Celestia Forums

Hi everybody, I'd like to know if it is possible with Celestia to view the full Celestial Planisphere (possibly with ecliptic) instead of viewing a little portion of sky.. I'd like to view something like this: http://www.sleepunderthestars.co.uk/map.gif
If celestia can't show the full celestial planisphere during its apparent motion, which software can? Another question: how to look at the Zenit? I couldn't find answers to these questions elsewhere . Thanks in advance.

Celestia shows a 120 degree view. The picture you posted shows a 180 degree view. Astronomy Magazine shows a 180 degree view each month. If you want a 360 degree view with Celestia, you can use 3 monitors with 3 computers, each showing 120 degrees. Then, the 3 120 degree views would show the 360 degree sphere.

Or you can go to a library and get several issues of the magazine Astronomy and place them side by side to see the whole ecliptic.

There are several freeware planisphere software packages available for downloading. I don't use any of them, so I can't make any recommendations. Hopefully someone else can. A Web search will find many of them.

selden wrote:There are several freeware planisphere software packages available for downloading. I don't use any of them, so I can't make any recommendations. Hopefully someone else can. A Web search will find many of them.

Though this thread does beg the question - is there any reason why Celestia's limit of view is set at 120 degrees? Why not go all the way to 180?

I've just understood how to look at the zenit: I go on a place on earth and then Shift + *
But Malenfant's question is right: why can't Celestia look at 180?°? Isn't there really any way to change this limit? It looks strange: you can do almost everything with this great software but can't change a limit of view?

d wrote:I've just understood how to look at the zenit: I go on a place on earth and then Shift + *

All * does is turn you 180 degrees round to face the opposite direction. Unless you mean you go to the earth using the 'g' command til it's huge, then hit * which would work, but it's not ideal.

You want something that rotates you 90 degrees to face the zenith if you're on the planet looking at the horizon. I just found out by accident that you CAN look at the zenith though. The proper way to 'land' on a planet is with Ctrl-g (Goto Surface). Once you land, press Ctrl-g again, and it rotates you so that you're looking 90 degrees up! (is this intentional?). Pressing Ctrl+g for a third time has no extra effect.

Then you can use the < and > keys to zoom in/out, and K and L to speed up or slow down time as you watch the constellations rotate overhead. And press Ctrl-F to get into and out of alt-azimuth mode while on the surface so that pressing the left/right arrows rotates your view instead of translates it sideways.

in fact I used goto object > earth then I entered coordinates, 2km of distance so I was with my face looking down. Pressing * I looked at the zenith. Pressing twice ctrl+G has almost the same effect but you can land on the surface, so it is better, thank you.

To see the sky from a Earth location You can also use "Stellarium", a nice free software.
http://www.stellarium.org

eheh I already downloaded that software some days ago but is it possible to view the sky at 180 degrees? I noticed too that it is more resource-consuming than Celestia.

** UPDATE **
I didn't understand the documentation.. I used the dot . and the comma , to adjust the field view, but it seems deformed..

Switch on fish-eye projection mode in Stellarium. Works fine for a planisphere-like experience.

Yes it can display at 180?° http://www.stellarium.org/screenshot8.html
But how do you switch in "dome" mode ? Do you modify the [projection] type in the file "config.ini" ?

There is a checkbox in the configuration window, video-tab (click the wrench-icon in the control strip, bottom-left of your screen)

I already tried these checkbox...but I didn't understand it was necessary after that to zoom out to see completely the horizon
Crazy frog!

Thanks