Stellarium

[XxionxX]

I really don't understand what can be ported and what cannot, so I was wondering if this planetarium application would be able to be ported to the Panda. It runs on my Ubuntu x86 machine, but I know that does not necessarily mean it will work with the Panda. I was really stoked at the idea of being able to bring a personal guide to the stars with me. I hate having to bring my book outside and ruin my night vision with a flashlight so I can see what the book is talking about. I am a moderate star enthusiast so this idea really appealed to me.

PS If there is a place where I am supposed to be asking about ports specifically just point me there.

Edit: The app is open source under the GNU General Public License (GPL) if that helps.

 

[Mr B]

Check the Debian ARM repositories, i think it's in there already.
B!

 

[Tempel]

If you had run a quick search (tsk tsk!) you might have found this old thread. According to that thread, the developers are working on it. But since that thread is old, they might be done by now, or they might have abandoned it entirely. It seems that the biggest issue is whether it's been made OpenGL ES compatible (just having an ARM package doesn't imply one way or the other).

 

[chaosfx]

there's a port for the n900 so it should be possible
http://stellarium-mobile.org/

edit : better link

 

[XxionxX]

If you had run a quick search (tsk tsk!) you might have found this old thread. According to that thread, the developers are working on it. But since that thread is old, they might be done by now, or they might have abandoned it entirely. It seems that the biggest issue is whether it's been made OpenGL ES compatible (just having an ARM package doesn't imply one way or the other).

Thank you for the pointer to the thread! I had a feeling I had seen that question before, but I had not had my breakfast yet and my brain was not fully engaged so I didn't even think about searching for an old thread.

 

[XxionxX]

there's a port for the n900 so it should be possible
http://stellarium-mobile.org/

edit : better link

Thanks! I am glad I'm not the only one interested in this.

 

[manimal]

Here's a star gazing tip: get the cheapest possible flashlight you can and some red nail polish. Then, paint the lens of the flashlight with the nail polish. When the nail polish dries, you'll have a light that is good for reading but that won't ruin your night vision. No, it is not as nice as Stellarium on the Pandora (I think Stellarium has a "red light" mode), but it works pretty well.

 

[XxionxX]

Here's a star gazing tip: get the cheapest possible flashlight you can and some red nail polish. Then, paint the lens of the flashlight with the nail polish. When the nail polish dries, you'll have a light that is good for reading but that won't ruin your night vision. No, it is not as nice as Stellarium on the Pandora (I think Stellarium has a "red light" mode), but it works pretty well.

I have a flashlight with red lenses, but its just not the same without the Pandora.

 

[daggerstab]

The core code is supposed to support fully OpenGL ES now. The problem is the interface.

there's a port for the n900 so it should be possible
http://stellarium-mobile.org/

There are actually two ports for Nokia N900: an unofficial, third-party port and the aforementioned Stellarium Mobile.

The unofficial port uses Stellarium's main code base, only built with the appropriate CMake flags for OpenGL ES. There has been some small changes to the interface to make it more suitable for a small screen (scrollbars for the larger configuration windows). It's page is here:
http://maemo.org/packages/view/stellarium/

Stellarium Mobile has a few additional modules, including a GUI specifically tailored for a small screen and support for the N900's GPS and accelerometer. The problem is that the developer was hoping to get some money from it in Nokia's Ovi application store. He thought that leaving it licensed under the GPL wouldn't work for a commercial application, so he asked for an exception from the rest of the developers. Not all agreed, so at the moment the project hasn't been released. I don't know what Fabien is going to do eventually. (Oh, and he is the lead developer, which is a bit awkward.)

I was going to put a notice in the new Pandora forum that I'm looking for someone to port/test/package Stellarium for Pandora. I can help a bit with the interface design (converting the larger dialogs to landscape orientation should be relatively easy).