Yeah, I've looked at Celestia. It's very much a lightweight compared to Cartes du Ciel. Who says the French can't produce anything world class?
Well, actually, that's an unfair generalization. Celestia is made for the casual astronomy dabbler and does things like fictitious "how would our neighborhood look like from Alpha Centauri" and travel through the Solar System whiz bang stuff. People don't realize what astronomers don't know and how that affects such space travel simulation.
Cartes du Ciel is produced for use by astronomers, both amateur and professional and so has very different functions. In a way they kind of compliment each other. But Cartes du Ciel is very much more advanced in function for the amateur and professional astronomer. If you were to travel to the Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys, you'd see lots of people using Cartes du Ciel and nobody using Celestia or Stellarium.
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