OUR GOALS

SkyMarvels™ is an award-winning, family-friendly site created to . . .

1.) make all persons aware of
the true marvels in our sky,

2.) encourage and inspire all
persons to observe and study
them on a regular basis,

3.) provide resources to help
you make your observations,

4.) educate by offering the latest
scientific insights into the sky
marvels you observe, and . . .

5.) through highly realistic 3-D
simulations, allow you to "visit"
the sky marvels you observe: planets, stars, galaxies and more!

This is a unique, exciting time in history!  Having taken our first cautious steps into space, humankind stands poised for the colossal leap outward to the planets and beyond!  Probably our own children, and certainly our children's children, will set foot on other worlds!  And some of you who visit us here at SkyMarvels™ may be young enough—and lucky enough—to be among the first!

At SkyMarvels™, we believe that it is no exaggeration to say that . . .

. . . the sky holds the key to
the future of humankind!

And so we hope that this site, and others like it, will help unlock the sky's countless marvels and provide a way to share them with everyone.

WHAT IS CELESTIA?

A quick answer is that CELESTIA is free, startlingly realistic, astronomy-simulation software for home computers.  But this statement hardly does CELESTIA justice.

CELESTIA is an incredible "animation and visualization engine" which simulates our universe in photo-realistic detail!  What's more, it recreates the universe NOT JUST in 2-D pictures, but in stunning 3-D!  You are immersed in the cosmos, free to trek anywhere to visit real worlds!  Orbit these worlds; land on them; examine what the sky looks like from their surfaces!  Return to them time and again!  Visit other bodies like planets, moons, stars; or visit nebulae and galaxies!  Even visit intriguing small asteroids like potato-shaped "Ida"!

CELESTIA is far more
than static maps and 2-D
pictures of the cosmos!

It is the dynamic 3-D
universe in its endless "clockwork" motion!

The developers of CELESTIA are often applauded for making it is as scientifically accurate as possible.  But they do stretch current science enough so that, yes, you CAN travel faster than light in CELESTIA.  (Sorry, Mr. Einstein.)  In fact, CELESTIA's hyperlinks allow you to travel billions of light years in under a second!  Moreover, you can speed up, slow down or reverse time, and even brighten the "un-lit" halves of planets and many other bodies, in order to give you the best views of countless spellbinding events.

CELESTIA is so visually arresting, and its animations are so engaging, that—when we try to describe it all—we run out of superlatives!  Language fails us because we discover new wonders CONSTANTLY!

Here's a quick video that shows what you can do with CELESTIA!

Of course, one of the wonders about all of this is that CELESTIA is free!  Chris Laurel, the talented creator of the original version, opted to make it "open source" to give the entire world the freedom to use and help improve it.  Over the past decade, other quite capable programmers (listed on our  Credits  page) have also contributed their know-how to enhance CELESTIA.

But here's another wondrous thing about CELESTIA: you are not limited only to the improvements periodically coded into newer versions by its development team!  Chris and the team designed CELESTIA to be expandable!  And "customize-able!"  CELESTIA's "open architecture" allows you to make your own additions, and the developers encourage you to do so!  For example, you can create your own stars, planets, moons, even artificial satellites!  If you want to change how a planet, moon, asteroid, star or satellite looks, you can create a different surface for it!  Likewise, you can create your own separate "mini-programs" called "scripts" to run "inside" of CELESTIA.  Built into CELESTIA are 2 scripting languages: CELX (which is more powerful and geared toward experienced programmers) and CEL (which is notably easy to learn and to use.)  It is literally no exaggeration that a child with average intelligence can quickly write a CEL script to take you to the Moon and back!  Or to Pluto and back!  Or to . . .

Moreover, Chris Laurel has explained on CELESTIA's Forums that basically all add-ons and scripts that you create with standard releases of CELESTIA are your own intellectual property!  (You can visit our  Legal  page for more details.)  So, for example, you are free to make animations in CELESTIA and fashion them into a TV show if you wish!  (If you do, we hope you will include CELESTIA and its developers in your credits.)

What power!  CELESTIA is no toy!  Yet it can be every bit as fun and engaging as one!  In fact, CELESTIA is not only fun; it's absolutely inspiring!

If you havn't downloaded CELESTIA yet, you are missing out on truly awesome explorations.  Even more, you're missing out on "half of the fun" of this site!  To discover why,   click here and learn about SkyMarvel.com's 1.6.x & 1.4.1 links.

EDUCATORS!

You are encouraged to download the free CELESTIA software.  You may use it in your classes yourself, and you are free to distribute it to your students.

CELESTIA quickly engages young and old alike with its stunning simulations, and it will introduce students to far more than you might first imagine.  For example, with its "Location Labels" feature, CELESTIA also helps teach geography!  And this is not just for Earth, but for our Moon, other major planets and many of their moons as well!

Surely most of us would like to see more students finding inspiration in the marvels of true science, and spending a little less time on mindless video games.  In one of your classes, have you noticed a potential Einstein or Curie who just needs a little help in the right direction?

Download  this amazing free software today!