Xplanet
Xplanet is a free rendering program to generate various views of the planets as well as the solar system . It grew out of an older Unix application called xearth. Originally it was intended to display different views of the earth, including the day / night side supplemented with current clouds , as a background image of the desktop (in X systems ( Unix , Linux ) the X Window root window ). It is licensed under the GNU GPL license.
Cartographic representation
Xplanet can be used to create projections of any planet in the solar system (usually Earth). Examples include the Mollweide projection ( the earth as a whole ), Mercator projection ( the earth in a rectangular shape ) or orthographic projection ( top view ).
Data can be specified for the program and user-specific surfaces can be used for the planets. Clouds are also possible.
Equidistant, rectangular image material is used to depict the earth (width-length ratio 1: 2), with the center of the image at 0 degrees longitude / latitude. In addition, night, reflection, elevation (relief) and cloud images can be integrated.
Planetary views
Xplanet can be used to calculate general views of the solar system, such as the view from the moon to the earth, for a specific point in time. In current versions, solar eclipses or the shadows of Jupiter's moons can be displayed on the planet. It is also possible to choose other satellites such as the International Space Station ISS , the Space Shuttle or the weather satellites of the NOAA series as an observer.
Technically
Xplanet runs on the Unix, Linux, Windows , and Mac OS X operating systems . The image generated can be used as a screen background or saved together with detailed position descriptions of the objects shown.
The configuration takes place via the modification of text files. For a small Windows graphical user interface exists GUI called winXPlanetBG to simplify the configuration and download the latest cloud images. OSXplanet is the GUI for Mac OS X, for Linux there is a GUI called xplanetFX.
The accuracy of the outputs can be increased by using up-to-date ephemeris data.
Various tools have been developed around Xplanet to be able to display additional information.