I’ll shortly be moving the Gaia Sky repository from GitHub to GitLab (link here) due to the former being acquired by Microsoft.

If you have cloned the repository and wonder how to update your remote reference, here’s what to do:

$  cd path/to/gaiasky
$  git remote set-url origin https://gitlab.com/langurmonkey/gaiasky

That’s all it takes. All pulls from now on should be directed to the gitlab repo.

This time around we’ve had a slightly longer development cycle so Gaia Sky 1.5.0 ‘Jumbo Summer Release’ is here with a ton of new features, enhancements and bug fixes. Most importantly, we have essentially refactored the way star catalogs are handled, so that we can now stream data from disk when it is needed. Also, we’ve been working hard to make better use of the GPU and we are proud to announce that we’ve increased the performance fourfold while being able to display many more objects on screen at once.

Gaia Sky is here again with a brand new release packed with new features and bug fixes. Here are the most important:

• New spacecraft camera mode – Game on!
• New lens glow effect.
• Added brightness and contrast controls.
• Improved search functionality.
• Updated textures.
• Added optional crosshair in focus mode.
• Implemented 360° mode for 360 VR videos and panormas. See gallery here.
• Brand new documentation in readthedocs.org. Edit: since then the documentation has moved to gaia.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/gaiasky/docs.

The idea of ditching both my web hosting provider and Drupal has been at the back of my mind for a few months.

Bear with me. Since about 2011 I have been maintaining this website using the cheapest hosting tier my hosting offers – At least it was the cheapest at the time I got it. They call it The Essential and it costs over 300 bucks for 2 years. It is not a lot, but it is definitely too much for my purposes of hosting a small blog where I provide occasional updates on my projects, my portfolio and my CV.

Also, loading times are horribly long and the complexity of managing the Drupal installation (upgrades/updates) and also the database takes way too much of my time. Only the thought of updating to Drupal 8 sends shivers down my spine and ultimately got me searching for better options.

Today, 26 September 2016, the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) features a video we have prepared with Gaia Sky at the ARI/Uni Heidelberg. The video itself shows a flight from outside of our Milky Way galaxy to the Sun and then a travel through the Solar System towards the vicinity of the Earth, displaying in this journey a little over 600.000 stars from the TGAS part of Gaia Data Release 1.

With Gaia Data Release 1 in mind, we have prepared a few videos with flights through the TGAS catalog and generally showcasing Gaia Sky.