Celestia Forums

Hi everyone,

I want to write a script that creates a view in which the earth and the moon are visible and labeled and also the moon's orbit around the earth is shown. But I do not want to see any other orbits or labels at all -- something like the following:

c e l ://Follow/Sol:Earth/2011-02-11T16:57:41.87415?x=AKknXYYNARE&y=ACb9ForuURI&z=AJLCIRc5vuz//////////w&ow=0.38999&ox=0.295101&oy=-0.847389&oz=-0.206776&fov=30&ts=1&ltd=0&p=0&rf=6067&lm=6&tsrc=0&ver=3

(this was done interactively using the menu options)
I am sure the answer is buried in the above code, but I cannot make any sense of it. For example what is "ts" or "ltd" and so on? where can I find the definitions used in Cel-URL-links?

Many thanks,

Ben

The simplest script (celx script foc celestia 1.6.1 or above) is :

celestia:seturl("cel://Follow/Sol:Earth/2011-02-11T16:57:41.87415?x=AKknXYYNARE&y=ACb9ForuURI&z=AJLCIRc5vuz//////////w&ow=0.38999&ox=0.295101&oy=-0.847389&oz=-0.206776&fov=30&ts=1&ltd=0&p=0&rf=6067&lm=6&tsrc=0&ver=3")

That's it!

I have colored in red the separation between the parameters.

Your cel:url means

follow earth
Instead of Follow you may find SyncOrbit, Chase, PhaseLock or Freeflight

time is 16h 57mn 41.87415s TDB (which is slighty different from UTC)

x=AKknXYYNARE&y=ACb9ForuURI&z=AJLCIRc5vuz//////////w
is the observer's position (x,y,z) in space in the current reference frame

ow=0.429893&ox=0.319956&oy=-0.786188&oz=-0.307779
is the observer's orientation (ow, ox, oy, oz)

Then you can have other option like
track= object name
select= object name
fov = Field of View in degrees
ts = time scale
ltd = light time delay (0=off, 1=on)
p = paused (0=off, 1=on)
rf = render flags
lm = label flags
tsrc = I don't know !!! who knows ???
ver=3 = for celestia 1.6 and above (at this time)

The rf number is made by the sum of this individual flags
1 = stars
2 = planets
4 = galaxies
8 = constellation lines
6 = clouds
32 = orbits
64 = celestial grid
128 = night lights
256 = atmospheres
512 = smooth lines for orbits
1024 = eclipes shadows
2048 = light travel ???
4096 = ring shadows
8192 = constellation boundaries
16384 = auto magnitude
32768 = comet tails
65536 = marks
131072 = partial trajectories (not implemented yet)
262144 = nebulae
524288 = open clusters
1048576 = globulars
2097152 = cloud shadows
4194304 = galactic grid
8388608 = ecliptic grid
16777216 = horizontal grid
33554432 = ecliptic

The lm number is made by the sum of this flags that indicates the labels that are shown.
1 = stars
2 = planets
4 = moons
8 = constellations
16 = galaxies
32 = asteroids
64 = vessels
128 = localities
256 = comets
512 = nebulae
1024 open clusters
2048 = local names for constellations
4096 = dwarf planets
8192 = minor moons
16384 = globulars

Thanks jogad, this is a fantastically comprehensive reply. It will take me a while to digest it.
In the meantime, I put a cel-URL in a script file (test.cel) as follows but it doesn't work. Here is the test file:

{
seturl {url "



"
}
}

My current version is 1.6.0 (running on Mac)

Thanks you for your help,

Ben

Your cel:url string must be strictly enclosed with the qotes. No space nor line feed after the first quote. Same thing at the end of the string.

You are absolutely right. It worked after that correction. Thanks.

Reference my original question, is it not possible to turn the labels or orbits on and off selectively? I want so see all the planets going round the sun but only some of them to have labels or orbits shown.

Ben