Celestia Forums

For its versatility in simulating breathtaking views of the cosmos, I'd rate Celestia a nine. The ONLY constraint I've encountered so far is not being able to render the sky from the surface of a planet, given a particular latitude and longitude. (I would, for instance, like to view the stars in the southern sky of a hypothetical exo- planet around the star HIP23311.) I understand such a rendering requires the manipulation of certain orbital and rotational elements, an entirely feasible undertaking considering the program's current stature in graphic quality. Does this feature exist currently and for some reason I'm not finding a reference to it in the manual? I realize that I can specify latitude, longitude, and distance in the Goto Object dialog box; however, once I'm near the surface of a planet I run into three problems. (1) The horizon is very difficult to level using the rotation (7&9) keys. (2) There are no markers on the horizon showing compass directions. (3) At very low altitudes (a few meters above the ground) the display starts to flicker annoyingly. Is it possible to fix these problems and show the sky from the surfaces of planets as most star-plotting programs already do?

There is a clipping bug in Celestia that causes problems when you're very close to a surrface. It probably won't be fixed soon.

However, Celestia does contain commands to place your viewpoint near a planetary surface and to change the arrow keys to work in alt-az orientation. Please read the "Preliminary User's FAQ", Q/A #19. It's a "sticky" posting near the top of the Celestia User's Forum.