Stellarium
Sound from stars
Original report by Shirish Agarwal: https://bugs.launchpad.net/stellarium/+bug/1060314
Hi all, This would be a wishlist. AFAIK there is sound-support in stellarium and I was able to convince the debian maintainer to build it for Debian which is now in Debian experimental. See http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/main/s/stellarium/current/changelog
I installed it and was frustrated to find it didn't emit any sounds or anything like that from stars or/and other heavenly bodies or even from man-made satellites or something.
We had a brief discussion on the same at https://bugs.debian.org/688049 . There are two points to consider here :-
a. The fact that sound can't be made in a vacumm b. If we do have sounds it should and would make it more fun esp. if using stellarium to discover and have fun with young children. As they grow old/er they could find the facts for themselves.
now as shared by the maintainer, this is more in upstream's boat. So sharing it with the hope that something can come out of it.
Of course, it does mean that the program data does become larger (if there are even short .ogg pieces in a loop or something.) and I have no idea how that would affect the program's responsiveness and things.
Just flinging it out as a potential idea.
Sonification is surely fun and may help comprehending some things a bit better. I have some ideas, but we need external sound experts here.
Greetings I am interested in working on this as a research project. I wrote a paper a while ago about playing sounds based on what stars are around a location. http://acma.asn.au/media/2014/01/ACMC-2014r1.pdf#page=47
I can see a whole range of things we can do here. I would be interested in hearing some ideas from others about what their ideas might be.
Parking this here...
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_distance_ladder#Standard_siren
- https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25634181-100-how-sounds-from-space-are-revealing-otherwise-hidden-cosmic-phenomena/
Opinion.
Greetings I am interested in working on this as a research project. I wrote a paper a while ago about playing sounds based on what stars are around a location. http://acma.asn.au/media/2014/01/ACMC-2014r1.pdf#page=47
@angelofraietta can you update the link to the paper, make it more permanent?
Angelo has done something artistic many years ago. It never came back to us, unfortunately, but Google can find related works. Current team has apparently no expertise in sonification, but will gladly accept working contributions from @axd1967 or any other new contributors. Feel free to implement, this is why status is "help wanted" and "wishlist".
These are some papers using Stellarium https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/669742/669781 https://vimeo.com/355694234 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3672876 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3673005 https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/27115
-- Dr Angelo Fraietta A.Eng, A.Mus.A, BA(Hons), PhD.
Home Page https://www.newcastleguitarlessons.com.au/ https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3171-8491
There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge - that is CURIOSITY There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others - that is VANITY There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve - that is LOVE Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153)
On Wed, 17 Sept 2025 at 23:24, Georg Zotti @.***> wrote:
gzotti left a comment (Stellarium/stellarium#463) https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/issues/463#issuecomment-3303004250
Angelo has done something artistic many years ago. It never came back to us, unfortunately, but Google can find related works. Current team has apparently no expertise in sonification, but will gladly accept working contributions from @axd1967 https://github.com/axd1967 or any other new contributors. Feel free to implement, this is why status is "help wanted" and "wishlist".
— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/issues/463#issuecomment-3303004250, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABJJYNNKKUQLI7XEMKNST3T3TFOJDAVCNFSM6AAAAACGYESEXCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTGMBTGAYDIMRVGA . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>
Angelo has done something artistic many years ago. It never came back to us, unfortunately, but Google can find related works. Current team has apparently no expertise in sonification, but will gladly accept working contributions from @axd1967 or any other new contributors. Feel free to implement, this is why status is "help wanted" and "wishlist".
@gzotti please note that @axd1967 will not provide contributions in the near future due to #4390.
@axd1967 will limit activity to cynic, laconic, sarcastic and destructive, negative comments. How else can one contribute to a project?
Honestly... I've worked for years in software engineering on complex aerospace C++ projects ; in Android, in various version control systems (have you heard of ClearCase?) and on user interfaces , do I have to repeat it? And my knowledge of astronomy is fair rather than ridicule. Nevertheless I keep being ridiculed here, that's one reason I stopped actively contributing. So now I try to suggest meaningful changes instead.