Celestia is a real-time 3D astronomy software program that was created in 2001 by Chris Laurel. The program allows users to virtually travel through the universe and explore celestial objects that have been catalogued. Celestia also doubles as a planetarium, but the user is not restricted to the Earth's surface, like in other planetarium software such as Stellarium. Celestia can display objects of various scales using OpenGL.
Celestia is available for AmigaOS 4, Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, Xbox, iOS, VisionOS, and Android. Celestia is also available on FreeBSD as both a binary package and a port. It is free and open source software released under the GNU General Public License.
Celestia's development stopped in 2013, with the final release in 2011. Since then, some of its development team went to work on celestia.Sci, a cosmological visualizer featuring more realistic rendering of galaxies and planets, gravitational lensing, and many other scientifically accurate enhancements, but there have been no updates on the progress of the program since 2020. The original creator of Celestia, Chris Laurel, created Fifth Star Labs shortly after Celestia's development stopped, and began working on a planetarium app called Sky Guide. In late 2016, the official Celestia forums were restored, and development restarted under a new development team. As of 2026, beta builds of version 1.7
What is Celestia?
Celestia by Celestia Development Team (developed by Chris Laurel) is open-source Windows software in the pc games category. It ranks 4th by popularity among pc games in this catalogue. It is written in C++ and Lua. Besides Windows, it is available for Linux, macOS, cross-platform, BSD and AmigaOS 4.
Installation and requirements
The publisher provides EXE (Inno Setup) installers for 32-bit Windows. Installation asks for administrator rights. A silent install is possible with the installer’s documented switches.
Updates and version history
The current version is 1.6.4, released on November 4, 2023. The version history goes back to June 8, 2021: 3 releases, all linked to the official files. That is about 1.2 releases a year. The last update is more than a year old.
Popularity and file types
The Chocolatey package has been downloaded 13,622 times. The source code on GitHub (CelestiaProject/Celestia) has 2,382 stars. Wikipedia has an article about it in 30 of our languages. Similar programs include OpenTTD, RetroArch and Steam.
Project description on GitHub: “Real-time 3D visualization of space.”
Pros / Cons
Pros
- Open source: the code can be inspected and built by anyone
- Documented silent install
- Also runs on Linux, macOS and cross-platform
Cons
- No native ARM64 build
- 32-bit only
- Installation needs administrator rights
- No update for more than a year
In short: Celestia is an open-source pc game tool for 32-bit PCs. Updates have slowed down. Administrators can deploy it unattended.
Screenshots
Is Celestia safe to download?
- The file is served by github.com, the publisher’s own domain
- The download link uses HTTPS
- A SHA256 hash is published, so you can verify the file:
76413C25DFEA4BF096CC371FA8D7856815725AE1617A5E3E0A7F2DCC170A08B8· Open the VirusTotal report for this hash - The link has not been checked yet
- The source code is public
- ExeAtlas does not host, wrap or modify installers
Related guide: How to check a file’s SHA256 hash on Windows
Recent versions
All 3 versions ›3 versions over 2 years · about 1.2 a year
| Version | Date | Size | Files |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.6.4Latest | November 4, 2023 | — | 32-bit EXE (Inno Setup) |
| 1.6.3 | April 20, 2023 | — | Any CPU EXE (Inno Setup) |
| 1.6.2.2 | June 8, 2021 | — | Any CPU EXE (Inno Setup) |
Install from the command line
Silent install ›winget install --id Celestia.Celestia -echoco install celestia -ycelestia-1.6.4.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART /SP-Related guide: How to use winget: install and update apps
Information
- Publisher
- Celestia Development Team
- Developer
- Chris Laurel and Dmitry Brant
- Category
- PC games
- Licence
- GPL-2.0
- Price
- Free
- Source code
- github.com/CelestiaProject/Celestia
- Written in
- C++ and Lua
- Requires
- Windows 11 / 10
- Architecture
- 32-bit
- Installer
- EXE (Inno Setup)
- Other platforms
- Linux, macOS, cross-platform, BSD, AmigaOS 4
- Version
- 1.6.4
- Released
- November 4, 2023
- Added to the catalogue
- June 8, 2021
- Versions listed
- 3
- Updates / year
- 1.2
- Chocolatey downloads
- 13,622
- GitHub stars
- 2,382
- GitHub forks
- 364
- Website
- github.com
- winget ID
- Celestia.Celestia
- Chocolatey package
- celestia
Ratings and reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to rate it.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Celestia free?
Yes. Celestia is open-source software under the GPL-2.0 licence.
Is Celestia safe to download?
The download comes from github.com, which belongs to the publisher; ExeAtlas does not host or change the file. Compare its SHA256 hash with the one shown here, or open the VirusTotal report for that hash.
How do I install Celestia with winget?
Open PowerShell or Windows Terminal and run the winget command shown on this page. winget downloads the official installer and checks its SHA256 hash before running it.
Can Celestia be installed silently?
Yes. The silent install page lists the exact command for each installer.
Does Celestia run on ARM (Windows on Arm)?
There is no ARM64 build; Windows 11 on Arm can run the 32-bit version through emulation.
Where can I download an older version of Celestia?
The versions page lists all 3 versions with links to their official installer files, back to June 8, 2021.
What are alternatives to Celestia?
OpenTTD, RetroArch, Steam, PPSSPP and ScummVM. The alternatives page compares them.
