Celestia Forums

is there any way of getting the moon on Celestia to go red!

it just disapears

David

David wrote:is there any way of getting the moon on Celestia to go red!

it just disapears

David

I presume you mean during a Lunar Eclipse? Nope. Celestia doesn't handle the diffraction of light through the atmosphere that makes the moon go red when it's in Earth's shadow, so it just goes black instead because no light is directly reaching it..

EDIT: BTW, you posted this on the wrong board - best place for this sort of thing is on the Users board. This board is for people who are actually developing new material for Celestia. (Selden, maybe you could move this?)

Ummm..

If I'm not wrong, there was a little hack (modified source code) of an old version of Celestia that rendered eclipse shadows in red colour, wich was great for Moon eclipses but a totally unrealistic when on other planet/moons eclipses...

I was the guy who make this long time ago.
However, Preasepe Don't say that it was not realistic with other moons since this reddish color was only applied to our moon exclusively. Nothing for the moons of the other planets.
MB

MB, Would you consider making a hack for pre5?? It would be really cool
to see a red total Lunar eclipse.

Anonymous wrote:MB, Would you consider making a hack for pre5?? It would be really cool
to see a red total Lunar eclipse.

I will look if the code of Celestia has not changed too much concerning this peculiar aspect. This hack was 2 years old :roll:
Unfortunately I am not optimistic:
1: I cannot anymore compile under Windows since Chris use the last Visual C++ developing set.
2: The situation is somewhat better with Linux, but I stiill have some problems.
It is rather obvious that the continuous improvement ( change, at least) :wink: does not help for the developer amateur like me.
Sorry, MB

MB, Tell me if Im wrong but I think it can be compiled from the sorce code with the included makefile.exe or some other simular file?
If not perhapes Cris would consider building this feature into celestia.
along with stars that are more radiant in brightness.
Thanks for responding.

Anonymous Guest,

makerelease.bat works fine, but only if you have a compatible compiler installed on your system. In particular, it has to be Windows C++ v7.0 or later.

e.g. the version that's included with Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 Professional.

My understanding is that a "cookbook" explaining how to use the free version of Microsoft's Windows C++ compiler is in development.

Unfortunately, compiling under Linux has prerequisites which aren't explicitly documented. Several of the "auto" configuration tools have to be invoked which create an appropriate makefile, for example.

The "cookbook" has had a draft for some time now. I just need to find the time to make it user freindly and get it up to the forums. Hopefully it wil be out soon. The good news is that I've done daily builds off of the cvs and not had any problems aside from the cvs not always being accesible.

Sorry for this late answer. I am not presently at home and I do not look at the forum as frequently as it would be. I need to clarify some points.
1. I devoted at least one thread about this topic where I developped my view point in details, I don't remember when, but you should easily find these posts using the "Search" function with my forum id: MB, or by searching the word Eclipse.

2. I don't have the corresponding source code available here, I have to wait when I will be back at home (end of the week).
3. I only have Visual C++ V6.0, installed, therefore as explained by Selden I cannot compile the new code. Even more, only the file I have to modify (render;cpp) cannot be compiled with C++ V6.0 !!! Actually I have the material to install C++ V7.0. However, It is a apparently a very heavy stuff, I tried to install it but the install complained saying that I have to install something else in Windows. Furthermore I read (or I heard ), as a warning, that it is hasardous to install it! Therefore I am still in a kind of an expectation state.
4. In addition, you may easily understand that it is very boring to apply such change to the many successive prereleased versions of celestia. It is the reason why I gave up. If I can solve the above problems, I will try to make such hack, at least for the released version.
5. The best solution would be that the developpers consider this effect ( by treating the light scattering by our dusty atmosphere) but it is clearly not in their priority.
MB