Beautiful, illuminating, high-resolution posters, that you "download and print yourself," reveal wonders of the universe in a glance! But that's only the beginning!
"celestia4all" highlights Solar System events, especially events observable in your own local skies! But it highlights happenings from far beyond too!
Recreate past, present and future sky events in true 3-D! View them as often as you wish, at any speed, and from endless vantage points!
If you've never experienced CELESTIA's multiple views, you're in for a visual feast of dazzling treats . . . !
. . . yes, you CAN travel "faster than light" in CELESTIA! (Sorry, Mr. Einstein.)
1.6.x & 1.4.1 LINKS
Throughout this website you will find pairs of links labeled "1.6.x" and "1.4.1". Click here for a brief explanation on our Help page.
UTC: CELESTIA'S DISPLAY OF TIME
CELESTIA's clock displays Coordinated Universal Time, UTC. Click here for a brief explanation.
Humankind is destined for the stars! But WHY WAIT?
A continuing adventure through the vastness of space and time awaits you!
DOWNLOAD
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY OF "CELESTIA" HERE
CELESTIA's Download Page
. . . is the direct link to the very latest official version of CELESTIA.
"One of the easiest free downloads ever!"
You're not asked for any information at all, not even your name! Just download, and that's it!
OLDER COMPUTER?
We can relate! Some of you keep your computers for a long, LONG time!
If you use an older computer, like a PC with Windows XP, you may find that the latest version of CELESTIA won't run as fast as you'd like. If so, try an earlier version. Version 1.4.1 of CELESTIA is highly stable and it remains quite popular, particularly among persons with older computers.
To try Ver. 1.4.1, or another earlier official version, you may download them here at SourceForge.net. This is the world-famous repository of open-source software, and it is where CELESTIA's Home Page redirects you when you download the latest official version.
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© 2007- 2011 by Gary M. Winter. All rights reserved.
WHAT IS "celestia4all"?
"celestia4all" is an exciting opportunity for all persons to discover (and "experience") the countless wonders unfolding in our ever-changing universe! Moreover, it is an opportunity to immerse yourself in these wonders with far more realism (and "fun") than you might ever have imagined!
These are thrilling times for the science of astronomy!
Astronomers are unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos at an unprecedented pace! In addition, newly emerging insights can now be shared almost immediately, and in increasingly creative, understandable and inspiring ways. The goal of "celestia4all" is to do exactly that.
Our News pages will familiarize you with astronomy's latest advances and apprise you of exciting events that can be viewed in your sky each month. Our beautiful and informative "downloadable" posters can reveal wonders of the cosmos in a glance. Our growing collection of videos on our Gallery page reminds us that the universe is far more dynamic than we often realize. Meanwhile, our Links and Credits pages acquaint you with additional astronomical resources, including information-rich sites which you may have never visited before. But all of this is only the beginning!
While many websites are little more than "books on the net", "celestia4all" can instantly immerse you in a 3-D universe that teems with authentic and dynamic alien worlds!
You see, "celestia4all" both supports and "enhances" the incredible free astronomy-simulation software CELESTIA, which lets you journey in startingly realistic 3-D to:
over 100,000 stars!
over 330 extrasolar planets!
over 10,000 galaxies!
over 100 globular clusters!
And in our own Solar System, voyage to:
the 8 major planets!
the 5 IAU-designated dwarf planets!
over 160 moons!
over a dozen asteroids!
4 comets!
5 historic satellites (Hubble, the Space Station, Mir, Galileo and Cassini)!
If you are raring to get started right away with CELESTIA, check out Quick Start. Later, you'll even be able to augment the impressive list of astronomical objects above to include over 2 million stars! Plus, if that's not enough, you'll be able to add countless moons, asteroids, comets, nebulae, even man-made satellites! And much more! Amazing!
What is even more amazing is just how easy "celestia4all" makes it for anyone to find, journey to and explore these exotic, alien worlds! You see, "celestia4all" is a gateway to the universe "for all" persons (young and old, expert and novice)!
So, regardless of your age or your level of experience with astronomy, be ready for discovery and adventure of the highest order! Our Shop page and our Freebies page bring you a wealth of scripts and add-ons that make it effortless to find and view events like solar and lunar eclipses, transits, lunar and planetary phases and much more. These scripts and add-ons reveal the mysteries of the universe with startling clarity and range from simple utilities to the equivalents of full-fledged applications! If you've never experienced CELESTIA's multiple views, you're in for a visual feast of dazzling treats that spans the length and breadth of the cosmos! "Unlocking CELESTIA Secrets", "CELES-TOOLS" and "celeSTARrium" will inspire, enlighten and fascinate you with wonders you have literally "never seen before!"
