Stellarium time travel

[ashenlight]

Has anyone ever, through sheer boredom of cloudy skies, raced forwards in time using Stellarium as far as it will go? the date reads 99999-12-31 and everything is very messed up. How cool!

[Mikea]

You been reading HG Wells "The Time Machine" again?

[ashenlight]

no? just playing with Stellarium

[DAVPPK]

I did that....arent we childish .....but stellarium screws up all of my PCs for some reason (it doesnt let you upgrade adobe shockwave player!) so it was either stellarium or youtube

Dave

PS stellarium was kicked out

[ashenlight]

aww that's a shame Dave Stellarium takes up alot of juice from the PC, it messes up a friend's PC too.

I'm glad I won't be around in the year 99999 - I'd miss all my favourite constellations

[Macavity]

I was pleasantly surprised Stellarium worked rather WELL on my new Samsung Notebook thingie - But then, under WinXP, and as a new, dedicated "astronomy machine" (thus far). I sense my poor old "main" PC is now "too far gone", re. sundry plugins, and other downloaded nasties, to do ANYTHING much, on a human time scale! <G> FWIW, I was a TAD disappointed by Stellarium's "time travel" concept - But then I'm not quite sure what I expected really... Perhaps a little TOO much, maybe?

[Rusty Strings]

I've tried it, the constellations do look very wierd

John

[iamjulian]

I get about 13 frames a second out of Stellarium on my stone age laptop, and it grinds to a halt if I start messing with the planet/stars/nebula sliders. On my main PC it skips along nicely at 75fps but I've never raced ahead more than a few months. I may have to try it, thanks for the tip.

[blinkity-blonk]

I tried it I zoomed from the dawn of time right to the end of time. I did it again and again focused on different stars each time. Amazing how much Polaris wanders around - got me wondering whether I'll need a new polar scope if it wanders away too far too soon! hehe I doubt it.

[Beulah]

Funny, when I zoom forward, my computer evolves from a simple VLSI integrated circuit system to a quantum information processor into a bio-neural interface then it got up and walked out!!

[ashenlight]

The machines are coming!!!

[DeanWatson]

I do that too! Great fun (but then I have no life...!) Something I do occasionally is boot up Galaxy Explorer, a 3d model of several hundred galaxies, both local group and outside. I then like to for fun, with the 'starship option' head out from home at random and test myself to see if I can find my way back to the milky way and sol system, depending on what knowledge I have on what is where in the sky and the distance pointers the software gives you. Its actually surprisingly difficult!

[ashenlight]

I do that too! Great fun (but then I have no life...!)

me either Dean lol!!

Sounds like a tricky way to test yourself though I imagine with practice you begin to notice various signposts, just like beginners do when learning the sky

[Macavity]

OK, g'wan then: What does the "simulate light speed" option do?

That seems rather promising for the astro-nerds among us!

[ashenlight]

hm, I was wondering this myself Macavity.

I will now open the floor to suggestions -

[DeanWatson]

Hi guys, if you get hold of Galaxy Explorer ( I think its the same as the stelarium people) you can take your viewpoint movement (moving my cursors) up to a multiple of lightspeed and zoom and swoop in intergalactic space.

[Beulah]

I do that too! Great fun (but then I have no life...!) Something I do occasionally is boot up Galaxy Explorer, a 3d model of several hundred galaxies, both local group and outside. I then like to for fun, with the 'starship option' head out from home at random and test myself to see if I can find my way back to the milky way and sol system, depending on what knowledge I have on what is where in the sky and the distance pointers the software gives you. Its actually surprisingly difficult!

Great practice just in case we suddenly invent starships with warp drive in our lifetime..

Seriously - the program sounds great, where did you get it?

[DeanWatson]

Galaxy Explorer: Amazon.co.uk: Software

Beg your pardon, its the same as the 'Starry Night' people. Its really good fun.

[matgates]

OK, g'wan then: What does the "simulate light speed" option do?

That seems rather promising for the astro-nerds among us!

Without this option, the positions of the planets are shown as they would appear if light travelled instantanously. Turning on the feature provides a little boost of accuracy at the cost of some processing time. Have a look at the moons of Jupiter and turn the option on and off to see the difference.