Celestia Forums

It may not seem realistic enough for most of you, but I'd like to have the Earth texture in my Celestia without all those annoying white dots circling the planet. Is there a texture out there that will allow me to eliminate the spacecraft/satellites? Or is there another way to get rid of them? I've tried the Render > View Option, and have entered .cel script commands in hopes of clearing them, but so far no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated...

eafbsd wrote:It may not seem realistic enough for most of you, but I'd like to have the Earth texture in my Celestia without all those annoying white dots circling the planet. Is there a texture out there that will allow me to eliminate the spacecraft/satellites? Or is there another way to get rid of them? I've tried the Render > View Option, and have entered .cel script commands in hopes of clearing them, but so far no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated...

The definitions for those annoying spacecraft are contained in SSC files. To start with, check your Celestia\data directory for the "spacecraft.ssc" file. This automatically adds a few spacecraft around the Earth. Also, I don't know what else you have on your system, but these can also be contained in the Celestia\extras folder if you have added anything from other authors.

At any rate, to make a long story short. ALL spacecraft will have an associated definition in an SSC file somewhere on your system. If you don't wish to see them, just delete the SSC files. Or, better yet, add an Ending date to them so that you can still see them if you change your mind at some point in the future.
Try adding the following line somewhere at the beginning of the SSC file description for each spacecraft:

Ending "1976 07 20"

Or, whatever date you'd rather use.

Hope that helps... Brain-Dead Bob

It feels kind of strange calling someone "brain dead", but you do nice work. Thanks...

eafbsd wrote:It feels kind of strange calling someone "brain dead", but you do nice work. Thanks...

Hey... I am Brain-Dead... Just ask anyone on this forum. They'll tell you.

BobHegwood wrote:Hey... I am Brain-Dead... Just ask anyone on this forum. They'll tell you.

Well I'll be the odd one out and claim that you are intelligent =P

Besides, Bob is one of the nicest people I have ever seen online.
Guillermo

You can also leave all the spacecraft there but prevent them from showing up as white dots. Just locate their ssc file(s), open it with a text editor and locate the line:

Albedo 1.0 (or some other number)

The Albedo tells Celestia to place a white dot in space when the viewer gets farther away from the object. An Albedo of 1.0 is bright. An Albedo of 0.0 results in NO dot being drawn at all. An Albedo of 0.01 creates just a hint of a dot, barely noticeable. If the ssc file has no Albedo line, then Celestia assumes an Albedo of 1.0 as default, and draws a bright dot.

Simply edit the spacecraft.ssc files and you can eliminate the dots without getting rid of the spacecraft, if that is your preference.

FYI

Frank

fsgregs wrote:The Albedo tells Celestia to place a white dot in space when the viewer gets farther away from the object. An Albedo of 1.0 is bright. An Albedo of 0.0 results in NO dot being drawn at all. An Albedo of 0.01 creates just a hint of a dot, barely noticeable. If the ssc file has no Albedo line, then Celestia assumes an Albedo of 1.0 as default, and draws a bright dot.

You know, Frank, in all the time that I have used Celestia I did not know about this tidbit of information...
Thanks very much for the explanation here. Much appreciated.

See? I told you guys that I am Brain-Dead. Maybe now you'll believe me.

Why not simply disabling spacecrafts in the control pane?

Yes... or move the spacecrafts.ssc file to another folder.

fsgregs - Frank, thank you. Changing the "Albedo" worked perfectly.