Celestia Forums

How do I define a binary or multiple star system with Celestia 1.3.2? I seem to understand that the OrbitBarycenter keyword and related functionality in STC files is available only for Celestia 1.4.x or later. Any sample STC files that I can study?

I ask for a Celestia 1.3.2 solution because I am currently stuck with that version. On my Slackware Linux 10.0 system, Celestia 1.4.x does not work: my GTK2 library is too old for the GTK GUI, and the KDE GUI compiles but does not work correctly.


Paolo Amoroso

Unfortunately, Barycenter and other STC orbital declarations weren't available until V1.4.0. However, you can create "fake" multiple stars in v1.3.1 using SSC declarations.

Define planets with appropriate orbits in an SSC file and specify
Emissive true
so they look like they're bright.
They won't actually provide any illumination, though.

SSC barycenters are objects which have
Class "invisible"
as one of their attributes so they won't be drawn. (Or they can be defined with a Mesh that has a fully transparent material.)

Does this help?

If I'm reading the Web page right, Celestia v1.4.1 is available for Slackware 10.2 at
http://www.linuxpackages.net/pkg_details.php?id=9366

selden wrote:If I'm reading the Web page right, Celestia v1.4.1 is available for Slackware 10.2 at
http://www.linuxpackages.net/pkg_details.php?id=9366

This package requires versions of the KDE libraries later than the ones I have on Slackware 10.0.

Recent Celestia versions have obscure issues on my Slackware 10.0 box: 1.4.0 works but does not display virtual textures, 1.4.1 does not compile (maybe it relies on features of recent versions of the KDE libraries). So, I am probably stuck to 1.3.2 until a major system upgrade.

Thanks anyway,


Paolo Amoroso

selden wrote:Does this help?

It does. I have found Grant Hutchison's definitions of nearby stellar systems for Celestia 1.3.1 or later, which includes several double stars specified as planets as you suggest.

The great thing about Celestia is that even if you don't have the bleeding edge, it provides so many experimentation opportunities to keep you busy for a lot of time.

Thanks,


Paolo Amoroso