Celestia Forums

I am trying to do the tutorial on creating HIP500000 in Selden's 'A (not so) Brief Introduction to Celestia.' I cannot get the program to recgonize the .stc file. After not being able to build the file manually (yes, I have file suffixes viewed and the file is named 'hip500000.stc' and not with any extra file suffix beyond stc), I then downloaded the linked file in his tutorial. It wouldn't work either. I placed the file in the ..\celestia\extras\Addons\HIP500000 cataog as directed and restarted Celestia). Anyone have any ideas?

Dale,

Have you enabled Celestia's "console output" by typing a tilde (~)? What does it say?

selden wrote:Dale,

Have you enabled Celestia's "console output" by typing a tilde (~)? What does it say?

It says "Loading image from file textures/hires/earth-clouds.*"
textures/hires/earth-clouds.*:urecognized or unsupported image file type.
Loading image from file textures/medres/earth-clouds.png
Loading image from file textures/hires/moon.*
textures/hires/moon.*:urecognized or unsupported image file type.
Loading image from file textures/medres/moon.jpg
Loading image from file textures/hires/moonbump.*
textures/hires/moonbump.*:urecognized or unsupported image file type.
Loading image from file textures/medres/moonbump.jpg
Loading image from file textures/medres/astar.jpg

That is all that it says. When I type <return> hip500000 <return>, nothing happens and the list of file names as I type each character gets smaller after I type each number until there are no files listed at 'hip50'.
--Dale--

If you type uparrows you'll see previous lines of the console log. Usually addons are near the top of the output. The topmost lines describe the loading of stars.dat.

Not seeing the HIP50 expanded as you type it in suggests that either Celestia isn't finding the Addon STC catalog or that it's encountering an error in it.

Is there any chance you have more than one installation of Celestia and that you've put the Addon in the one that's not being loaded?

I assume you're using Windows. Right-mouse-click on Celestia's icon, select the Properties menu item in the popup menu, and inspect the line titled "Target". That shows where Celestia is being loaded from. Verify that it's in the same directory tree where you put the Addon. Also verify that the "Start in" line points to that same directory.

I hadn't reread the Addon page for a while.

You need to type a space between HIP and 500000. It's two words, not one. This is required when only the HIP number is specified in the catalog as it is in the example.

Selden, when you say type a space between HIP and 500000, that doesn't work in Celestia either. In fact, when I type the space, the matching star names immediately goes to an empty list.
Are you saying that the .stc file should have 'HIP 500000' on the name line as opposed to just 500000 as the tutorial says?
Also, when I use the up arrow with the tilde, I can find the line where it says: "Loading star catalog:extras/Addons/HIP500000/hip500000.stc" and there is no error message.
--Dale--

bidmaron wrote:Selden, when you say type a space between HIP and 500000, that doesn't work in Celestia either. In fact, when I type the space, the matching star names immediately goes to an empty list.

That means Celestia is working "as designed." It doesn't mean the HIP 50000 catalog is not working. Celestia doesn't display any of the standard HIP numbers when you type them in.

The HIP identifiers that you see that don't have spaces exist because some of Celestia's STC catalogs are specifying the stars' identifiers as if they were names and not numbers. They were defined using quoted strings. e.g. "HIP555555". As a result, they're being treated as star names instead of Hipparcos catalog numbers.

Note that some of the HIP names that you see after you've typed HIP end in letters. This is another indication that they're being treated as names instead of catalog numbers. No entries in the original Hipparcos Catalog have numbers that end in letters. They're being used because the real catalog includes some double stars which Celestia's own STC catalog files have separated into their stellar two components.

Are you saying that the .stc file should have 'HIP 500000' on the name line as opposed to just 500000 as the tutorial says?

Nope. Just the number works just fine.
(I've verified this on my system just now.)
But adding a quoted name would work, too.

I think your problem may be that you're giving up too soon because it looks like it isn't working. Go ahead and type
[return]
HIP 500000[return]
just as the example says.
The text HIP 500000 should appear in the upper left corner of Celestia's window.

Also, when I use the up arrow with the tilde, I can find the line where it says: "Loading star catalog:extras/Addons/HIP500000/hip500000.stc" and there is no error message.
--Dale--

That should mean that the STC file is OK.

I do think I'll change the example though, so it isn't quite so confusing -- making the example that's in the sidebar be the only one shown.

It used to be that specifying just a fake HIP catalog number was the only way stars could be added. That's no longer the case and the new features make the use of only HIP catalog numbers by themselves rather confusing, as you've found.

If you want, you can change the line that says

to be

then it'll work as you expect but not the way it was intended to work.

Thanks, Selden. Yes, you are right that I just wasn't patient enough. Also, I forgot that I had to hit 'G' to advance to the star once it was up. It is confusing that the HIP stars are not listed when you type <enter> 'HIP 500000' <enter>. That's really what was tripping me up.
--Dale--