Celestia 1.3.2

[mmcirvin]

I missed this a little while ago: the latest release of the extremely cool space simulator Celestia, version 1.3.2, now has a build for Mac OS X, though the official Web site doesn't say so. The tireless person who does most of the Mac porting seems to regard this build as experimental, but it works pretty well except for a few problems with persistency of preferences, some of which existed in previous versions as well.

(Celestia feature development tends to be X11- and Windows-centric, and the Mac version is very much a port, so it often lags about a minor version update behind and lacks a few interface features. Meanwhile, Apple just dropped a bombshell by using Celestia as an example for their Shark code optimization tool, though their sped-up version just runs the scripted demo and it's hard to say whether the optimizations could get back into the trunk.)

Version 1.3.2's biggest enhancements over 1.3.1, as far as I can tell, are to the default solar system dataset, which includes improved Saturn and Titan textures based on Cassini data and an excellent Cassini/Huygens model with complete mission trajectory, so you can follow along with its encounters.

The shadow of Saturn's rings on the planet was darkened for visual consistency with Cassini pictures. It's amazing how many people reported the mysterious dark bands on Saturn as a bug and experimented with hacks to make them go away.

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...It's also kept up well with the pace of astronomical discoveries. One of the most remarkable things added to the database is the mysterious "inner Oort Cloud" object Sedna, occasionally touted as a tenth planet (though its size is subject to dispute). Sedna's orbit is so large that if you turn on orbit displays and zoom in on the solar system from afar, the orbit pops up as a visible ellipse while the positions of the nearby stars are still visibly shifting, Star Trek-style. And Oort Cloud comets proper are supposed to have orbits even bigger than that.