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Solar System Simulator
Greylark writes "The Solar System Simulator lets you see a number of different planets and moons from a number of different positions in the solar system, at any day and time in a 800 year period." This is very cool, and even though it's been around for a while, we don't seem to have run it before.
I discovered and played with this some time back. Got a really nice screenshot of Earth transiting Jupiter (do the geometry -- it's a hard shot to get IRL). Pretty cool.
ssystem is neat in that you can scoot around to different PoVs, but the navigation is a bit tricky -- acceleration and decelleration, but no space anchor you can just throw out to stop you, or easy means of going to a particular location (unless it's near a major body).
Another cool tool if you're into the exploring stuff is xaos. Especially the random-dot stereograms. Mandlebrot never looked so good.
What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
There is a program distributed in open source called OpenUniverse. It is interesting that the NASA stuff has a visual a bit similar to that program. However I'm not so sure that OpenUniverse is as accurate as NASA's one. The program seems to work in several *NIX platforms and Windows.
it's just not *rewarding* to be a member of the viewing public. I saw that thing and I wanted to be the guy that put it together and zoomed around the universe to make the film.
The walkway after the big bang show is sweet though - you go down a spiral representing the history of the universe, with a constant time span per linear distance. You see telescope photos along the way of objects from that time thanks to the long travel time of light reaching us. And near the end, there's a human hair representing the entire recorded history of Earth. I probably spent about a half hour on that walk looking at the photos, reading the descriptions, and talking with the employee who was there to answer questions for people leaving the show. He had nothing else to do between shows so it was pretty interesting.
The other thing I like about that walkway is that it's like running the gauntlet for a creationist
--
Vidi, Vici, Veni
As long as we are talking about planets and looking at them, there is a really neat website that allows you to track satellites (ISS, etc) and see when they will pass over you, as well as comments, irridium flares (SAVED AGAIN! sheesh), and moon phases. ~ Matt
There was a mid-nineties DOS game called Elite II Frontier that included a fine solar system simulator. You could either fly around and see the planets "yourself" or there was an in-game 3D map that could show orbits and planets at any position in time, with animation.
This was all largely written by David Braben, the author of the original Elite game. It was a fine work of art, if a bit idiosyncratic. Rendering was done in software, in a way that was not rying to be photorealistic. The game blended reality with fiction, so I have no idea how accurate the solar system simulator was.
Pavlos
A co-worker of mine showed be this software which I think does a lot of what you describe. I was impressed with it. It costs money, but there is a trail version on that site.
It seems to have changed quite a bit since I first saw it. Now seems to be more of an educational tool/encyclopedia..
A model of a solar or planetary system is called an orrery.
A Java Orrery Applet
Another Java Orrery Applet
If you're looking for these, including this word in your search will find a lot more. Many types of orrery have been made of brass for hundreds of years.
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NASA's site seems either down, slow, or slashdotted. There's also the Solar System Live (http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Solar/actio n?sys=-Sf). It appears to be/do the same thing (though I haven't seen the NASA site).
The Good Reverend
I'm different, just like everybody else.
Have you ever thought about a cache system for all the links similar to what google provides?
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
Quoth the Editor:
Great, does this mean a flood of stories about things that: (1) have been around forever, (2) qualify as "very cool", but (3) haven't suffered at the hands of slashdot's editorial staff?
If so, I heartily recommend sliced bread (or, things surpassing sliced bread)for the next "joy of" story...
On the Commodore 64. It was a rom cartridge. It rocked. The physics where somewhere between Moon Patrols and Summer Games.
"Never apply a Star Trek solution to a Babylon 5 problem."
(found on a bulletin board at Fermi Lab)
I think that about sums it up.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Then there is this Freeware Dos program Virtual Galaxy which let's you navigate among the local stars. This one is okay, but needs to be updated to allow for a better grade of graphics. Worth checking out, though. Actually has the most stuff as far as science data goes. Maybe an open source project can be made from it.
There is also this little page, a nice collection of vrmls for the local area of the Milky way
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I recall seeing programs in DOS which did this kind of stuff (although without the impressive graphics, of course), waaaay back in the early 90s. There were even a couple which were shareware.
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
I'd rather see a simulator showing most of the stars viewable from earth. It would be fun to be able to see things like how far is it from arcturus to betlegeuse. or what's the sky look like on alpha centuri looking toward the sun.
If you get Home Planet, other useful things are NISTime (freeware time synch program from NIST) available here, and you can get two-line satellite tracking (TLE) info (also useful at the Earth and Moon Viewer site) from NORAD's satellite catalog here. It's all text files, and there are several that are designed for automated downloads for the real fanatics.
In general, everything is surprisingly simple, and it doesn't take much to, say, get the latest telemtry on Endeavor (STS-100) here, cut-and-paste it into a Home Planet satellite database (text file), and see exactly where the shuttle is.