Celestia Forums

I was able to be at Earth and zoom in on Andromeda after selecting it and pressing something (it was bigger than the screen, but I was still in orbit around Earth), but I forgot what keys to use. I didn't see it in any "keycontrol" files either. Could someone please tell me how I did that.

Certainly! Please open telepathy channel 39 to download all past memories into PsiCorp post-cog division...

But seriously, perhaps you pressed the , and . keys (comma and full-stop) which cause zoom-in and zoom-out.

Spiff.

I think I remember it differently. I could be at the Earth, click on M31 and enlarge it to any size - all the while leaving Earth exactly as is. I don't remember, I just know I have some screen shots I can't duplicate.

christoria wrote:I think I remember it differently. I could be at the Earth, click on M31 and enlarge it to any size - all the while leaving Earth exactly as is. I don't remember, I just know I have some screen shots I can't duplicate.

Hello,

Does anyone know how to do this? It doesn't seem to be in the "controls.txt" file. Also, comet tails seems not to be working in pre5. Anyone else see this, too?

Thank you for your time,

christoria

You are right, Christoria; zoom does not seem to be in the controls information. However, Spiff's answer is still correct. The comma (,) zooms in and the period (.) zooms out, without changing your current location.

I did the following:
start Celestia
press "Enter"
press "M 31"
press "c"
press ","
and the Andromeda galaxy zoomed in for me.

I can't help you with the comet tails - I haven't downloaded pre-5 yet.

May I also suggest this keychart.

Christoria,

Comet tails are working fine in pre5.
They no longer are drawn for comets which are more than about 5AU from the Sun: comets that far out are too cold to have tails.

Here are orbital elements for the comet 17P/Holmes. It is only slightly more than 2AU from the Sun, and does have a tail drawn by pre5.

selden, Thanks for the explanation. That helps.

However, I still cannot do what I was able to before. I had a screenshot of Earth with Andromeda in the background and Andromeda was so big it was off the screen, with Earth right there in the middle big enough to take up about 1/3 of the screen. It was some sort of "telescope view" on only the object you have selected - the rest of the screen stays the same. I'll get it sometime.

Christoria,

To accomplish what you describe, you need to
+ go to a viewpoint far away from the selected planetary object,
+ track the selected planet
+ move the viewpoint so that the selected planet is in between you and the deep-sky object,
+ increase magnification until the DSO is the appropriate size
+ travel closer to the selected planet until the planet has the appropriate size. (The DSO is far away, so its apparent size won't change.)

You mean something like this?



Pretty neat screenshot, actually.

Edit: As Selden described while I was making the screenshot.
Edit again: 1920x1080 yummy goodness.

selden,

Thank you. I think that is it.