Extending the Stellarium virtual planetarium
Star Power
Expand the Stellarium virtual planetarium with new objects and environments in just a few simple steps.
The Stellarium planetarium program shows a realistic sky in 3D, calculates and displays star movements, and lets you prepare and evaluate observations. A previous article [1] introduced the software and looked at some of its capabilities. In this article, I focus on extending the software with plugins, additional materials, and little-known features.
Installation
Most distributions offer Stellarium version 0.13.3 in their repositories, which is the version I discuss here. Version 0.14.2 was released January 2016 [2]. You can install the program on newer computers without problem; however, it isn't possible on older systems if they don't support OpenGL 2.1 or later. Your only recourse then is to install the legacy program, version 0.9.
The directories for the program's files are based on the Linux standard: The data resides in /usr/share/stellarium/, and you should not change the data in this directory or its subdirectories. Only on rare occasions with a compelling need should you access this directory with root privileges. The program stores userspace data below ~/.stellarium/. Naturally this directory is empty immediately after the installation.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.