Feature Request

[quarus]

First of all i would like to say a big "THANK YOU !" to the developer/developers of celestia. It's a great program and it's even greater that it runs on linux
However there is one litte thing, which i would love to see in Celestia:
When you read books about planets you often read words like "planet x ist y times bigger/ smaller than earth". To be honest, it's quite hard for me to imagine visually that Jupiters diameter is 11 times bigger than Earths. My thought:
How about a "compare to Earth-size" key ? Let's say you have selected Jupiter, and want to see how big mother Earth is in comparison to this giant. All you would have to do now, is to press the "compare"key, and Earth would show up right next to Jupiter, giving an impression of the real size realtions.
Instead of Earth you could of course take any other planet of our solar system. What do you think about this idea ? Is it worth to implement ?

-- quarus
( please excuse my bad english, but i hope you understand what i mean )

[billybob884]

or, under hte name in where it puts all hte info it would show something like '5 times earth's radius'. but also keep in mind that stars are many thousands of times earths radius, it is 'a small world after all'

[quarus]

or, under hte name in where it puts all hte info it would show something like '5 times earth's radius'.

Well, that's exactly what i dont't want to have:

To be honest, it's quite hard for me to imagine visually that Jupiters diameter is 11 times bigger than Earths

but also keep in mind that stars are many thousands of times earths radius, it is 'a small world after all'

True, but this shouldn't be a problem for objects within our solor system.

[t00fri]

First of all i would like to say a big "THANK YOU !" to the developer/developers of celestia. It's a great program and it's even greater that it runs on linux :)
However there is one litte thing, which i would love to see in Celestia:
When you read books about planets you often read words like "planet x ist y times bigger/ smaller than earth". To be honest, it's quite hard for me to imagine visually that Jupiters diameter is 11 times bigger than Earths. My thought:
How about a "compare to Earth-size" key ? Let's say you have selected Jupiter, and want to see how big mother Earth is in comparison to this giant. All you would have to do now, is to press the "compare"key, and Earth would show up right next to Jupiter, giving an impression of the real size realtions.
Instead of Earth you could of course take any other planet of our solar system. What do you think about this idea ? Is it worth to implement ?

-- quarus
( please excuse my bad english, but i hope you understand what i mean )

Your request is already incorporated in the 1.2.6CVS version, in a much better manner through the "Multiview" feature.
Just divide the screen in two parts and display Jupi in one and Earth in the other...

Have a look e.g. in my preview under Development/"Another taste of "Multi"

You may easily download and compile the CVS version that has many other new features from the SourceForge Developer site.


Bye Fridger

[quarus]

Your request is already incorporated in the 1.2.6CVS version, in a much better manner through the "Multiview" feature.
Just divide the screen in two parts and display Jupi in one and Earth in the other...

Have a look e.g. in my preview under Development/"Another taste of "Multi"

You may easily download and compile the CVS version that has many other new features from the SourceForge Developer site.
Bye Fridger

Thank you, t00fri ! This looks very, very good !!