Tuesday 24 July 2007

Installing stellarium on Ubuntu 7.04

Stellarium is one of the best planetarium programs I have seen and the best of all is that it is free and open source!

To install this gem you must run the following command :
ubuntu@horus:~$ sudo apt-get install stellarium stellarium-data
Password:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libsdl-mixer1.2 libsmpeg0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libsdl-mixer1.2 libsmpeg0 stellarium stellarium-data
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 16.2MB of archives.
After unpacking 22.6MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://ar.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/main libsmpeg0 0.4.5+cvs20030824-1.9build1 [102kB]
Get:2 http://ar.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/main libsdl-mixer1.2 1.2.6-1.1build1 [136kB]
Get:3 http://ar.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/universe stellarium-data 0.8.2-3 [14.2MB]
Get:4 http://ar.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/universe stellarium 0.8.2-3 [1809kB]
Fetched 16.2MB in 2m17s (118kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package libsmpeg0.
(Reading database ... 116812 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libsmpeg0 (from .../libsmpeg0_0.4.5+cvs20030824-1.9build1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libsdl-mixer1.2.
Unpacking libsdl-mixer1.2 (from .../libsdl-mixer1.2_1.2.6-1.1build1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package stellarium-data.
Unpacking stellarium-data (from .../stellarium-data_0.8.2-3_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package stellarium.
Unpacking stellarium (from .../stellarium_0.8.2-3_i386.deb) ...
Setting up libsmpeg0 (0.4.5+cvs20030824-1.9build1) ...

Setting up libsdl-mixer1.2 (1.2.6-1.1build1) ...

Setting up stellarium-data (0.8.2-3) ...
Setting up stellarium (0.8.2-3) ...


After that I ran the stellarium but it started in an invalid screen resolution
so I had to edit its config file :

gedit /home/ubuntu/.stellarium/config.ini

Then I modified the screen resolution, because I use 1400x1050.
So I changed the following lines :
screen_w = 1024
screen_h = 768

for :
screen_w = 1400
screen_h = 1050



Afterward I ran again the stellarium with the command :
stellarium

The basic operations are :
Use the mouse or arrow keys to look around.
Use the page up and page down keys to zoom in and out.
Use the left mouse button to select an object, the right button to deselect the object and middle mouse button or spacebar to center on the selected object.
J slows down or reverses speed, L increases time speed, and K makes time return to normal speed.
You can also use the time control buttons in the lower right of the screen.

It runs on Mac and Micro$oft Window$ too!

I strongly recommend this software.


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