Celestia

If you wonder how big the Universe is, Celestia can give you a good idea. It allows you to explore the stars and planets in a 3D-rendered environment. You can travel at light speed or even faster, within the solar system or even outside the Milky Way. Also, the application can provide you with various details about any celestial body, it can outline constellations and much more.

The aforementioned 3D environment takes up the entire user interface. You can pan the camera in any direction by clicking and dragging and zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. You can also select planets, moons, stars or other bodies. Once an object is selected, the application will display various characteristics, like radius, diameter and more. It is also possible to rotate the camera around an object, by clicking and dragging with the right mouse button.

If you see a distant object, you can right click it to reveal a series of interesting options, for going to that object, following or tracking it and more. The options in the menu bar give you a wider range of possibilities. You can start travelling at different velocities, from one Km/h to one light year per second. Time can be manipulated as well. The application can be set to present everything faster, slower or even in real time.

If you are looking for a specific body in the vastness of space, there are several ways to find it. For example, the application allows you to specify an object's name, as well as its latitude, longitude and distance. You can also add objects to a favorites list, so you can find them instantly in the future.

The application comes with many interesting display options. You can enable labels for numerous objects, show orbits, guides, grids, constellations and much more. Another interesting feature, which is definitely worth mentioning is a demo presentation which you can run. It takes you on a short tour of the Universe, during which it will highlight the application's main features.