered Galileo spacecraft
• Rebuilt cross-indices from SIMBAD data
• Added alternative names for many solar system bodies (e.g. preliminary designations for asteroids in addition to proper names.)
• Updated extrasolar planet catalog with discoveries made up to Apr 2009
• Changed class of Pluto, Ceres, Eris, ... to dwarf planet
• Changed class of small outer planet moons to minormoon
• Included new and updated solar system body features from the IAU
• Added provisional rotation period for Eris
• Tools:
• Added Perl script globulars.pl used to extract the globular data from scientific publications and as documentation
• Added spice2xyzv tool for extracting xyzv files from a pool of SPICE kernels
• Added Perl script to build cross-indices
• Added Perl script to generate CHARM2 catalog
• Added Perl script to build star database
• Platform-specific changes:
• BSD: Fixed tm_zone handling
• Linux: Install scripts at during "make install"
• Linux: Added workaround for broken include_x11 define from acinclude.m4
• Linux: Updated admin directory to KDE 3.5.10, regenerated acinclude.m4
• Linux: Added the missing menu entries related to globulars for KDE version
• Linux: Added globular and grid selection options in GTK interface
• Internationalization:
• Added Polish translation
• Added Lithuanian translation
• Added Romanian translation of constellation names
• Mac OS X: Japanese localation of eclipse finder added
• Added Chinese localization
• Localize surface names in alternate surfaces menu
• Prevented English name 'Milky Way' from being displayed when a translated version is present.
• Extended localization to DSO and star names
• Features:
• Added light from secondary sources (i.e. "planetshine")
• Implemented depth sorting for markers so that they are correctly occluded
• by foreground objects.
• Implemented code package rendering globular clusters
• Implemented new cel URL version with observer position and orientation stored
• in frame coordinates (for forward compatibility)
• Added a long term (+-5000 centuries) precession model for Earth based on
• work by Jan Vondrak
• Improved celestial coordinate grids:
• Added new grid types: ecliptic, horizontal, and galactic
• Made grid resolution adapt to the field of view
• Positioned coordinate labels at edges of field of view
• Added animated selection indicator
• Switches to direction pointer when the selection is off screen
• Changes color when the selected object is occluded
• Implemented more flexible system for reference marks and added new
• reference marks:
• Planetographic grid
• Terminator
• VisibleRegion
• Enabled display of the phase angle for the currently selected object
• Improved eclipse rendering: correctly calculate depth and umbra radius
• for eclipses.
• Improved star handling code so that stars can be placed more than 16k light
• years from Earth.
• Switched to using sd prefix for hot subdwarfs per arXiv:0805.2567v1
• Added symbols for locations
• Add-on features:
• Added SemiAxes property for ssc objects, which allows triaxial ellipsoid geometry for solar system objects like Haumea and Mimas.
• Added new boolean properties for ssc/stc/dsc objects: Visible and Clickable
• Added new classes for solar system objects: dwarfplanet, minormoon, surfacefeature, component, and diffuse
• Implemented Modify and Replace dispositions for star catalogs
• Added SPICE rotation model, allowing the orientation of an ssc object to be controlled by a SPICE frame.
• SPICE orbit improvements:
• Allow multiple kernels to be specified for a SPICE orbit
• Automatically calculate start and end times when possible
• Added Timeline, which allows multiple frame, trajectory, and rotation models for a single ssc object.
• Implemented CustomRotation, the rotation model analogue of CustomOrbit
• Added support for InfoURL for stars (already exists for deep sky objects and solar system objects)
• Improved SampledTrajectory to handle files with positions and velocities
• Added LabelColor property for locations
• Implemented new Topocentric frame (a simplified two vector frame for placing objects on the surface of a planet.)
• Added support for premultiplied alpha blend mode in cmod files
• Extended FixedPosition to support spherical coordinates as well as cartesian coordinates.
• Added FixedAttitude rotation model, with more intuitive paramters for orientation
• Added new SurfaceObject type for ssc files--like an ordinary body except with different default frames that make it easy to position an object on the surface of a planet.
• Added CloudShadowDepth property for atmospheres
• Improved control over mesh scaling with NormalizeMesh and MeshScale properties for ssc objects.
• Added new locations types: eruptive center, insula (islands), and tholus (domical hills and mountains)
• Added support for comment headers in xyz and xyzv files
• Code optimization and reorganization:
• Reimplemented observer frames in terms of Celestia 1.5.0 frames
• Improved performance of complex frames by caching last calculated orientation
• Added velocity method for all classes derived from Orbit
• Added angularVelocity method for rotation models
• Optimized solar system rendering by maintaining a bounding sphere hierarchy
• Switched to using 2 64-bit integers for storing high precision coordinates; simplifies code and improves performance of operations using high precision coordinates (dramatically on 64-bit systems)
• Optimized creation of render lists
• Scripting:
• Celx scripting functions:
• object:addreferencemark, object:removereferencemark
• object:visible, object:setvisible, object:catalognumber
• object:setorbitcolor, object:orbitcoloroverridden, object:setorbitcoloroverridden
• object:orbitvisibility, object:setorbitvisibility
• object:locations (returns an iterator over all the locations associated with an object)
• new phase object type (for timeline phases)
• permit any X11 color name
• observer:makeactiveview
• showconstellations, hideconstellations, setconstellationcolor
• getlabelcolor, getlinecolor
• getsystemtime, ispaused
• gettextureresolution, settextureresolution
• windowbordersvisible, setwindowbordersvisible
• Split celx scripting support into several modules
• Cel scripting
• splitview, deleteview, singleview, setactiveview
• setgalaxylightgain
• setradius
• setlinecolor
• setlabelcolor
• settextureresolution
• Made the package library (except loadlib) available for celx scripting regardless of the ScriptSystemAccessPolicy setting
• Added an "AddonPath" value that is available to a ScriptedOrbit or ScriptedRotation when it is created.
• Pass control modifier to Lua keyboard handlingfunctions
• Miscellaneous:
• Bound P and M keys to toggle dwarf planet and minor moon labels
• Bound U and E keys to toggle globular clusters and globular cluster labels
• Group reference mark menu items in a separate submenu
• Changed star name lookup priority in stc parser: check proper names before cross indices.
• Eliminated R and Shift+R key bindings for changing texture resolution
• Added new leap second 31-Dec-2008 23:59:60
• Cleanup:
• Removed obsolete 'LabelledStars' section from standard celestia.cfg
• Updated README: removed obsolete sections, reorganized credits, added information application to 1.6.0
• Purged out of date controls documentation
• Reorganized spacecraft add-ons in standard package

What is new in version 1.5.1:

• Added fonts for Russian, Chinese, and Japanese
• Updated translations
• Fixed date formatting for non-UTF8 locales
• Fixed crash for dates prior to JD -1.5 when local format is used
• Fixed star rendering for Macs with ATI graphics hardware (worked around a driver bug in point sprite support.)
• Fixed star glare clipping bug
• Fixed bug that caused some stars to be drawn untextured
• Fixed faster/slower options in the Windows time menu to adjust time by 10x instead of 2x
• Fixed translation of time acronyms DST and STD
• Use localized versions of start script, guide, demo, license, and controls file from locale directory
• Made Lua os functions available from celx scripts when access policy is "ask"