How do I get rid of Pluto's label?

[Fiske]

Since Pluto is now no longer a planet, how do I go about getting rid of Pluto when I want all of the planets label with their orbits? As of right now it seems like all I can do is either turn all of the planet labels & orbits on or off. Is there any way to individually select which planets I want to turn off, or an updated patch for celestia that no longer labels Pluto as a planet? Any help would be much appreciated!

[Cham]

You'll have to edit the solarsys.ssc file, in your CelestiaRessources folder.

[Clorox]

Also, what exactly do you do to change Pluto's label color and orbit color and rename Eris and Dysnomia?

[fsgregs]

By default, Pluto is a planet. You can classify it something else, however, by opening the file in the Data folder named, "Solarsys.ssc". Scroll down to the entry on Pluto. Locate the lines that begin

"Pluto" "Sol"
{
Texture "pluto-lok.*"

Change that to read,

"Pluto" "Sol"
{
Class "asteroid"
Texture "pluto-lok.*"

From then on, Pluto will be considered an asteroid by Celestia and dropped from the planet list. Its orbit line will no long be colored blue and will not appear when you press the [P] key. Instead, it will appear with the asteroids.

I don't recommend you remove it just yet, however. The jury is still out on whether it will be downgraded for long.

To rename 2003 UB313 at Eris, simply open the "Outersys.ssc" in the Celestia data folder, locate the 2003 UB313 entry and change it to "Eris".

Regards

Frank

[Liar]

Hmmm..... If i add the line:

{
Class "planet"

... to 2003 UB313, will it add Xena/Eris as a planet?

...will "0" act as it's hotkey?

*goes to experiment...*

[fsgregs]

Liar:

Yes ... if you add Class "planet" to the ssc for Eris, it will become a planet and will appear as a planet when the "O" key is pressed. Remember that the "O" key toggles the appearance of all orbit lines in Celestia. By default, the orbital lines of planets show up when you press the "O" key. You can turn on or off any other orbital lines you wish by pulling down the "Render" menu, navigating to "View Options" and check or uncheck any orbital box you wish.

Frank

[Liar]

Actually i was wondering about 0 "zero" key, rather than the O "oh" key - as the keys 1-though-9 gives you Mercury-through-Pluto (unless you've gone along with the IAU's demotion I personally think Pluto/Eris(Xena)/etc... as "icy planets" is more scientifically relevant than the official "minor planet" concept).

[selden]

0 (zero) already is used to select the parent star of the currently selected system.

[bdm]

To rename 2003 UB313 at Eris, simply open the "Outersys.ssc" in the Celestia data folder, locate the 2003 UB313 entry and change it to "Eris".

Don't forget to rename 2003 UB313 to Eris in the definition of the moon's orbit as well if that orbit is present in the file, otherwise it won't show up anymore. Renaming the moon is also a good idea.

[Liar]

Yup, i thought of that; thanks

I now have "Xena (Eris) 2003 UB 313" and "Gabrielle (Dysnomia) 2005...i-forget-the-full-designation". Which makes them a bit more annoying to find by searching for the name, but that doesn't really matter, as making Xena a planet makes them both easier to find just by switching on orbits and planet labels.

Hey - there's a thought - is there a way to name planets the way that stars are named?

If you're searching for a star, you only have to type out one of it's synonyms to get to it (which is really just the best way to do things...).

Can i set things up in a similar way for planets/asteroids/etc..?

I did try leaving those colons ":" between the names Xena, Eris, and 2003 UB 313 the first time i named it (as the same colons appear between star synonyms), but that just resulted in it being labelled "Xena:Eris:2003 UB313" (rather than just being named with a single one of those names) when i switched planet labels on, so i don't think it works the same way. Or maybe there's some formatting trick that i missed.

Thoughts anyone?

[Chuft-Captain]

G'day mate,

Just create an invisible object for each of the synonyms you want, and give it exactly the same orbit, and a similar radius, but none of the other attributes of the original.

Here's one I prepared earlier...
(for Earth: giving it the alternate name "Gaia")

Code: Select all

"Gaia" "Sol"
{
   Class "Invisible"
   Radius 6378.140  # equatorial
   CustomOrbit "vsop87-earth"
   EllipticalOrbit {   
      Period            1.0000
      SemiMajorAxis     1.0000
      Eccentricity      0.0167
      Inclination       0.0001
      AscendingNode   348.739
      LongOfPericenter 102.947
           MeanLongitude   100.464
   }
}


[selden]

If you use one of Celestia's internal CustomOrbit definitions, any accompanying EllipticalOrbit declaration is ignored and can be deleted.

The CustomOrbit declarations refer to specific orbital ephemerides which are implemented internally to Celestia's code. They only exist for the planets and major moons. Celestia doesn't complain if you specify one that doesn't exist, but it doesn't do anything, either.

[Liar]

That is a really elegant solution, nonetheless. I'm impressed; thank-you for the idea.

[Chuft-Captain]

Code: Select all

"Gaia" "Sol"
{
   Class "Invisible"
   Radius 6378.140  # equatorial
   CustomOrbit "vsop87-earth"
}