Relabelling stars

[wonderdog]

I have been traweling through the forums, and help documents, but I think I am overloaded with information.

Have downloaded the Star Wars stuff, or some of. When I Went looking, couldnt find it. Had to check one of the SSC (?) files to get the name of the star it's at.

Is there a way to relabel these stars into something I can easily remember?

Thankings

[Rocket Man]

Did you try unzipping and properly install (viewing Readme)?

If you did this, did you place it in the "Extras" folder of your main Celestia folder? And place textures in the "Textures/Medres" and place models in the "Models" folder?

If you did all the above, try this "press "enter", type the star's name, then "/" then the planets name. press enter and press "g" to go to it.
Example: Sol/Earth/moon, Sol/Earth/iss




I hope this helps.

[wonderdog]

Oh yeah, I know how to install them and stuff. I can go to "HD 143761" and there are all the loverly Star Wars Models.

But thats kinda tricky to remember off the top of my head. It has "endor" in the file named befoer this HD ******, but Celestia wont go to Endor right off the bat.

SO I'd like to rename HD 143761 to like, "Star Wars", something that would be easy to reference and go to.

[Tanketai]

There's a way to do it, and it includes creating a .stc file with the star data, using it's Hipparcos number, which is HIP 78459 to HD 143761. It would look like this:

Code: Select all

78459 "StarWars"

{
SpectralType "G2V"
AbsMag 4.18
}

But I've tried several times and it won't work. Maybe it has to do with the RA and DEC numbers, which I don't have. You should just create a new star, using random numbers to DEC, RA and distance, and then put star wars planets around it...

[symaski62]

There's a way to do it, and it includes creating a .stc file with the star data, using it's Hipparcos number, which is HIP 78459 to HD 143761. It would look like this:

Code: Select all

78459 "StarWars"

{
SpectralType "G2V"
AbsMag 4.18
}

But I've tried several times and it won't work. Maybe it has to do with the RA and DEC numbers, which I don't have. You should just create a new star, using random numbers to DEC, RA and distance, and then put star wars planets around it...

cel://Follow/RHO CrB/2005-02-26T07:39:05.29932?x=AADz5iNDgFqba5j+/////w&y=AMBvS2PYxB13V68C&z=AAAXK0eTXHYXC4QB&ow=-0.332308&ox=-0.038560&oy=0.934228&oz=0.123704&select=RHO CrB&fov=25.421543&ts=1.000000&ltd=0&rf=104355&lm=0

HIP 78459 voila => "StarWars"

/!\ RHO CrB = HIP 78459

[fsgregs]

OK, here is how you rename a star.

In the Data folder of Celestia is a file called "Starnames.dat". Save a backup copy of it first, then open the original file with a text editor.

Using a find menu in your text editor, find the number "78459". You will find an entry that looks like this (between two brackets or characters):

78459:RHO CrB:15 CrB

This is a listing of the 3 other names the star goes by (plus its HD #).

Insert the new name you wish the star to have in this entry so it now reads:


78459:Degobah:RHO CrB:15 CrB

(or any other name you wish for the star).

Save the file

Now, open Celestia. Type "Degobah" in the enter field and press [G] and you will wing to the StarWars system. I like Degobah because it is a star and a planet mentioned in the movie, but you can enter "StarWars" instead as a star name, or anything you like.

Enjoy.

Frank

[selden]

While the method described by Frank works for Celestia v1.3.0 and later, starting with Celestia v1.3.2, you do not have to edit any of Celestia's own files. Don't forget that you'll lose those edits when you install the next version of Celestia.

You now can redefine a star's names by creating a .STC (STar Catalog) of your own in the /extras/ directory. Celestia updates its internal database of stars from all the .STC files that it finds.

As Tanketai mentioned, start the definition with the Hipparcos number of the star you want to replace. Follow it by the name(s) of the star in quotes. If it has more than one name, separate the names by colons. All of its previous names will be deleted. The star's new definition must include its location, brightness and spectral type.

For example:

Code: Select all

12345 "MyStar:GC 3207:IDS 02358-5516 A"
{
  RA    39.736583
  Dec -54.837242
  Distance 7.6

  AbsMag 2.36
  SpectalType "F01V"
}


[fsgregs]

Selden:

Use of an stc file is good to know. Thanks.

However, where does one get the coordinates for a star, formatted in Celestia's proper format? Going to one in Celestia does not tell you its position, and trying to read it from Stars.dat is almost impossible.

I also recall some trick you had to do to convert RA and Dec which is listed on the Horizons website to Celestia coordinates. Is there some easy way to find out the RA and Dec of a star, in Celestia format?

Frank

[selden]

Frank,

The thing to remember is that Celestia uses decimal degrees for RA in STC files. Usually, but not always, databases contain RA in units of Hours, Minutes and Seconds.

RA in degrees = 15 x (RA hours + RA minutes/60 + RA seconds/3600)

(There are 15 degrees in an hour.)

I usually "cheat" and use the Chandra Precess Web page at http://cxc.harvard.edu/toolkit/precess.jsp

It uses Simbad to look up an object and (by default) returns the object's J2000 RA and Dec in degrees when you click on the "Calculatet" button.