Celestia Forums

After stumbling across this web page on the Hubble site

http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/sources/illustrations/constellations/

I decided to try to incorporate these beautiful images into Celestia.Here is the result









I have chosen to map the images onto the inside of an invisible sphere 10LY in radius which seems to match up with the current Constellation boundaries radius.To match the images to the stars I have referenced this site

http://www.astrosurf.com/jwisn/constellations.htm

as they have already done this with the Hevelius drawings.I have tried to be as faithful to the original layout as seen in Johann's 'Uranographia' published in 1690,which you can see reproduced here

http://www.brera.unimi.it/old/HEAVENS/ATLAS/hevelius.html

but there is a bit more overlapping of the costellation figures than Hevelius.
Any how if your computer can handle 2048 pixel DDS images you can download the addon here

http://celestiamotherlode.net/creators/jestr/HeveliusConstellations_DDS.zip

or 1024 pixel DDS is here

http://celestiamotherlode.net/creators/jestr/HeveliusConstellations_lores_DDS.zip

If you can't use DDS textures there is also a PNG 2k version here

http://celestiamotherlode.net/creators/jestr/HeveliusConstellations_PNG.zip

and a 1k version here

http://celestiamotherlode.net/creators/jestr/HeveliusConstellations_lores_PNG.zip

I have only been able to do the constellations on the Hubble site where they are in the process of 'cleaning' the original drawings for this purpose.If anyone spots any new ones let me know.
You must have galaxy rendering turned on to see them -this seemed like the best solution.
Hope you like them,Jestr

This is awesome, Jestr ! Congrat !

jestr wrote:I have chosen to map the images onto the inside of an invisible sphere 10LY in radius

Jestr, that was a beautiful idea, and beautifully done, too.

One suggestion, though:
I think they might work better with the constellation features in Celestia if the images was toned down a little... Like translucent clouds, sort of...

Anyhow, thanks a lot for the addon!

-rthorvald

Hi Runar,Cham,thanks for the kind words guys,I leave it up to the individual to change it how they like,there are many ways you could display these images,it should be easy enough for you to change them how you like,make it a new addon if you like,all the best Jestr

EDIT:to make it easier to alter the display of the model,I have made a 'toned down' cmod text version of the constellations.3ds file.

You can maybe get it here (copy everything and paste in text editor,and save it as a cmod file)
http://www.geocities.com/jestrjestr/extras/constellations.txt
The opacity of the individual constellations is set at 0.5 in this model,but you can alter it how you like.If I'd thought of this before I would have included the cmod version in the addons.
Jestr

This is wonderful. What a great addition to Celestia.

Tx a lot Jestr, very nice work!!

jestr wrote:Hope you like them,

Very good idea, Jestr, i was looking for this sort of stuff sometimes ago, even saw (don't remember where) on the web some tests for a similar celestial maps, because i love these old celestial pictures, but You've found a very beautiful one. the pictures on the book are very impressive.
But, don't they are a little bit larger in your addon?, and seems to me that they are more superposed one after one that in the original...
So, it's a Detail: it is a great addon! Jeam

Yes, they overlap a little more than in Hevelius' drawings but I was trying to get them in line with the stars as shown on the astrosurf site mentioned above.As far as I could tell Hevelius doesn't have the stars named on his drawings (and I guess its probable some of the closer ones have shifted a little since 1690).Different drawings will take in different stars also I guess,but I have tried to get the main ones aligned,some of the stars are even shared between neighbouring constellations.It would be easy enough to make the individual images smaller to prevent them overlapping but then they will be aligned differently with the stars.Jestr

First I have to say, that this is a great addon and a good idea.

Second, I'd like to point out that one shouldn't omit the mipmaps when using such line intense drawings. Mipmaps had been invented for this kind of difficult-to-layout stuff in the end. You may have noticed the strong interference effects that occure while zooming in and out. Storing the textures with mipmaps will greatly reduce this problem.

Third, thought these are great, detailed and fine done copperplate engravings for the original bookprint, these fine and very distinct lines are not easy to be viewed when inverted and layed over a night sky. So some filtering which reduces the distinctness and the finest details will make them more watchable.

Here is an altered version, that contains these changes. It was done from the lowres DDS version for evaluation purposes:

http://www.celestia.ziegelstein.net/HeveliusConstellations_DDS_lores_mm.zip

The texture directory contains three medres folders -
medres_mm is the pure version with mipmaps included,
medres_v1ais a filtered version with mipmaps,
medres_v1bis an even more fildered version with mipmaps.
You have to rename the desired folder before using it of course.

So which to you think you like best? I - or jestr, as he has the originals - could make an enhanced version of your choice.

maxim

jestr wrote:After stumbling across this web page on the Hubble site
I decided to try to incorporate these beautiful images into Celestia.Here is the result
I have chosen to map the images onto the inside of an invisible sphere 10LY in radius which seems to match up with the current Constellation boundaries radius.To match the images to the stars I have referenced this site
but there is a bit more overlapping of the costellation figures than Hevelius.
Any how if your computer can handle 2048 pixel DDS images you can download the addon here
I have only been able to do the constellations on the Hubble site where they are in the process of 'cleaning' the original drawings for this purpose.If anyone spots any new ones let me know.
You must have galaxy rendering turned on to see them -this seemed like the best solution.
Hope you like them,Jestr

Hi Jestr !
Your work is fantastic ! This is a great idea !
I wonder if it's difficult to do that ? because I'm interested in doing the same, but with others representations (why not choosing Egyptian or Aztec constellation ?)....
And is it normal I haven't all constellations, like cygnus for example, or is it a bug from me ?

