Hi:
Just last week I found out about Celestia and I'm so glad I did. It's fantastic! Of course I have a lot of newbie quetions about it, one of them is: when I start the program, is there a way to make it start with my prefered display mode and not have to select it every time? Also, can I start Celestia viewing a particular planet?, every time I start, It's looking at IO.
TIA,
Cuco
Newbie question about Celestia
Newbie question about Celestia
Air Traffic Controllers tell pilots where to go!
As for the latter...look for the file start.cel in your Celestia folder (or CelestiaResources on OS X). It contains a script that tells Celestia to look at Io on startup. I dont know if you can control display modes from the cel script.
If you do a google search for "celestia cel scripting" you will find the cel scripting guide, that shouuld tell you everything you need to know.
If you do a google search for "celestia cel scripting" you will find the cel scripting guide, that shouuld tell you everything you need to know.
Howdy Cuco,
Welcome to Celestia!
The Scripting forum here has a lot of info and links to help you with controlling how Celestia looks, via easy to write scripts. The CEL Template script in particular, would be a good starting point, to see some of the things you can set each time Celestia is started.
To get the CEL Scripting Guide and a couple of example scripts (including the Template script), go here: http://www.donandcarla.com/Celestia/
Have fun exploring!
-Don G.
Welcome to Celestia!
The Scripting forum here has a lot of info and links to help you with controlling how Celestia looks, via easy to write scripts. The CEL Template script in particular, would be a good starting point, to see some of the things you can set each time Celestia is started.
To get the CEL Scripting Guide and a couple of example scripts (including the Template script), go here: http://www.donandcarla.com/Celestia/
Have fun exploring!
-Don G.
-
Guest
-
HS
Start Cels
Many thanks for your question. I too have been anxious to be able to redesign the opening screen of Celestia, and some of the responses to your queiry have proven to be most helpful.
Here is a design of a start cel that I created yesterday. Hope you may find it useful. It starts Celestia with a glorious view of Saturn's rings.
{
select { object "Sol/Saturn/Pan" }
gotolonglat { time 50 distance 1 Longitude 48.02345 latitude -14.91931 }
follow {}
goto { time 25 distance 8513 }
timerate { rate 1000.0 }
set { name "FOV" value 35.0 }
}
To use it, rename the file "start.cel" in the Celestia directory to something like start(old).cel. This will allow you to retrieve the original start.cel if you want to later. Then open the above lines inside the curly brackets, including the curly brackest, into a simple word processor like WordPad. Then save the new file as "start.cel" in the Celestia directory.
When you next open Celestia you'll have a grand view of Saturn's rings.
Hope you enjoy it.
Good Luck with Celestia.
Here is a design of a start cel that I created yesterday. Hope you may find it useful. It starts Celestia with a glorious view of Saturn's rings.
{
select { object "Sol/Saturn/Pan" }
gotolonglat { time 50 distance 1 Longitude 48.02345 latitude -14.91931 }
follow {}
goto { time 25 distance 8513 }
timerate { rate 1000.0 }
set { name "FOV" value 35.0 }
}
To use it, rename the file "start.cel" in the Celestia directory to something like start(old).cel. This will allow you to retrieve the original start.cel if you want to later. Then open the above lines inside the curly brackets, including the curly brackest, into a simple word processor like WordPad. Then save the new file as "start.cel" in the Celestia directory.
When you next open Celestia you'll have a grand view of Saturn's rings.
Hope you enjoy it.
Good Luck with Celestia.
start cells
Oops. I spoke too soon. The start.cell posted by HS doesn't work for me. I end up far out in space looking at a fuzzy cloud named Milky Way. A nice view, but not the expected view of Saturn, that's for sure. 
I am using Celestia V1.3.1, is that the problem? I have been having trouble with adding various add ons, too.
I am using Celestia V1.3.1, is that the problem? I have been having trouble with adding various add ons, too.Try updating to the 1.3.2 pre1 version (http://ennui.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4273). Some of the scripting features got broken in 1.3.1 final.
-Don G.
-Don G.
-
HS
Start Cel
Many thanks for the comments.
Here is a start.cel that will open Celestia with Earth as the focus, looking down upon the US.
{
select { object "Sol/Earth" }
follow {}
goto { time 5 }
timerate { rate 1000.0 }
gotolonglat { time 1 distance 5 longitude -53.94 latitude 40.67 }
}
Some previous versions of Celestia opened with Earth as the focus, but the opening changes from version to version, with Io seeming to be most popular as the starter.
I've also made the time rate to be 1000 so that you immediately have an animated look at Celestia.
If you want to have several different Start.Cel's, I'd suggest the following technique.
1. Give each start.cel a name like startEarth.cel or startIo.cel or startSaturnRings.cel, and save all those file to the Celestia directory.
2. When you want to change the start.cel to one of the ones mentioned in point 1, just open the desired file in WordPad and rename it start.cel.
That will rename the desired file to start.cel and will still keep the original file for future use.
Good luck.
Here is a start.cel that will open Celestia with Earth as the focus, looking down upon the US.
{
select { object "Sol/Earth" }
follow {}
goto { time 5 }
timerate { rate 1000.0 }
gotolonglat { time 1 distance 5 longitude -53.94 latitude 40.67 }
}
Some previous versions of Celestia opened with Earth as the focus, but the opening changes from version to version, with Io seeming to be most popular as the starter.
I've also made the time rate to be 1000 so that you immediately have an animated look at Celestia.
If you want to have several different Start.Cel's, I'd suggest the following technique.
1. Give each start.cel a name like startEarth.cel or startIo.cel or startSaturnRings.cel, and save all those file to the Celestia directory.
2. When you want to change the start.cel to one of the ones mentioned in point 1, just open the desired file in WordPad and rename it start.cel.
That will rename the desired file to start.cel and will still keep the original file for future use.
Good luck.