Celestia vs Starry Night

[granthutchison]

Hmm . . . I think that the Moon's orbit could be more accurate.

Can you shake it loose from Earth coordinates? Then we could implement precession without disturbing the position of the Moon, which would also improve accuracy.

Grant

[jamarsa]

Hmm . . . I think that the Moon's orbit could be more accurate. That's probably the only place where Celestia lags Starry Night. I'll switch to the ELP2000 series and kick some dirt on Starry Night

There is nothing as a bit of healthy criticism to get the best of a programmer...

[keymaster14]

I even have my small hometown entered as a location, so instead of entering the long lat coordinates, I can also just type its name. Then switching to alt-azimuth mode I can nicely change azimuth until I face whatever direction I want to face. Then I can make a screenshot of that view with or without the grid, constellation boundaries and asterisms switched on or off

I too have created a location for my town and a Caribbean island. But how do you switch to "alt-azimuth mode"? I'm running Celestia right now and can find no such option. Also nothing in the handbook about it. Are you referring to the "celestial grid" option in the "Render>View Options. . ." list?

[t00fri]

I even have my small hometown entered as a location, so instead of entering the long lat coordinates, I can also just type its name. Then switching to alt-azimuth mode I can nicely change azimuth until I face whatever direction I want to face. Then I can make a screenshot of that view with or without the grid, constellation boundaries and asterisms switched on or off

I too have created a location for my town and a Caribbean island. But how do you switch to "alt-azimuth mode"? I'm running Celestia right now and can find no such option. Also nothing in the handbook about it. Are you referring to the "celestial grid" option in the "Render>View Options. . ." list?

These are yet 'undocumented' keys.

Code: Select all

Windows:
      CTRL F  => Alt-azimuth mode (toggle)
      CTRL G  => Goto surface of selected body

Linux:
      Alt F     => Alt-azimuth ,ode (toggle)
      Alt G    => Goto surface of selected body


So if you want to land at a particular long-lat position, enter long-lat (+ desired altitude) in the 'Navigation/Goto LongLat' dialog' and press OK (which gets you at a desired altitude over that designated spot). Then push 'Goto surface'. [You may also directly enter e.g. altitude = 0.02 (20m). and '*'= LookBack.] Finally switch to 'Alt-azimuth' mode, whence the Left-Right arrows rotate in azimuth and Up-Down modifies your altitude.

Instead of entering long-lat, you might prefer to enter your favorite spot into the body's location file once for all, activate locations ['&'-key] and just type the spot's name in the lowest line (requires at least 1.3.1pre9).

Bye Fridger

[chris]

Hmm . . . I think that the Moon's orbit could be more accurate.

Can you shake it loose from Earth coordinates? Then we could implement precession without disturbing the position of the Moon, which would also improve accuracy.

Grant

Yes, I will finally add a coordinate system option for orbits . . . This should also help when we get proper orbits for Phobos, Deimos, and the moons of Neptune--we won't have to convert from whatever system they're speficied to Celestia's equatorial system.

--Chris

[Stargazer_2098]

Which version are you using?

Actually, I did that test several month's ago with one of the older versions which was the current version then - so its quite possible it has been corrected by now.
I only came around to download the newest experimental version yesterday, and I must say I'm very impressed with what I see in it so far.


Stargazer.

[Rassilon]

Celestia is beta and Celestia is free...

Might be why its not got all the flashy commercial controls other $oftware has

And well theres always room for improvement in any software...Thats why its open source!

[John Van Vliet]

Hi Rass
to be onest i have had LESS problems with Beta - open sourse than with comersiale softwere
every now and then there is a small bug for ex. python solatair (pysol) wont shut off until a new hand is delt

[ScottGant]

I'm sorry, but there are still several things that Starry Night does that Celestia just can't do or is a pain to do.

For one thing, you can't print directly from Celestia...sure you can take a screen shot and then open another program, then try to reverse out the colors so stars are black and the sky is white so it shows up better on the paper etc...but Starry Night does this for me automatically.

Also, there are a TON of deep sky objects in Starry Night that Celestia just doesn't have. They're automatically there in Starry Night, I don't have to download a picture of a galaxy, then put that pic in a special folder, then the object file in another folder, then put the blah blah blah blah. I just open Starry Night and it's right there. BANG.

Sure, you can go down on the surface of the planet now in Celestia...but I've yet to find the lat/long input for my city...in Starry Night they even had my city right there for me to go right to...BAM. I'm there. No inputing anything. Also, Starry Night has a nice little compass that lets me know where I'm looking in the sky. Yeah, I'm sure there's some hidden script that I could easily compile in C++ after I pre-render using blah blah blah. I just want to open it and use it.