Thank for making such beautiful addons

Regards

Hi Sirius,sounds like a great idea-using Aztec or Egyptian images.The trickiest part was lining up the images with the stars of course.There are many of Johanns constellations missing from my addon as I could only find good hires images of those that are included in the addon,if anyone knows of any other links than the ones I posted above,please let me know.If you need any help,lining up any images send me a PM.(I think my Email isnt working at the moment),cheers Jestr

I have not been able to use this wonderful add-on with Celestia 1.3.2. It probably requires Celestia 1.4.0pre7 (current CVS build) or later, see this thread http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8007 .


Paolo Amoroso

Hello Amoroso,I dont know what else to suggest to solve your problem as far as I can see it should work fine for you,it is made to work in Celestia 1.3.2,and does fine for me in v1.3.2 and 1.4.0 pre6.
How about trying the cmod version of the model file (mentioned above in this thread).You can find it here
http://www.geocities.com/jestrjestr/extras/constellations.txt
You should place it in the
Celestia/extras/HeveliusConstellations/models folder,where the existing
3ds version is,and then edit the 'constellations.dsc' text file to point to
Mesh "constellations.cmod".This file is made to go with the DDS images.
If you press 'Enter' and type constellations and press 'Enter' again do you then get 'constellations' in the top left of the screen?Cheers Jestr

jestr wrote:How about trying the cmod version of the model file (mentioned above in this thread).You can find it here
http://www.geocities.com/jestrjestr/extras/constellations.txt

I have tried this, and here is a screen shot showing what I get http://amoroso.freeshell.org/constellations-cmod-small.jpg (temporary URL).

If you press 'Enter' and type constellations and press 'Enter' again do you then get 'constellations' in the top left of the screen?Cheers Jestr

I can do that with both the default add-on and the CMOD version.


Paolo Amoroso

Paolo,

From your screenshot, it looks like Celestia cannot find the constellation texture images. My system draws the constellations all white when it cannot find any images:


Usually Celestia will draw images it has loaded for other Addons that are in the same field of view in place of the images it cannot find.

Have you read http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/addon-intro.html?
Section 6 lists some of the things that would prevent textures from being loaded.

It may be that the structure of the addon's folders is confused. It should look like this:


Does this help?

Hi.
I'm using Jestr's wonderful set of images he modified from Hevelius Constellations drawings, issued by NASA some years ago, and that you can find in Motherlode here:
http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/show_addon_details.php?addon_id=834
Sadly NASA stopped making them, so we miss many, 4 Zodiacal ones, Pisces, Aries, Libra and Capricorn included.

Well, some days ago I found that Mark Wilmslow produced many more, starting from Hevelius' ones and modifying them for Stellarium freeware.
I downloaded them from here:
http://www.wilmslowastro.com/software/software.htm
and found them very pleasant, so I tried to contact Jestr in order to ask him if he could make the same thing for his Celestia addon.
Alas, I found that Jestr connected to Shatters.net last time on 2008, so I think he is no more interested to Celestia.
Anybody has different information?
Someone has his actual address?

I hope so, but if Jestr cannot be connected, may be we have another solution: I contacted Mark Wilmslow, and he very kindly gave me the permission to use and modify his textures for Celestia, obviously giving him the credit for his work.
And now the master question: given that I'm absolutely ignorant of any 3D modelling, and given that Jestr's Hevelius Constellation addon uses a 3DS model to show constellations drawings overlapping Celestia stars (the cmod model address given by Jestr some post up is no more valid), is there any modelling guru that will be so kind to modify it for Celestia?
I can help with the images, but not with the model, sorry.
Hope someone will give it a try and help me to finalize this project.
Bye and thank you for reading this too long post, sorry.

Goofy

You might want to try Anim8or if you're on Windows. It's free and supports both import and export of 3ds meshes. It's also very easy to use.

W0RLDBUILDER wrote:You might want to try Anim8or if you're on Windows. It's free and supports both import and export of 3ds meshes. It's also very easy to use.

Hi W0RLDBUILDER.
Obviously I know the large use of Blender and Anim8or in Celestia modelling, but I've never had the need to use them, and due to my 67 I have no intention to start it now, sorry, my fault.
But my post was asking for someone, who already is used to modelling, wishing to make a team with me in order to complete Jestr's addon.
I can modify textures (and it will be a big effort, considering that in Mark Wilmslow' addon there are many images more than in Jestr's) and another guy should modify the model (it's only one).
I think you are well acquainted with Anim8or, so why don't you join me in this task?
Bye

Goofy

I don't think it would be necessary to modify the textures. Considering that they are for Stellarium, and already edited to be used on the inside of a sphere, the only modification that could be necessary is a simple color-to-alpha. I'll look at the mesh and see if it really needs any changes.

W0RLDBUILDER wrote:I don't think it would be necessary to modify the textures. Considering that they are for Stellarium, and already edited to be used on the inside of a sphere, the only modification that could be necessary is a simple color-to-alpha. I'll look at the mesh and see if it really needs any changes.

Probably you are right, WORLDBUILDER.
Waiting for good news.
Bye

Goofy