Existing users, 
I've got a 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4 with 1GB of RAM running 10.4.3. Both this version, and 1.4 before it take all the CPU I've got and runs it into the ground. And that's simply by launching it and anytime it's idle. It is really snappy when I move around the galaxy but really, it should take a much larger break when I am not doing anything in the application. I even tried the new OpenGL option you suggested with no change in CPU during "idle" times.
Sorry, as slick as this seems to be I can't just let my processor cook simply because I forget to quit the application.
In the future it would also be nice to have an on-line version of the changelog -- I couldn't find anything like it at the celestia.sourceforge.net site. And an 18MB download just to find out the latest changes in the 48KB changelog is a lot of wasted bandwidth for everyone's network: mine, the software mirror sites and everything in between.
/Marty
Celestia
space planetarium fly-thru/simulation software
Version: 1.6
uses all my CPU just sitting still
Feedback Type: Commentary
Contributed by: Marty.Skinner Monday, February 20 2006 @ 08:01 PM PST
Product Platform: MacOSX
Used Product For: Less than a month
Recommend Product: NO
Comments
uses all my CPU just sitting still - Marty.Skinner
Thanks for the Files link... I had found no such link at celestria.sourceforge.net or anything else linked to by VersionTracker.Maybe it's just me, but having the application take a break for a few (more) milliseconds on a regular basis shouldn't ruin the visual impact of streaking by a planet, it certainly wouldn't hurt when the application is just looking at a planet and the night sky around it like when it first launches, and it might give back a bunch of CPU for other tasks. It's just a suggestion.
/Marty
Tuesday, February 21 2006 @ 11:54 AM PST
uses all my CPU just sitting still - dirkpitt2050
The changelogs for every version have alwyas been available from the Files page. Click the "Notes" icon to get the changelog for the latest version.Celestia uses a lot of CPU because it has to continually update the positions of various objects. A future version may change this, but in the meantime please try hiding the Celestia window to reduce its CPU usage. The new OpenGL 2.0 rendering mode has nothing to do with CPU usage, only better-looking planet rendering.
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Tuesday, February 21 2006 @ 01:09 AM PST