Pluto and Linux, the Underdog Superheroes

Shawn Powers — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 19:12:54 +0000

I'm a space nerd. That's probably not a surprise, but just how deep my nerdery goes might be. I have just about every space photo NASA has ever released. I schedule NASA.tv mission briefings on my Google Calendar as if they were specifically for me. I used to make my kids watch Shuttle launches on our TV, even if they were doing homework! (They didn't mind that so much.) Heck, growing up, I wanted to be an astronaut, but since I've worn Coke-bottle thick glasses since I was four years old, I realized I'd never be able to go to space. In fact, I'm a writer today because if I couldn't actually go to space, I wanted to write fiction about space.

I'm not a science fiction writer, although I hope someday that might change. (As a side note, if you haven't read The Martian by Andy Weir, you should do so right now. It's possibly my favorite book of all time!) I am, however, still an avid space fan. Thankfully, being a Linux user doesn't hinder me from using technology in order to augment my stargazing. In fact, Linux has an incredible set of tools available for the space nerd, and with the New Horizons probe recently passing Pluto, there's an increase in the number of people looking up at night. So first, I'm going to talk about how Linux can help you appreciate the heavens—then I plan to yammer on about Pluto for a bit. Don't worry, I'll warn you before this article jumps the shark!

The Software

There are four main astronomy packages for the Linux user. Only one of them is Linux-specific, but all work well with every distribution I've tried. There is a lot of overlap between the four programs, but each has its own unique twist as well.

Google Sky:

I want to love Google Sky—really. The idea of searching for objects in space using Google is really appealing. Unfortunately, it just never seems to work for me very well. It's perfectly possible that I've never seen how amazing it can be, but since other options exist that are Linux-native, I'm not willing to put too much effort into it.

My experience has been that Google Sky appears to have lots of graphical data, including Hubble imagery. Unfortunately, it lets you zoom in to only a few celestial objects, and in my experience, none of the planets, save Earth. I've had similar luck with Linux using Firefox and Chrome, and I even tried with OS X to similar result. If you're a Google fan and want to search the cosmos like you search for a local pizza joint, perhaps you'll have better luck than me. Check it out at https://sky.google.com.

Kstars:

Go to Full Article

Space

Pluto and Linux, the Underdog Superheroes

The Software