Possible Enhancement for the Solar System Browser

[Guckytos]

While playing around with the Solar System Browser I had an idea for a sensible enhancement (IMHO).

The "problem" I was facing was that in the Solar System Browser ALL objects are listed, even if (in case of satellites, probes, stations) their time has already ended.

For example, you can see in the browser the Mir, but if you select it and make "GoTo" you end up in the orbit and see nothing. To now finally see the Mir you have either to know when it was in orbit or look it up in an external program or open the SSC and look there (and probably then convert into another date format).

As these objects have already starting and/or ending dates in the SSC, why not use this data to show it in the solar system browser, together with a button that allows to set the time either to "Starting" or Ending".

This would greatly improve the usability of Celestia.

Just my 2 cents.

Regards,

Guckytos

[Adirondack]

Christian,

there was a similar feature in Vincent's first LuaEduTools (for 1.4.1).
When you did select e.g. 'Mir', Celestia (with the Lua Tools installed) automatically
set the correct time to display the station.
Maybe this feature can be resurrected in one or another way... Vince?

Adirondack

[Vincent]

there was a similar feature in Vincent's first LuaEduTools (for 1.4.1).
When you did select e.g. 'Mir', Celestia (with the Lua Tools installed) automatically
set the correct time to display the station.
Maybe this feature can be resurrected in one or another way... Vince?

Ulrich, Christian,

Actually, this feature is already available in the qt-4 version.
For those who can't build the qt-4 version, the following script bounds the 'D' key
to go to the selection lifespan start date, if it exists.

Code: Select all

-- Title: Goto lifespan start date

function GotoStartDate()
    sel = celestia:getselection()
    t0 = sel:getinfo().lifespanStart
    if t0 and math.abs(t0) > 1e-10 then
        celestia:settime(t0)
    end
end

keyhandlers =
{
   ["d"] = GotoStartDate,
   ["D"] = GotoStartDate
}

function handlekey(k)
    handler = keyhandlers[k.char]
    if handler ~= nil then
        handler()
        return true
    else
        return false
    end
end

celestia:registereventhandler("key", handlekey)

[edit]Fixed typo in script code[/edit]

[Adirondack]

Actually, this feature is already available in the qt-4 version.

Yep. But I thought, that we maybe could add it to the LuaEduTools (1.2) again since the request is current.

Adirondack

[Guckytos]

Hi Vincent,

good to hear that the next big version will have such a useful feature. Makes Celestia a lot more useable, if trying to get to a specific mission for a spacecraft.

Thanks for the script. Let me guess, it's .CELX.

Best regards,

Guckytos

[Vincent]

there was a similar feature in Vincent's first LuaEduTools (for 1.4.1).
When you did select e.g. 'Mir', Celestia (with the Lua Tools installed) automatically
set the correct time to display the station.
Maybe this feature can be resurrected in one or another way... Vince?

I've finally added some 'goto start/end date' buttons for spacecraft into the Solar System Browser of the Lua Edu Tools.
See here for more details: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=13162&p=116490#p116490