I made Andomeda with the new procedural galaxy generator in #GaiaSky 🌠

Even though macOS does not support OpenGL 4.3, the new procedural galaxy generation in #GaiaSky will also work on these systems via a fallback option to CPU processing. It is (just a bit) slower than the GPU version, but it works.

🚧 Our server hosting Gaia Sky builds, datasets, and documentation is currently inaccessible due to precautionary measures by the university's IT team. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide updates as soon as we have more info. www.urz.uni-heidelberg.de/en/precautio....

I've been working on the procedural generation of galaxies in #GaiaSky for a while now. The system is already able to generate different morphologies, but I'm still tuning it. Below is an example of 3 random galaxies for every Hubble sequence morphology. Full resolution: i.postimg.cc/h4sNWVFH/hub...

The compute shader that generates galaxies gets more and more features. We can now design pretty cool shapes interactively.

The new Steam Frame looks very promising for demos. If the graphics chip in the headset is powerful enough, it could run #GaiaSkyVR without the need of a PC. It already runs well on the Steam Deck, so there is hope. We'll need to wait for the specs to come out. @steampowered.com #SteamFrame

New feature for #GaiaSky VR: Demo Mode. It simplifies the control scheme for first-time VR users, perfect for public demos. Read more: gaiasky.space/news/2025/vr...

I've been playing around with compute shaders to generate procedural galaxies in #GaiaSky on the fly. Still needs work, but it looks promising for populating distant galaxies. In the video, I spawned a galaxy next to the milky way, trying to mimic its structure with a few simple parameters. (1/3)

We've been working on a new galaxy model for Gaia Sky. It is a compromise between 'looking good' and 'rendering fast'.

#GaiaSky 3.7.0 is out! If you are on macOS Tahoe, you need to update, as this fixes a bug that prevents the app from starting. But there is much more to this release! Many new features and QoL improvements: gaiasky.space/news/2025/ga...

There's only ~30 satellites needed to make GPS work around the world. I wanted to show this to students, and I'm super pumped how this turned out! Working with @gaiasky.bsky.social, we grab the orbital data of each satellite and show them circling around Earth They look like electrons in an atom

We have just published the GPS Satellite Network dataset for #GaiaSky, put together by @plateauastro.bsky.social. You can get it right now from the dataset manager.

Can you do parallel-view 3D? 👁️👁️ youtu.be/r1S46acZ64w

Can you do cross-eye? 👁️❌👁️ youtu.be/oLeKjm2xkAM

📢📢📢 Exactly a week after the release of 3.6.10, we release #GaiaSky 3.6.11. This is a small-ish release that contains a few new API calls and some important bug fixes. gaiasky.space/downloads/re...

📢📢📢 #GaiaSky 3.6.10 is now available for download! This release brings a handful of minor improvements, and a lot of bug fixes. Additionally, it enables a new virtual texture dataset based on Sentinel-2 data. 🔗 Learn more: gaiasky.space/news/2025/ga...

We'll (probably) release #GaiaSky 3.6.10 next Monday 21st.

I've been working with @plateauastro.bsky.social on a new virtual texture for #GaiaSky which features many urban areas down to a resolution of 10-20 m/px. It is based on Sentinel-2 data and the NASA blue marble imagery. Check out the video 🎞️👇

In the next version, Gaia Sky will pull localized object information from the @wikipedia.org API whenever available. This shortcoming in the internationalization of the app has been mended. See video below, where the object summary depends on the current locale 👇

📢📢📢 #GaiaSky 3.6.9-2 patch release is out! This patch release contains a fix for the macOS package, which did not work in some cases, and some other fixes and tweaks. gaiasky.space/news/2025/ga...

📢📢📢 #GaiaSky 3.6.9 is out! This version brings some exciting new features and lots of bug fixes. More info: gaiasky.space/news/2025/ga...

Everything is ready for the #GaiaSky 3.6.9 release...

#GaiaSky will get a star streaks shader in the next release. This effect elongates stars in the direction of motion to create a sort of Star Trek travel effect. Of course, this can be turned off in the settings.

#GaiaSky 3.6.8 is clearly GPU-bound. This means that the graphics card is the limiting factor in performance. The footage below is captured with the GTX 1070, which is now almost exactly 9 years old. But the software runs well also on integrated GPUs (laptops mostly), and APUs (Steam Deck).

Things are strangely quiet after the release of #GaiaSky 3.6.8 yesterday. Usually I get at least a few bug reports after a big release. So far, there's nothing for 3.6.8...

