Celestia Forums

Hi.
For a script I'm doing about StarWars movies I would like to show on the screen a ship (StarWars' Millenium Falcon), with a far away Milky Way as background, like the composed image below.
Is this possible?
If yes how can it be obtained?
I searched in shatters, found nothing.
Any suggestion will be very appreciated, thank you.
Bye

Goofy

The only way is to define a star at the approximate location you want your spaceship,
and put the model in orbit around the star.

There is no other way.

Cham wrote:The only way is to define a star at the approximate location you want your spaceship,
and put the model in orbit around the star.
There is no other way.

Thanks a lot, Cham, I didn't think it could be possible this way.
Bye and thanks again.

Goofy

J.T.K. wrote:try this
"Millenium" "HIP 30483"
in a ssc file.

Hi J.T.K, thank you for suggestion.
But it looks like my star dataset is missing HIP 30483.
Never mind, I substituted it with a known one, HIP 46599, and everithing went OK, except the ship is missing. It's in the topleft info , at 329 m distance, exactly in the center, as shown by arrows in the first image, but it's invisible.
So I tried Cham's suggestion, this way:

this is the STC file

"falconstar"
{
RA 110.7417
Dec -25.767
Distance 1e5
AppMag 21.0
SpectralType "G0"
Radius 13000
}

and its SSC file

"Millenium-star" "falconstar"
{
Class "spacecraft"
Mesh "falcon.3DS"
Radius 0.025
EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 112
SemiMajorAxis 90000
Eccentricity 0
Inclination 0.0
AscendingNode 0
ArgOfPericenter 0
MeanAnomaly 0
}
Orientation [ 180 0 1 0 ]
Albedo 0.30
}

Same result, as you see in the image.
I tried all the renderpaths settings, BTW.
I'm sure I'm doing some gross mistake, but I'm unable to find it.
Some more help, please?
Thanks a lot.
Bye

Goofy

bdfd wrote:

Goofy wrote: ....I'm sure I'm doing some gross mistake, but I'm unable to find it.
Some more help, please?
Thanks a lot.
Bye
Goofy

Hi,
I saw the problem !....
2nd, If you put a ship far from its star, it can not be illuminated and it will be invisible.

Wow bdfd, I had a doubt about illumination, and you are confirming it.
Thanks a lot, I'll give a try.
Bye

Goofy

Hi bdfd, you're right, it was a matter of light from the star, and mine was very far away.
Now I have the Millenium Falcon in the right position/distance, but I'll have to spend some time to align the ship toward the Milky Way center, and this will be tedious, because axes are not aligned with the ship.
BTW, I noted that the ship was vibrating a lot, even if at timerate zero, but I solved it incresing one hundred fold its dimension.
Now it's OK.
Someone knows why this happens?
Just curious.
Thanks a lot, appreciated.
Bye

Goofy

Goofy,
remember that in real spaceflight there is no need that a spaceship "points" directly to the target!!!
think about monster spaceships in SF movies...
even the famous Enterprise, after receiving the boost from the propellers, can turn 180° without modifying its trajectory!!

piellepi wrote:Goofy,
remember that in real spaceflight there is no need that a spaceship "points" directly to the target!!! ...

Correct, Piellepi, really my alignment need is only a matter of aesthetics, nothing else.
Bye

Goofy

Instead of a star you can define a barycenter so no starlight will be shining on the ship. That way the falcon can be silhouetted against the galaxy in the background and illustrate the empty dark void of intergalactic space.

Reiko wrote:Instead of a star you can define a barycenter so no starlight will be shining on the ship. That way the falcon can be silhouetted against the galaxy in the background and illustrate the empty dark void of intergalactic space.

Thank you Reiko, this is a good suggestion, it looks very real this way.
Bye

Goofy