StarryOrbits

Latest News
June 2010 StarryOrbits support forum is launched here.

January 2010 StarryOrbits now lets you specify the color for each star in your simulations.

Introduction
StarryOrbits is a free, Java-based, 3D desktop gravity lab that can be used to generate and display N-body and other multibody simulations. It is aimed at the general public and is designed to be hassle free to use and will run on a wide range of software and hardware. It is designed for small n-body systems with less than 1000 bodies.



Quick Start
1. Download some of the example animation files from the Animations page.

2. Click here to install and run StarryOrbits.

3. Use the File.Open Existing Simulation menu to open the downloaded animation that you want to watch. Once the simulation is running you can rotate and pan your view by clicking and dragging the left and right mouse buttons. Zooming in and out is achieved by turning your mouse wheel.

4. After you have downloaded StarryOrbits for the first time, click here to run StarryOrbits again. Java will run StarryOrbits from the programme files stored on your pc. You may want to run StarryOrbits with more memory as shown here if you are displaying large files.

''StarryOrbits was programmed in NetNeans and has a 6 month security certificate automatically generated by NetBeans. This means that you will receive a Java security message when you try to run it. You can safely ignore this message.''

''StarryOrbits has been tested on Microsoft Windows XP and Vista. It should also run under Java on other operating systems. Please record any bugs you find under the StarryOrbits development page.''

Generate N-body Simulations
StarryOrbits can generate and display new simulations based on existing system snapshots. It can also produce a spherical collapse cloud and simulate its evolution.

The simulation code was converted from the original c++ code from "Moving Stars Around. A Preliminary Version of what will expand into Volumes 1,2,3 of the series The Art of Computational Science by Piet Hut & Jun Makino".

Animations
Several animation files have already been submitted by MODEST members and they are available here. This repository of animations will expand as more datasets are donated.

Grav-Sim Animations
You can also display simulations created with Grav-Sim by Mark Ridler as described here.

Help
The StarryOrbits online help is available here.

Development
StarryOrbits is an ongoing project and its development is described here.