3D Solar Eclipse Simulator – Real-Time 3D Eclipse Geometry with Unreal Engine 5 and Cesium

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Hello everyone!

I’m a solo developer and Computer Science graduate, and I’d like to share a project I’ve been developing over the past several months: 3D Solar Eclipse Simulator.

It is a free, open-source scientific visualization application built with Unreal Engine 5, Cesium for Unreal, Python, Skyfield and JPL DE441 ephemerides.

The main idea is to visualize solar eclipses as actual 3D geometry rather than simply displaying a flat 2D eclipse path on a map.

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The application calculates and renders the Moon’s umbra and penumbra shadow cones, including their intersection with an Earth modeled as a WGS84 ellipsoid, using real-world geospatial terrain provided by Cesium.

Some of its current features:

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  • A catalog of 71,264 solar eclipses and 72,272 lunar eclipses spanning approximately 30,000 years (13,000 BC–17,000 AD).

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  • Real-time 3D visualization of umbra and penumbra shadow cones.

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  • Eclipse paths and geographical information on real Cesium terrain.

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  • Contact times (C1–C4), magnitude, coverage and astronomical telemetry.

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  • Free-flight camera, time controls and saved locations.

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  • A Python astronomical backend communicating with Unreal Engine through a custom UDP protocol.

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  • A night sky featuring over 5,000 stars, constellations and celestial bodies.

I have also implemented a compact neural network for modeling lunar surface elevation using NASA LRO/LOLA data.

The astronomical calculations have been tested against Xavier Jubier’s reference data, with contact-time differences within approximately 0.1–2 seconds in the documented test cases.

Open source:

The complete project source is publicly available under the Apache License 2.0:

Trailer video:

Demo for this application:

Free downloadable build:

I’m particularly interested in feedback from Unreal Engine and Cesium developers.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on:

  • The use of Unreal Engine for scientific and astronomical visualization.

  • The integration of Cesium terrain with custom astronomical geometry.

  • Performance and architectural improvements.

  • Potential applications of this approach in education and other scientific simulations.

This is an independent project developed as a combination of computational astronomy, real-time rendering and geospatial visualization.

Thanks for taking a look!

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