Celestia – Real-Time 3d Visualization of Space
Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago
celestiaproject.spaceResearchstory
supportivepositive
Debate
20/100
Space Visualization3d RenderingAstronomy
Key topics
Space Visualization
3d Rendering
Astronomy
Celestia is a real-time 3D visualization tool for space exploration, with users praising its features and discussing its potential applications and limitations.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
Discussion Activity
Moderate engagementFirst comment
57m
Peak period
8
6-8h
Avg / period
3.6
Comment distribution32 data points
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Based on 32 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Sep 15, 2025 at 1:30 AM EDT
4 months ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Sep 15, 2025 at 2:27 AM EDT
57m after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
8 comments in 6-8h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Sep 16, 2025 at 2:40 AM EDT
4 months ago
Step 04
Generating AI Summary...
Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
ID: 45246403Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 5:36:19 PM
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Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dxMnahknnVjrckqWOyJhvuS8IA0...
from: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Celestia
https://github.com/celestiamobile/MobileCelestia/releases
[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=space.celestia...
"We're funded by the goodness of a team of volunteers" is a great answer.
Audacity: Free until 2021 when they were bought and introduced telemetry.
Streamlabs: Open-source but tried to monetise and attack the OBS brand
Bitwarden forks: Various forks of open-source code that included monetisation
OpenOffice: Great desktop apps until bought by Oracle
CCleaner: "free" software that contained trojens.
HoverZoom: Chrome plugin sold by original dev, new update included spyware and ads.
As I said, I don't mind if the answer is "we are volunteers who love this", but I do ask that formal webpage presenting a product, that even has an FAQ page, explains it's funding model. Their github (https://github.com/CelestiaProject/Celestia) is much better at this.
openAI: Microsoft has invested US$13 billion in OpenAI, and is entitled to 49% of OpenAI Global, LLC's profits, capped at an estimated 10x their investment.
Being offended so quickly, I'm tempted to ask if you're new to the internet ))
I don't know if this feeling is common or not but I do remember reading about someone here on on Reddit feeling a similar thing, I believe it to be similar to thalassophobia.
I still occasionally have pseudo nightmares from the pov of using celestia to orbit 'scary' celestial objects.
I'm not exactly sure what the deal is because I never had any conscious reactions to using the program. But apparently it made some sort of impact.
Upon hitting the button to warp to the coordinates, I was presented with an entirely flat, beige plane. Thinking I had screwed up the coordinates, I began zooming out. Since Orbiter renders to scale rather than the scaled down planets in KSP, I began to realize that there was no mistake, and just how small my ship was relative to Saturn. It literally gave me a shiver. It's so hard for us humans to really perceive how mindbendingly big things are in space in a direct sense.
[1] https://timeloop.fr/vts/
Yes, I know Real Solar System is a thing, but still :D