The Milky Way looks real in Starry Night...in Celestia it looks like a bad rendering of computer clouds. I don't know about you, but when I look up at the Milky Way, it doesn't look anything like the view in Celestia.

NOW!!! Having said all this, I have great hopes for Celestia...it's still in development. All the things I mentioned could easily be added (just not by me as I can't code at all). As could a number of things to make it THE best out there.

Right now, it's still in it's infancy...but I'm willing to stick with it. I'm just not going to put it up on a pedalstal and worship it without question like so many do to open source software. But as it stands now when I'm going out for a night of viewing, I consult Starry Night and never open Celestia at all.

[ElPelado]

Also, there are a TON of deep sky objects in Starry Night that Celestia just doesn't have. They're automatically there in Starry Night, I don't have to download a picture of a galaxy, then put that pic in a special folder, then the object file in another folder, then put the blah blah blah blah. I just open Starry Night and it's right there. BANG.

which Starry Night do you have? In the one I have, i have only the 110 Messier deep sky objects. I dont have the ngc catalog for example. so what deep sky obects are you talking about?

The Milky Way looks real in Starry Night...in Celestia it looks like a bad rendering of computer clouds. I don't know about you, but when I look up at the Milky Way, it doesn't look anything like the view in Celestia.

looks real? how do you do to make it look real? i only see a grey "thing". what do you see?

I really want an answer from you, cause i also want to see those things.

[Stargazer_2098]

which Starry Night do you have? In the one I have, i have only the 110 Messier deep sky objects. I dont have the ngc catalog for example. so what deep sky obects are you talking about?

Starry Night Pro, I guess. It got a whole lot of galaxies and other objects, and several hundred sattelites orbiting Earth, pluss automatic updates for new stars, new asteroids, and all kinds of new discoveries and objects trough the internet (that's a feaure Celestia could really need, I say).

It's really quite inspiering to rise above the plane of the Milky Way, and see countless galaxies - each looking like a bright star.
Sure, that view is probably not realistic, but its still very inspiering.

looks real? how do you do to make it look real? i only see a grey "thing". what do you see?

If you own a newer version of Starry Night, I advice turning on the OpenGL-acceleration support, that should clear up the view quite a bit.


Stargazer.

[selden]

Adding catalogs and pictures of deep-sky objects to Celestia does not require any knowledge of C++ programming. It's actually fairly easy to do, although it can be time consuming.

Use with Celestia also requires that the images be freely redistributable. Many of the best pictures, like Axel Mellinger's Milky Way panorama, are copyrighted. You have to get permission to redistribute them, which often requires paying royalties to the copyright holder. Since Celestia is free, getting the money to do that wouldn't be easy.

[ElPelado]

Stargazer_2098
can you tell me exactly wich starry night you are using? and how do activate the OpenGL?

[ElPelado]

Stargazer_2098
can you tell me exactly wich starry night you are using? and how do activate the OpenGL?

[Stargazer_2098]

I use Starry Night Pro, version 4.0.5x .

To manually activate OpenGL, I enter the preferences menu, and from there go to the section called "OpenGL", then select the "use OpenGL"-function in the resulting menu.

Actually, Starry Night Pro 4.X should detect if you got a OpenGL-compatible machine and modify itself accordingly.

I hope that's of some help.



Stargazer.

[ElPelado]

I use Starry Night Pro, version 4.0.5x

thats why i cant see those things... i am using starry night backyard

[Guest]

Just out of curiosity, is there any type of demo available for Starry Night?
Being the penny pincher I am, I'd hate to plunk down the money they want for the programs and then not like it at all.

-AJ

[Guest]

There is a 15-day demo available. They will send you an e-mail with the software key. The DL is about 40 MB.

[Rassilon]

You know in my honest opinion you cannot compare these two pieces of software for the sole fact that Starry Night has a large team of developers where Celestia has a small handful...And no one here gets paid for it...

If you need a detailed piece of software that supplies control to your telescope and all the extra bells and whistles of course your going to pay for it...But Celestia by itself has a certain spirit about it that rises above that...It was made by dedicated users not driven by profit...but by the sole modivation to explore and create...

Something Starry Night lacks...You will never be able to create with that piece of software...I would rather give the 200 dollars to chris...

Just my 2 1/2 cents

[Stargazer_2098]

I totally agree with Rassilon.


Stargazer.