Star Chart Xbox Live Indie Game ... very impressive.

I purchased this Independent game through my Xbox Live subscription.

I haven't been let down yet. First off, it only cost a dollar, and it seems to give real time position of stars and other celestial bodies. It even allows one to forward or reverse time and see how the stars or planets line up during a certain time.

One neat function, is that you can zoom in on any of the planets in our solar system, and see a decent sized object flying through the sky. These planets even have the dark sides and light sides lit up as per their relationship to the sun.

I wonder if there is any possibility of targetting the fabled "planet x" . "nibiru" with this program.

I also forwarded to Dec 21, 2012 to see the galactic alignment that has been proposed by astronomists.
On this day, all of the planets seem to be in a single line, But... Mercury, Venus and Saturn look to be on the other side of the Sun as our planet.

I thought that this alignment was going to have all planets in a single line on one side of the sun, but I guess I am wrong.

Has anyone else used this program?

I would also like to point out that if one zooms in on the Sun in this program, it is brilliantly lit, its just too bad their aren't better solar graphics for this program.

What planetary alignment?

www.fourmilab.ch...

Originally posted by rhinoceros
What planetary alignment?

www.fourmilab.ch...

If Rhinoceros' link is legit, then the star chart on your Xbox isn't correct for Dec 21, 2012. Can anybody explain this to me?

reply to post by SamTGonzalez

Some common sense: The outer planets have insanely long orbital periods and eg. Uranus and Neptune are nowhere close to each other on their orbits in regard to aligning towards the Sun. A year will not change this. 2 years will not change this. 2 decades will not change this.

I wasn't attempting to use this program to prove alignment, or that one does exist.

But, the planets did make a vague line together.

Rhino's link was very interesting, and I am probably wrong about alignment.

But, I thought that the application was very good quality.

reply to post by rhinoceros


Ah, thank you friend.

wait so there is no planetary alignment on 21/12/12?

the coming of planet x and the sun rising from the west is predicted to happen near that period of time

reply to post by RizeorDie


I distinctly remember an article saying that astronomers have proven that there will be an alignment on 2012, and that this is the first alignment in known history. But, after rhino's refutation, I can not find said article.

Now, just like global warming, I do not know which side to believe.

Perhaps the alignment is just the sun at the center of the milky way, and not all of the planets. But, still unsure

Originally posted by ThreeDeuce
Perhaps the alignment is just the sun at the center of the milky way, and not all of the planets. But, still unsure

Pretty sure it's not that either as we're like over 25,000 light years away from the center of our galaxy, which is home to a super massive black hole.

My understanding was that the solar system was going to align with the galactic plain.... I could be wrong though.

There are several free softwares that do the same(even better) for free.
such as stelarium,cartas du ciel...

What was the Game called on the Indie Games?
over 15,000 Titles, I don't want to go 1 by 1

Originally posted by jpsdasnake
There are several free softwares that do the same(even better) for free.
such as stelarium,cartas du ciel...

Yes, I've used Stellarium.

reply to post by ThreeDeuce

How does the app you paid a dollar for compare with free Stellarium? Have you tried that?

Stellarium is excellent!

reply to post by Gom3z


The app was called "Star Chart"
It has a free trial, but a few features weren't available on the trial.


As for my opinion of Stellarium vs Star Chart, I liked Star Chart's interface better.

I'm not a very experienced user of said programs, but have dabbled with Google Sky, Stellarium and now Star Chart. And, honestly I probably never would have bought it, but Xbox live indie games are like a new addiction that I have found ever since needing to spend Christmas Gift Cards. Geeze, a 20 dollar game card gets me 20 game! Sorry, I digress.

============================

What I liked about Star Chart is this:

1. You can easily set your position, which then gives you a real time view of the sky over you. Not sure if Stellarium has this feature, but it has always set me somewhere in Paris.

2. I liked the fact that the stars / planets were moving as I was watching them, in supposed real time. It was just a neat sensation to see Mars streak across the sky.

3. The program zoomed in enough to get a decent sized representation of each planet in our solar system.
Distant star images are no where close to the quality of Hubble photos that can be found in Google Sky however. But, that being said, they aren't bad.

4. I also liked how brilliantly lit the sun was. I just wish there was defined graphics of the sun. If someone could take the graphics from the movie "Sunshine" and put them into a program like this, it would have many sun-gazing enthusiasts flock to it.

Side Question : Are there any plugins / layers for Google Earth that allow high quality sun gazing?

5. I liked how I could easily shift the time and see the changes in the sky overhead. Does Stellarium have this feature?


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Edit to Add:

Another reason I like this app, is that it does go through my xbox.
Which lets me utilize my High Def TV very easily for high quality browsing.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


yes,stellarium is my favorite planetarium software

Originally posted by jpsdasnake
There are several free softwares that do the same(even better) for free.
such as stelarium,cartas du ciel...

Have you used Star Chart? Or is this just blind criticism?
What features did you like better in stellarium?

I downloaded cartas, and personally its graphics are horrible, but I do like the open source programming.

If you haven't used Star Chart, how can you summise that others are better?

Cool thanks man I have my xbox jtaged so I wont have to give M$ my Euro.. But I never tought of looking for homebrew like this...

S&F

double post

reply to post by ThreeDeuce


my xbox got E74 and Live indie games weren't avalible in brazil at the time(i think its not avalible now either).
try stellarium,it shows planet's moons positions,nebula pictures,atmosphere pollution control,see info about EVERY object in the sky(brightness,distance,cordinates,etc),change between EQ and altazimuthal mounts,thousands of downloadable plug-ins,night mode(changes lights to red) and thats just what i can remember without opening the software,OH AND ITS FREE

I have already tried Stellarium. I did not like it as much, but yes its free.

The other program I was talking about is available over Xbox Live Consoles, which Stellarium does not.

Also, some people are not able to output Computer programs to their HD TVs as easily as they can from their xbox.

On Stellarium, if you zoom in on the sun, you get a white-yellow silver dollar sized object which is not very brilliantly lit at all, whereas Star Chart the zoomed in graphics are much more intense.

Again, I don't understand how you can say that "X" is better than "Y", without even trying one of them...... but this is common on here, people set in their opinions.

Also, I don't know how "real time" tracking Stellarium is, As I pointed out before, you can visually see the planets move as you zoom in on them, where in Stellarium they sit still. Different programs, different features.


In response to a private message that I got, No I am not a Microsoft employee, and no I am not trying to advertise for game either. I have no stake in either one.