A few updates and some cool Chandra X-ray Observatory stuff!

Links mentioned in the episode:

Museum & Informal Education Alliance https://informal.jpl.nasa.gov/museum/

Kim Arcand https://www.kimarcand.com/

Walking Among the Stars (VR stuff) https://chandra.cfa.harvard.edu/vr/

Chandra 3D models https://3d.si.edu/collections/Chandra

PPA Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-pfVOHnkvAV_fdnKLdqzwA/videos

Stellarium Landscape zip files for easy installation https://github.com/waystar/StellariumLandscapes/releases/tag/v1.1

An update on what I've been up to, followed by some useful sources for open textbooks.

Links mentioned in the episode:

The Changelog: Open source goes to Mars  https://changelog.com/podcast/440 

Learning with Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist by Allen Downey   https://greenteapress.com/wp/learning-with-python/

Python for Everybody: Exploring Data in Python 3 by Chuck Severance   https://www.py4e.com/book

Eloquent JavaScript   https://eloquentjavascript.net/

MIT OpenCourseWare  https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/online-textbooks/

OpenStax  https://openstax.org/subjects

Milne Open Textbooks  https://milneopentextbooks.org/

The Missing  Link  https://milneopentextbooks.org/the-missing-link-an-introduction-to-web-development-and-programming/

American Institute of Mathematics  https://aimath.org/textbooks/approved-textbooks/

Games and Puzzles  http://www.artofmathematics.org/books/games-and-puzzles

Green Tea Press  https://greenteapress.com/wp/

OER Commons  https://www.oercommons.org/

Open Textbooks Library  https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/

Introduction to Permaculture  https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/introduction-to-permaculture

Project Gutenberg   https://www.gutenberg.org/

Links mentioned in the episode:

NASA 3D resources   https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/ 

The Celestia Motherlode   http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/ 

ESO   https://www.eso.org/public/

ESA/Hubble   https://esahubble.org/

NOIRlab   https://noirlab.edu/public/

NASA Science Visualization Studio   https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov

NASA Open Data Portal   https://data.nasa.gov/ 

NASA Photojournal   http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov

Planetary Data System   https://pds.nasa.gov/

NOAA Science on a Sphere   http://www.sos.noaa.gov/Datasets

USGS Apollo panoramas   http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/maps/moon-apollo-landing-panoramas

The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth   http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/

Database of Asteroid Models from Inversion Techniques (DAMIT)   https://astro.troja.mff.cuni.cz/projects/damit/

OpenClipArt.org   https://openclipart.org

OpenGameArt.org  https://opengameart.org/

HDRI haven   https://hdrihaven.com/

TextureHaven   https://texturehaven.com/

3DModelHaven   https://3dmodelhaven.com/

This week I followed a rabbit hole that led me to rediscover some projects I'd previously not liked, but now they have the potential to be what I need.

Links from the episode:

unfa channel   https://www.youtube.com/user/unfa00

TechHut channel   https://www.youtube.com/user/TechHutus

TechHut top 10 Linux apps  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeVJydgFKWo

Vokoscreen  https://github.com/vkohaupt/vokoscreenNG

KdenLive  https://kdenlive.org/en/

KDE   https://kde.org/

OpenShot Video Editor   https://www.openshot.org/

ShotCut  https://www.shotcut.org/

Blender  https://www.blender.org/

Natron  https://natrongithub.github.io/

And that episode title sounds better than the one I used in the recording. In any case, this week is some rambling from me in which I complain about stuff and complain about complaining about stuff some insightful thoughts on some of the ups and downs of using FOSS.

Links to software projects mentioned:

POV-ray  https://www.povray.org/

Blender  https://www.blender.org/

Gimp  https://www.gimp.org/

Krita  https://krita.org/

Inkscape  https://inkscape.org/

Audacity  https://www.audacityteam.org/

Olive  https://www.olivevideoeditor.org/

Natron  https://natrongithub.github.io/ 

Hugin  http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

QGIS  https://www.qgis.org/

OpenSpace  https://www.openspaceproject.com

WWT  https://worldwidetelescope.org/home/

This week I chat about some interesting tools and tutorials for using Blender for non-visualization Astronomy stuff.

Links for this week:

Cycles X   https://code.blender.org/2021/04/cycles-x/

Fulldome Production With Blender https://github.com/waystar/2019-Blender-Workshop-Materials

How to make planets in Blender   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6224Wisxwxc

Darkfall Shader Library intro  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbj20u53uW8

The Shader Library   https://darkfallblender.blogspot.com/p/the-shader-library.html

Mark Kingsnorth original nebula tutorial (files no longer available, but still good to read) http://www.markkingsnorth.com/2017/01/31/blender-nebula-group-node-tutorial-download/

Mark Kingsnorth Nebula Generator on BlenderMarket https://blendermarket.com/products/nebula-generator

3D Star Map (link to demo version and store in description)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRshK5qhJDA

Black Hole art from Void_SW on BlenderNation https://www.blendernation.com/2021/05/04/hand-picked-blender-art-4/

Create a Black Hole in Blender - Iridesium   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5naMFeWTBeY

Procedural Galaxies in Blender 2.91!  -CBaileyFilm   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XQXI5KownU

Procedural Solar Flare Shader Blender Tutorial!  - CBaileyFilm   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9anTO45bCM

Mustafar Procedural Lava Planet Shader  - CBaileyFilm   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCztNvPGq1w

Another update and a look at some interesting resources for learning to take astronomy data into Blender for visualization. It's how the magic gets made!

AstroBlend   https://www.astroblend.com/

AstroBlend   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAUcA4vXe2IPdnCjBslj6XQ

AstroBlend at 2015 Blender Conference   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vY-sl1oXME

Dr. Jill Naiman   https://www.astronaiman.com/

Dr. Brian Kent   https://www.cv.nrao.edu/~bkent/blender/

Matías Gárate’s  Blender & Astronomy Tutorial. Using Voxel Data for 3D visualization    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjFmkbKBKd0WuhhbR2MGPXZyWW7TPcNSw

An update on what I've been up to and then checking out two more pieces of open source astronomy software.

Links for this episode:

Loading NASA Perseverance and Ingenuity models into Blender https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36u94eMMHuU

Sunset Meditation show from Brown Planetarium https://www.bsu.edu/web/planetarium/productions-and-show-leasing#accordion_sunsetmeditation

Mark Kingsnorth Nebula Generator for Blender https://blendermarket.com/products/nebula-generator

Cartes du Ciel https://www.ap-i.net/skychart//en/start

Virtual Moon Atlas https://ap-i.net/avl/start

A look at free and open source desktop planetarium software KStars, and why it deserves a a spot on the hard drive.

Links for this episode:

KStars https://edu.kde.org/kstars/

KStars user docs https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/kstars/kstars/index.html

Inkscape https://inkscape.org/

SVG format https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics

Links mentioned in the episode:

Prairie Skies Spotlight on Galaxies April 2 https://youtu.be/dh0biQnJmFQ

ESASky https://sky.esa.int/

ESASky documentation https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/esasky-help

"How to Use ESASky" https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/esasky-how-to

ESASky educational activities https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/esasky-for-education

Aladin Sky Atlas https://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/

Aladin Lite API documentation https://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/AladinLite/doc/API/

Aladin Lite API examples https://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/AladinLite/doc/API/examples/

Aladin tutorial on embedding chart https://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/AladinLite/doc/tutorials/interactive-finding-chart/

NOIRLab Arp 199 image page https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noirlab1912a/