📢 🚀 #GaiaSky 3.6.8 is out now! A big update packed with improvements: - Complete UI refresh - One-click "recommended datasets" for newcomers - Star/particle rendering upgrades - Major performance gains across the board - Tons of fixes, polish, and under-the-hood refactors gaiasky.space/downloads/

📢📢 Today we make available a new Gaia DR3-based catalog: Gaia DR3 Best! It is a small and compact catalog with only the very best stars in terms of parallax relative error. It contains 646K stars and weighs ~54 MB. All the info: gaiasky.space/news/2025/ne... #GaiaSky #Catalog #GaiaDR3

@plateauastro.bsky.social has made some quality tutorials on the basics of #GaiaSky. Well worth checking out!

Since last year, I’ve been using some awesome software called Gaia Sky (@gaiasky.bsky.social) in my planetarium shows It’s free, open source, and a cool tool to tour the solar system, the galaxy, and beyond I made some tutorial videos teaching how to use it www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

⚡ Huge performance improvements are coming in #GaiaSky 3.6.8! These include drastic reductions in CPU utilization and memory usage. Wanna know more? Here are all the details 👇 gaiasky.space/news/2025/pe...

Montréal: if you don’t have plans for Sunday, I’d love to have you come to my planetarium show I’ll be teaching you all the cool stuff to see in the night sky this summer: 🌅Sunsets 🌒Crescent Moons 🌕Full Moons ☄️Meteor showers 🚀More… 1 hour. $20. In the Plateau. plateauastro.com/events/2025-...

Been doing some UI work in #GaiaSky to clean up the themes and make it possible to generate themes automagically from an accent color. Now we need to decide the default theme. Which one is your favourite? See poll below.

Location bookmarks get more features in #GaiaSky! Read more here: gaiasky.space/news/2025/ne...

The 8th #Gaia DPAC Consortium meeting starts today. More than a 100 scientists and engineers from all over Europe gather in Cambridge to discuss the road ahead that leads to the 4th Gaia data release, #DR4.

🛰️Bye-bye Gaia! 👋 Zehneinhalb Jahre lang hat der ESA-Satellit über 3 Billionen hochpräzise Messungen von etwa zwei Milliarden Sternen durchgeführt. Nun ist das kalte Gas, das für Gaias Arbeit nötig ist, aufgebraucht. Credit: ESA–D. Ducros, 2013 #Gaia #Weltraumteleskop @dlr-de.bsky.social

Today, Gaia has been ejected from its Lissajous orbit around L2 into a heliocentric orbit. The spacecraft has ended its sky-scanning phase after more than 10 years, and has been switched off. We'll see it again close to Earth in 2039. Farewell, #Gaia!

The team at ESA mission control has initiated Gaia's final manoeuvre. The spacecraft is now moving away from the second Lagrange point to prevent it interfering with any current or future missions near this scientifically valuable point in space.

As part of this process, some of Gaia's onboard software is being overwritten using farewell messages from its team on Earth, as well as the names of around 1500 people that have contributed to the mission over the years.

The final commands have been sent to Gaia. This is the last time that the spacecraft will ever hear from its team on Earth. The final commands include those to shut down the spacecraft's communication systems and central computer.

Today we say goodbye to ESA’s Milky Way-mapper Gaia! The Gaia spacecraft has completed its sky-scanning and will be switched off this morning.

There is a new API call in #GaiaSky, goToObjectSmooth(). It uses the transitions API to create a smooth trajectory to an object. Comparison video:

I have been re-working the way speed scaling works in #GaiaSky. The new method takes into account all objects surrounding the camera, additionally to the focus object, and produces smoother trips. No more sudden jumps out of the starting area! Check out the comparison video 👇

📢📢📢 Today we release #GaiaSky 3.6.7. It contains some minor features and many important bug fixes, mostly related to VR and scripting. gaiasky.space/news/2025/ga...

PSA: explore the full list of official datasets fo #GaiaSky at gaiasky.space/resources/da...

💾 We just published a new virtual texture dataset for #GaiaSky: 32K Moon Topography (NASA SVS). Find out more here: gaiasky.space/news/2025/mo... #Moon #VirtualTexture #Dataset

📢 We have a new webiste at gaiasky.space! Also, if you use the Flatpak, our Flathub app id has changed to space.gaiasky.GaiaSky to enable verification. If you install or update the old app ID, it should prompt you to upgrade to the new one.

We are experimenting with a new website for #GaiaSky that is easier to edit and maintain. Check it out! gaia.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/gaiasky/web

Only saw this now ... will these models be available in full-dome resolution for planetarium use? They look fantastic!

this software looks amazing!! I can't believe I haven't heard of it sooner this is exactly what I've been looking for

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