Alt-azimuth mode...

[Vigor]

I have just found out about alt-azimuth mode (ctrl+f)...I say "found out" because I didn't read about it in any documentation?!? Cool option, but when I _track_ objects like the moon celestia moves as if alt-azimuth mode is off, I guess it's because moon moves also up and down and not just horizontal. It would be nice if this wouldn't happen, so you could have a feeling of really standing on the surface of the earth (or wherever).

I have watched moon eclipse on 16. May...celestia had an "error" of 10-15 min, as if its shadows are too _faint_ to be visible (btw ambient light was set to none), while in real life shadow was quite visible 5-10 min earlier. Can you do something about that?

Keep up the good work...

p.s. what about that REAL pause option, because I hate when celestia busts my cpu in idle mode?

[t00fri]

I have just found out about alt-azimuth mode (ctrl+f)...I say "found out" because I didn't read about it in any documentation?!? Cool option, but when I _track_ objects like the moon celestia moves as if alt-azimuth mode is off, I guess it's because moon moves also up and down and not just horizontal. It would be nice if this wouldn't happen, so you could have a feeling of really standing on the surface of the earth (or wherever).

I have watched moon eclipse on 16. May...celestia had an "error" of 10-15 min, as if its shadows are too _faint_ to be visible (btw ambient light was set to none), while in real life shadow was quite visible 5-10 min earlier. Can you do something about that?

Keep up the good work...

p.s. what about that REAL pause option, because I hate when celestia busts my cpu in idle mode?

Well, I had proposed to incorporate these special coordinate system modes [Alt-azimuth, RA-DEC, ...] (along with cursor readout and appropriate grids) as well as the 'soft landing' command on a selected body. Moreover, a clickable list of locations on earth (cities, observatories...) and on other bodies (landing sites) is also planned. The large list of locations on earth (~500 cities) I have already;-)...

These items are on my coding agenda since a while. Chris has just quickly done the altaz-mode some time ago, but then we got derouted to other issues. It is all undocumented, since all this is highly unfinished...

In Celestia KDE, one actually has to replace CTRL -> ALT, in order to toggle this mode and to land on the surface:

CTRL+S (soft landing on surface of selected object) ==> ALT+S (KDE)
CTRL+F (toggle Alt-azimuth mode) ==> ALT+F (KDE)

Activation of Alt-azimuth mode is indicated by a flash message. Then the LEFT/RIGHT keys change the azimuth (with altitude=const.) while the UP/DOWN keys vary the altitude (with azimuth=const).

It's a very useful combination of keys/commands, I think.

The KDE-version (Windows?) also has a useful menue entry: 'Goto LongLat', which e.g. allows going directly to your 'backyard' if you happen to know its long/lat coordinates...Doing this once and then putting the respective cel://url as an icon on the configurable /icon-toolbar/ of KDE-celestia, allows going to your favourite observation site with /high precision/ by means of a single click;-)


Bye Fridger

[Guest]

I use windows version of celesta (although I'm administrating linux mashines ). I don't see that this "soft landing" works, but I have some other option called "goto surface" when I press ctrl+g (also undocumented)...i guess it is the same thing? And yes I use that "goto object" (you call it "goto longlat") whenever I need to go to my location (this option is a must-have but lacks shortcut key). When I save my position in Locations it also saves current time so I need to reset my clock every time I use it. One more question, how do you orient your self when on surface of the earth? I use that celestial grid but in fact it doesn't help a lot...so is there some better way? Sorry if that sounds stupid but I'm new in astronomy

Vigor