Note:
These Activities must be used with Celestia161-ED only. They will not work with earlier Celestia versions!

Imagine being able to give students the ability to take control of their own "hyperdrive" spacecraft and fly to any part of our amazing universe they wish, at any time in history. Navigate through a vista of galaxies, stars, nebula, black holes, planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, comets and spacecraft. Envision their excitement in hearing realistic sounds present at places they visit. Then, consider being provided a comprehensive written Astronomy lesson in what they were seeing and hearing!

Welcome to Celestia Educational Activities for 2012! Completely revised to utilize the graphic power of the latest version of Celestia, these lessons incorporate new advances to our knowledge of the universe, and our solar system within it. They provide users the ability to personally navigate above the surfaces of stars, visit rotating black holes, fly into nebula, pass through Saturn's rings, follow spacecraft as they make history, dock with a giant space station of the future, witness erupting volcanoes on Io, see our newest dwarf planets, study the life of stars, or consider the formation of our moon billions of years ago. Celestia Educational Activities represent 12 detailed tours of space to over 400 exciting destinations.

The Activities have been updated for use with a customized version of Celestia 1.6.1-ED. You must use this version before taking any journey. It will install into a different folder and will not interfere with any other Celestia installation you may have. If you have an older version of Celestia-ED, we recommend you uninstall it.

Each journey consists of a comprehensive set of addon files, plus an Activity Flight Plan document written in MS Word format and a Student Worksheet that can be printed and completed for a grade. The Activity document will guide you through the complete journey and gives you all instructions for operating Celestia161-ED. Activity journeys are comprehensive and range from 1 hour to 4 hours per journey. They represent over 40 hours of space exploration and are ideal for home or school computer lab use in grades 7 - 12 (ages 12 - 18) and in introductory college courses in Astronomy.

These Activities require the use of Microsoft Word 2002 or later, or Openoffice 3.0 or later. OpenOffice is available for free by clicking here.

Celestia Educational Activities are currently available only for Windows 98, XP, Vista, and Windows 7. If you are a teacher using these Activities in a classroom or school computer lab, or are a home user who wishes a simple and trouble-free installation, we request that you obtain our convenient Celestia Educational Activities 2-CD set or DVD. They will effortlessly autoinstall onto your computer, school server or a full classroom of computers. No downloading, unzipping or sequential installation is needed. The CD set and DVD are available for sale for a very modest fee. To order, please visit this page: Celestia Educational Activities Purchase, or you can email the author at fsgregs@comcast.net.

Celesta Educational Activities are also available for free from the links listed below. They are provided as zipped files totaling 2.6 GB and must be downloaded, unzipped and installed sequentially.

Directions for Installation:

If you obtain the CD set or DVD from the above link, simply place the CD or DVD into your computer drive and it will auto-install. Enclosed with the installation is a detailed Introductory Guide for 2012 that explains exactly how to set up and use the Activities in an educational classroom or computer lab.

If you wish to obtain the Activities free from the links below, please do the following for a trouble-free installation:

1. Download the Letter to Users & Educators for 2012 and read it for further guidance on installation and use of the Activities.

2. Download and install the main program file named Celestia161-ED-WIN.zip listed below. Unzip it, then double-click on the installation file. It will install into your C: drive in a program folder named "Celestia161-ED". Please leave that folder in place and do not change its name. All Activity documents and files must install only into Celestia161-ED.

3. Download the Educational Base Package, and unzip it directly into your Celestia161-ED folder.

4. Select one or more Educational Activities, download and unzip them directly into the Celestia161-ED folder.

5. Open an Activity document of your choice (located in the Educational-Activities folder of Celestia161-ED), and enjoy the educational power of Celestia to showcase the universe.

Enjoy.

For questions, comments or further inquiries, contact Frank Gregorio at: fsgregs@comcast.net