"I can never look upon the Stars without wondering why the whole World does not become Astronomers....and reconcile them to all those little Difficulties incident to human nature,without the least anxiety" Thomas Wright of Durham 1752.
Annular Solar Eclipse 31.5.03 Northern regions
Annular Solar Eclipse 31.5.03 Northern regions
Hello everyone.I'm looking forward to seeing an annular eclipse here in Scotland, weather permitting of course. What's a good way to see this in Celestia? Thank- you wise ones, for your brilliant models ,textures etc. I' m at early days yet, pleased with myself if a little notepad edit works ok. I've started from a point where I thought "hires" was something you had to rent so the only way is up.....
Ziggy,
Essentially, what you need to do is go to a reasonable observation location at the time of the eclipse and look at the moon or sun.
One way to start is to use the Eclipse finder in the Navigation menu to get you to the right day.
Then GoTo the Earth ( 3 G ) and then get into SyncOrbit ( Y ). Use the right-mouse-button to rotate the earth until a good observation location is centered. This is easier to do if you turn on Markers (Control-K).
You'll also need to adjust the time of day so that Scotland is in sunlight so you can see where you're going. I usually do this by changing the rate-of-time with the "j", "k" and "l" keys.
Next, go to a very low altitude (e.g. use the Wheel if you have a wheel-mouse).
Now look at the moon (e.g. type [Enter] moon [Enter] T T ) Turning Tracking on and off by typing the "T" key twice puts the moon in the center but still leaves you orbiting the Earth.
Then adjust the time to the beginning of the eclipse and watch. You'll probably want to use the arrow keys to make the horizon level.
Celestia seems to have some numerical problems with this viewpoint. The horizon jumps around quite a bit. It isn't so noticable at the standard magnification, but if you turn up the magnification with the "," key so the image of the eclipse is reasonably large, you'll see the horizon vibrating.
Or, unless you consider this cheating, here's a Cel:// URL for watching the eclipse from a viewpoint at Wick:
cel://SyncOrbit/Sol:Earth/2003-05-31T03:19:36.80134?x=R+c4IPgkhP63DA&y=DOIz1fgSMg&z=GsMtcZTVoPsO&ow=0.946998&ox=-0.075932&oy=0.295283&oz=0.101178&select=Sol:Earth&fov=20.615063&ts=1.000000&rf=18307&lm=0<d=0
I hope this helps.
Essentially, what you need to do is go to a reasonable observation location at the time of the eclipse and look at the moon or sun.
One way to start is to use the Eclipse finder in the Navigation menu to get you to the right day.
Then GoTo the Earth ( 3 G ) and then get into SyncOrbit ( Y ). Use the right-mouse-button to rotate the earth until a good observation location is centered. This is easier to do if you turn on Markers (Control-K).
You'll also need to adjust the time of day so that Scotland is in sunlight so you can see where you're going. I usually do this by changing the rate-of-time with the "j", "k" and "l" keys.
Next, go to a very low altitude (e.g. use the Wheel if you have a wheel-mouse).
Now look at the moon (e.g. type [Enter] moon [Enter] T T ) Turning Tracking on and off by typing the "T" key twice puts the moon in the center but still leaves you orbiting the Earth.
Then adjust the time to the beginning of the eclipse and watch. You'll probably want to use the arrow keys to make the horizon level.
Celestia seems to have some numerical problems with this viewpoint. The horizon jumps around quite a bit. It isn't so noticable at the standard magnification, but if you turn up the magnification with the "," key so the image of the eclipse is reasonably large, you'll see the horizon vibrating.
Or, unless you consider this cheating, here's a Cel:// URL for watching the eclipse from a viewpoint at Wick:
cel://SyncOrbit/Sol:Earth/2003-05-31T03:19:36.80134?x=R+c4IPgkhP63DA&y=DOIz1fgSMg&z=GsMtcZTVoPsO&ow=0.946998&ox=-0.075932&oy=0.295283&oz=0.101178&select=Sol:Earth&fov=20.615063&ts=1.000000&rf=18307&lm=0<d=0
I hope this helps.
Selden
-
james
annular eclipse
heres a link to some pix of the eclipse:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/3910 ... ngfire.jpg
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/3910 ... ngfire.jpg
