Celestia Forums

Maybe it's time that I publish an update I made this summer to Celestia's pulsars database (so, the addon sector is still alive even if Celestia's development is dying).

I used the latest ATNF pulsars catalogue (version 1.30) and made a complete up-to-date addon for Celestia 1.5. It contains more than 1750 pulsars (see the readme file coming with the addon), and some scripts to study the spatial distribution of the known pulsars in the Milky Way. It's also including 7 well known pulsar binaries, properly oriented relative to Earth (references are given in the binaries SSC file).

I worked hard on the database to identify all the duplicates (there are a few pulsars in the ATNF database which are actually the same object, with different names) and all pulsars having a very inaccurate or unreliable distance. A few pulsars in the ATNF database are even lacking some data, so I had to take care of them. Take note that I used a SpectralType "D" for all the pulsars having an unreliable or unknown distance, so we can identify them easily using a script.

The addon contains some simple generic models to render the pulsars with jets. If you don't like the models, just throw away the associated SSC files. As a complement, I'm also giving a second link to a "sub-addon", which adds a magnetic field configuration to some well-known pulsars. Please, read the accompany readme file. Of course, the magnetic sub-addon is optional. If you don't like the magnetic fields models, you know what to do.

http://nho.ohn.free.fr/celestia/Cham/ATNF_pulsars.zip (7.9 MB zip file)

http://nho.ohn.free.fr/celestia/Cham/pu ... _field.zip (44.8 MB zip file)

Comments are welcome here.

EDIT : Some previews from the addon.

The generic model used for almost all pulsars :




One of the scripts in action, showing the population of pulsars with markers :


A generic model used for a few of the pulsars, with a generic dipolar field (from the "magnetic" sub-addon) :


One of the models showing the true relativistic magnetic field of a rotating dipole :


One of the paths of a relativistic charged particle moving in a magnetic field, with effects from the induced electric field (while negligible on this path, gravitation and rotating frame effects - Coriolis and centrifugal forces - are also included) :

Cham,

The addon looks great!

The documentation directory needs some documentation, however.

"webloc" files are unknown to Windows.

If they're supposed to be URLs, I think they should be put into an HTML file which explains what they are. "Mystery links" are generally considered to be inappropriate since there's no way to know what they might do.

Also, a brief description of the .au files and credit for their sources would be good, too.

Thanks!

Tx for the effort!

You may prefer to trash the 5 useless files located in the "documentation" folder and replace them with a small text file instead, with this content :



Right now, I'm not motivated enough to build a full documentation folder. I'm just giving some links to usefull web pages and some real pulsar sounds.

Sounds very much like excellent work Cham!, although I can't view it (yet) because I'm still using v1.4.1.

Since Celestia's development is apparently totally dead, this may very well be my last addon contribution to Celestia.

...and that would be sad, very sad. I do hope this is not the case.

Cham wrote:... this may very well be my last addon contribution to Celestia.

Interested in a work on comission?

...John...

Cham wrote: Since Celestia's development is apparently totally dead, this may very well be my last addon contribution to Celestia.

Celestia's development dead whether people like you abandon us. Don't do it, wait another tad.

Martin,

Just wanted you to know how BEAUTIFUL all of your Black Hole add-ons
are on my new machine. My new monitor is approximately 20" x 12" and
man are they pretty here.

Thanks VERY much for the add-ons, but one quick question:

It seems that I cannot unpack the ATNF add-on because of duplicate -
or too lengthy - filenames on my Vista machine. Does this occur to anyone
else using Windows? Just thought I'd mention it, but I can get the pieces
by opening them up individually via Vista's un-zipping utility.

Take care, Bob

Bob,

the problem is OS X is actually storing all Mac-related info into the zip file (usefull for the Mac guys). So when a Windows user is unpacking the zip file, he gets some duplicates. You can safely trash one of them and use the other. Just check that you have all the files in one addon folder : STC and SSC files, textures and models folder, and also a "documentation" folder, with all the models and textures files properly placed in their folders.

Cham wrote:Bob,

the problem is OS X is actually storing all Mac-related info into the zip file (usefull for the Mac guys). So when a Windows user is unpacking the zip file, he gets some duplicates. You can safely trash one of them and use the other. Just check that you have all the files in one addon folder : STC and SSC files, textures and models folder, and also a "documentation" folder, with all the models and textures files properly placed in their folders.

Ah... If ONLY it were that easy.

Remember, I'm using Vista, and you can FORGET anything that makes
sense in Vista. If I tell the unpacker to "Skip" duplicate files, it creates
your folders with NOTHING installed in them.

Not to worry though, I can get to each individual file within the zip file,
and then edit the contents via programs like Irfanview, or Notepad.
Then, I can simply save the contents outside of the zip folder. THIS is
one of the things that Vista did right!!!

Appreciate the add-ons, whatever state they're in. Cooool stuff my
friend.

Very nice!

Martin,

Just thought I'd let you know that I have downloaded all of your add-ons once again for my new Gateway.
This time around, these pulsars are relatively easy to install. Many thanks once again.

Also, just in case you are wondering, I have been downloading and adding your Pulsars, Nebulae and
Black Holes all day and all night. This is fun...

Thanks again for all of your great add-ons.
Take care, Brain-Dead

These are definitely good neutron star textures. I've used the standard Celestia's bstar texture for a neutron star (see below), but I think a more detailed one with better quality, like these, would be good.


(and yes I code-named it "daniel" after the Danny Phantom titular character)

Joey P., there is no need to post this in a >10 year old thread. These textures/models can't be included in default Celestia because they aren't free use, and as I said Celestia Origin's texture-less neutron stars are probably more accurate to what we would see.

This addon is free and may be edited as you wish, but only if it's related to Celestia
and education. You may NOT use the textures or the models for any commercial purposes.
This readme file MUST IMPERATIVELY stay with all the files included in this folder.

(Hmm...I probably should've included the readme file with my pulsar planets addon...)

SevenSpheres wrote:Joey P., there is no need to post this in a >10 year old thread. These textures/models can't be included in default Celestia because they aren't free use, and as I said Celestia Origin's texture-less neutron stars are probably more accurate to what we would see.

SevenSpheres, he always does that, reviving long-dead topics and all

a unique combination xd

jogad wrote:Cham wrote:
Hum !
grrr.jpg

...what