If you don't know much about astronomy, or if you're new to CELESTIA , then our Learning Center page will help you begin exploring the cosmos as quickly as you can. Meanwhile, our Tips page will help you get the most out of CELESTIA. It lets you in on various secrets that the experts utilize to "super-charge" their experiences in CELESTIA! And don't forget our Help page. It furnishes a wealth of background about both CELESTIA and "celestia4all".
Humankind is destined for the stars! But WHY WAIT? A continuing adventure through the vastness of space and time awaits you! "celestia4all" and CELESTIA make it enormously FUN all along the way!
May all of your journeys be joyous!
Using CELESTIA, this video was made with ease! You may view it in a larger size by clicking here.
WHAT IS CELESTIA?
A quick answer is that CELESTIA is free, startlingly realistic, astronomy-simulation software for home computers. But this statement hardly does CELESTIA justice.
CELESTIA is an incredible "animation and visualization engine" which simulates our universe in photo-realistic detail! What's more, it recreates the universe NOT JUST in 2-D pictures, but in stunning 3-D! You are immersed in the cosmos, free to trek anywhere to visit real worlds! Orbit these worlds; land on them; examine what the sky looks like from their surfaces! Return to them time and again! Visit other bodies like planets, moons, stars; or visit nebulae and galaxies! Even visit intriguing small asteroids like "Ida", which can be seen rotating at the top of this page!
CELESTIA is far more than static maps and 2-D pictures of the cosmos; it is the dynamic 3-D universe in its endless "clockwork" motion!
The developers of CELESTIA are often applauded for making it is as scientifically accurate as possible. But they do stretch current science enough so that, yes, you CAN travel faster than light in CELESTIA. (Sorry, Mr. Einstein.) In fact, CELESTIA's hyperlinks allow you to travel billions of light years in under a second! Moreover, you can speed up, slow down or reverse time, and even brighten the "un-lit" halves of planets and many other bodies, in order to give you the best views of countless spellbinding events.
CELESTIA is so visually arresting, and its animations are so engaging, that—when we try to describe it all—we run out of superlatives! Language fails us because we discover new wonders CONSTANTLY!
Of course, one of the wonders about all of this is that CELESTIA is free! Chris Laurel, the talented creator of the original version, opted to make it "open source" to give the entire world the freedom to use and help improve it. Over the past decade, other quite capable programmers (listed on our Credits page) have also contributed their know-how to enhance CELESTIA.
But here's another wondrous thing about CELESTIA: you are not limited only to the improvements periodically coded into newer versions by its development team! Chris and the team designed CELESTIA to be expandable! And "customize-able!" CELESTIA's "open architecture" allows you to make your own additions, and the developers encourage you to do so! For example, you can create your own stars, planets, moons, even artificial satellites! If you want to change how a planet, moon, asteroid, star or satellite looks, you can create a different surface for it! Likewise, you can create your own separate "mini-programs" called "scripts" to run "inside" of CELESTIA. Built into CELESTIA are 2 scripting languages: CELX (which is more powerful and geared toward experienced programmers) and CEL (which is notably easy to learn and to use.) It is literally no exaggeration that a child with average intelligence can quickly write a CEL script to take you to the Moon and back! Or to Pluto and back! Or to . . .
Moreover, Chris explains from time to time on CELESTIA's Forums that basically all add-ons and scripts that you create with standard releases of CELESTIA are your own intellectual property! (You can visit our Legal page for more details.) So, for example, you are free to make animations in CELESTIA and fashion them into a TV show if you wish! (If you do, we hope you will include CELESTIA and its developers in your credits.)
What power! CELESTIA is no toy! Yet it can be every bit as fun and engaging as one! Even moreso! It is not only fun; it is inspiring!
If you havn't downloaded CELESTIA yet, you are missing out on truly awesome explorations. Even more, you're missing out on "half of the fun" of this site! To discover why, click here and learn about "celestia4all's" 1.6.x & 1.4.1 links.
CELESTIA QUICK START
Here is all you need to do to get started using CELESTIA. It's easy!
OKAY! You're ready to venture where no one has before!
You are also ready to use any of the exciting 1.6.x and 1.4.1 Links on this site!
May all of your journeys be joyous!