Celestia Forums

Hi all, I was just wondering if it would be possible to view the belt of Venus in Celestia. The belt looks so wonderful, you know? Also, would it be possible to add weather effects in Celestia? That would be pretty cool, I guess. What do you think?

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john Van Vliet wrote:The planet Venus dose not have any "belts" of weather
most of the cloud details are in the UV - non visible part of the spectrum


unless you are referring to the VERY old Victorian era name of the atmospheric refraction of sunlight just before sunrise or after sunset

Hehe, I knew instantly just from reading the title that he was referring to the second one.

Yes, the refraction of light at sunrise and sunset. Sorry about that

dermeisterike wrote:Yes, the refraction of light at sunrise and sunset. Sorry about that

Don't worry, dermeisterike, you got the name exactly right. I fear john Van Vliet may have fallen foul of Wikipedia's ongoing effort to ensure everyone on the planet has access to the same misinformation.
The arc of colours bordering Earth's shadow at sunrise and sunset is still called the Belt of Venus, and you'll find it described under that name in modern texts on atmospheric optics, such as Lynch and Livingston's Color and Light in Nature (2001) and Naylor's Out of the Blue (2002); and it featured under that name as an Astronomy Picture of the Day earlier this year. The name is a mythological reference - the goddess Venus wore a gold filigree girdle.

Simulating the necessary physics wouldn't be trivial, but you'll find several threads on this forum discussing various proposed improvements to Celestia's modelling of atmospheres.

Grant

It would be great to see in Celestia, but I've got to admit I'd never heard of the Belt of Venus until it was listed as one of the 55 heavenly objects to try and observe during April this year, as part of the Moore's Marathon from the Sky at Night TV show.

It's something I've seen countless times during my lifetime but never given much thought to!