Any astronomy buffs out there?

[DaveNarn]

For us astronomy and sci-fi geeks.
Celestia is a 3D space simulator that is truly amazing and educational.
I found it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/celestia/

The best part is it's free and available in three versions - PC, Mac, and Linux to keep you occupied for many winter days ahead.

But that's not all...
The fun starts when you customize your Universe with all the add ons or 'addons' found online. I'm still exploring the Celetia Motherlode collection:

http://www.celestiamotherlode.net

Lots of Babylon 5 ships!
Also 2001, Avatar, Ringworld, Silent Running, Star Wars, SG1 and Star Trek too.
Haven't found anything from Dune yet.

The add-ons are the work of the fan base.
Countless talented contributers who create textured 3D geometry in the form of fictional and historical pieces for the rest of us to geek-out on

CMOD is the native file format for Celestia, but most are saved in 3DS which can be opened in nearly any 3D application. I found that Max or Poser works best to truly appreciate the pieces.

I've posted a couple of examples on my Albums page - check it out.

[Ubik]

Very cool, the renders you posted in that album look great. Are you gunning for a job at Foundation Imaging?!

[DaveNarn]

Very cool, the renders you posted in that album look great. Are you gunning for a job at Foundation Imaging?!

Thanks but I'm just a hobbyist, the guys at Foundation were the masters of the craft.

Would be fun to re-create some of the space scenes though...

Can you imagine a different perspective on the first contact with the Minbari?
We saw one while Delenn recalled the presence of the Soul hunter ships.

Using the existing low-poly models would be on par with the original shows graphics.

With voice-overs of the unfolding events that led to the first shot this could be a fun project.