One of humanity's greatest challenges is to explore the universe, but since that goal is currently impossible, we have to settle for applications that simulate a planetarium on our computers. That's why, in this article from our best-developers series, we're talking about Stellarium—its origins, utilities, visualization modes, and, of course, its license.
What is Stellarium?
The platform lets you simulate a planetarium (a place dedicated to presenting astronomical shows) right on your computer. In this way, you can calculate the position of the Sun, the planets and their moons, the stars, and various constellations.
Additionally, from the environment you can simulate astronomical phenomena such as eclipses, meteor showers, or customize the skies.
The History of Stellarium
In 2001, Frenchman Fabien Chéreau and other developers (Robert Spearman, Johannes Gajdosik, Matthew Gates, Nigel Kerr, and Johan Meuris) began creating Stellarium. But it was in early 2004 that the first version of the platform (Branch 0.6) was released.
In 2006, its version 0.7.1 won the gold prize in the Education category at the competition “Les Trophées du Libre”. But two of the utility's greatest achievements are being part of the Ubuntu Software Center since 2011 as one of its featured applications, and the fact that a modified version of Stellarium is used by MeerKAT (a radio telescope under construction in the Northern Cape of South Africa). Currently, the application has its “Branch 0.13” version, which includes a new meteor simulator.
Stellarium's Visualization Modes
The core of the tool is its visualization modes. Its spherical views of the sky (360 degrees) three-dimensional help us observe space in a unique way, the “fisheye projection” (a visual and binocular form). And thanks to its option to insert the latitude and longitude of any geographic location, it's possible to observe the sky at different places and times from Earth.
We can use its atmosphere effect to attenuate the light reflected by stars and other celestial bodies, create a ground effect by taking photos from your location (spherical panoramic projection). Its eclipse and supernova simulation modes and equatorial and azimuthal grids also stand out.
Stellarium's License
Since the launch of the tool, it has been multi-platform, available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems. It is free software, and its license is under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Stellarium is one of the best applications for visualizing the universe that exist today, thanks to its dome-style projection, large database (more than 600,000 celestial bodies), and the option to incorporate plugins to improve its performance.
