Macs on Mars

The view back at Earth from near the moon. Click for larger, more detailed view.

Celestia rocks: It's a freeware space simulation that lets you rocket throughout the known universe, with incredible detail at both extremes; there are hundreds of labeled objects, and fantastic detail on planets, moons, and even spacecraft. It gives you an amazing feeling for how big things are even just within our solar system -- the default starting point is near Io, with Earth in sight. You can center in on Earth and accelerate, but even at multiples of light speed, it takes quite a while to get there.You can compress time, save favorites, and watch spacecraft in their orbits. Unlike a lot of software I rave about, this one works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Download Celestia.

Also, there's a lot of press on NASA's Maestro. I've downloaded and installed it, and it's REALLLLY slow on an 867-mhz 12" PowerBook. If it worked faster, it looks like it would be pretty cool.