When I was a kid I used to play a bit with Celestia, but I remember I was pretty scared whilst using it... there was some kind of dread/anxiety I felt just looking at the vast void of space and something giant like Jupiter or Saturn next to it, I always thought an UFO or something was gonna pop out of nowhere.
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.
Same! I lost days looking for the most distant galaxies and traveling to them. I always felt the same anxiety of the emptiness thinking why the universe doesn't give us a way to explore it, why I was born so early or in a _lame low tech planet_ (in a lame low tech country) or how incredibly diverse could be the life out there. I remember being fascinated by the sheer number of galaxies and then "wait, this app doesn't even zoom _into_ galaxies", which is another level of infinityness, and that was just overwhelming. Man, I feel depressed now.
Decades ago, I patched Celestia to add a Star Trek–style warp speed selector, only to realize that even at maximum warp, I was still crawling along like a snail. At least it was a fun hack.
Great project! Been using it for years together with VTS [1] to visualize real-time and propagated satellite positions and attitudes, and also star tracker and payload "beams".
Hidden well enough on the linked site, but easy to find in search; there are mobile versions which work well on tablets etc I just found out. That's this monday lost!
One thing I kind of always want to see when I find cool resources like this are "How are you funded?". Because if it's not clear then have to there's a high risk it's a rug-pull, virus or might one day be either. There's just too many secretive "Here's a super free perfect tool for you!" rug-pulls out there.
"We're funded by the goodness of a team of volunteers" is a great answer.
This website does not work with Oculus Quest browser, it goes to the "oh noes" page, i guess the meta browser has some issues with the bot detection algorithm.
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.
[1] https://timeloop.fr/vts/
[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=space.celestia...
https://github.com/celestiamobile/MobileCelestia/releases
"We're funded by the goodness of a team of volunteers" is a great answer.
Yes, I know Real Solar System is a thing, but still :D