Celestia Forums

I've read around and figured that Celestia could do a sort of ground observer's view. Like what I can see from Earth. It seems I need scripts for this. Could someone point me in the right direction?

Go above the point you want to observe from, "Y" to syncronize orbit, CTRL-G to goto ground, CTRL-F to shift to ALT-AZ mode. Also, look into Vincent's Lua addon. It has a compass and other tools that can help.

Thank you. It works. What is Alt-AZ mode? Also, moving my viewpoint around the skeis seems to mess up my balance. Like if I look around with left click, the horizon tilts.

buggs_moran wrote:Go above the point you want to observe from, "Y" to syncronize orbit, CTRL-G to goto ground...

One thing. CTRL-G automatically synchronizes your orbit.

peterhuang913 wrote:What is Alt-AZ mode?

I'm not familiar with Alt-AZ mode. Maybe someone else can help you with that.

"Alt-Az" is an abbreviation for "Altitude-Azimuth coordinate system".

Altitude is the vertical direction, up-and-down with respect to the object (Earth, perhaps).
Azimuth is the horizontal direction, right-and-left with respect to the object.

When you switch to "Alt-Az" mode, the right- and left- arrow keys rotate the viewpoint toward the left and right. Normally those keys will cause the viewpoint to rotate around the center of the screen.

Peter, watch the video here, it gives a simple explanation of the astronomical coordinate systems: http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/museum/esim.asp?c=500027

Thanks guys. It's all good now.