How to view my own sky

[mopc]

Hello just downloaded Celestia yesterday

Listen, the FAQ's rules to view the sky as if from my own house do not work. When I "go to surface" of the earth, it just goes there with the camera pointed to the ground and I cannot point the camera to the sky. The FAQ says "use the arrows to point to the sky" but it does not work, if anything, because the "sync orbit" is on but even when its off it does not work. The arrows just move the camera across the surface or tilt the image sideways. There is no way to make the camera point away from the surface. There should be an automatic way of creating an Earth Sky view by just typing the coordinates.

[t00fri]

Hello just downloaded Celestia yesterday

Listen, the FAQ's rules to view the sky as if from my own house do not work. There is no way to make the camera point away from the surface.
...

There is no way to make the camera point away from the surface.

How can you be so convinced about your competence after so little practice ? You simply didn't read the list of key shortcuts properly:

A long time ago I coded that one (cf the shortcut listing in controls.txt)

* : Look back

So move down to Earth and hit '*' then you will look right into the sky. Hitting * again reverts the view to the original one.

Fridger

[Reiko]

You can always use your mouse.

[selden]

What type of computer are you using?
Which version of Celesita are you running?

If you're using Windows, then Ctrl-G should take you to the surface and leave the viewpoint looking toward the horizon, not toward the ground. (that's what it does for me). If you turn off the atmosphere (menu Render/View Options/ and clear the checkbox in front of "Atmospheres") then you should see stars in the top half of the window. The bottom half will be a solid color, green or brown or blue or black, depending on where and when you landed.

[Fenerit]

Goto in "Celestia in Education" and look for LUA EDU TOOLS 1.2, these are screen utility that can does for you.

[mopc]

Hello just downloaded Celestia yesterday

Listen, the FAQ's rules to view the sky as if from my own house do not work. There is no way to make the camera point away from the surface.
...

There is no way to make the camera point away from the surface.

How can you be so convinced about your competence after so little practice ? You simply didn't read the list of key shortcuts properly:

A long time ago I coded that one (cf the shortcut listing in controls.txt)

* : Look back

So move down to Earth and hit '*' then you will look right into the sky. Hitting * again reverts the view to the original one.

Fridger

Thank you very much its working I was sure such shortcut existed, just couldnt find it in the documentation, I was too eager to use the software to read carefully.

[Liar]

You may also find "Ctrl-F" helpful, for "alt/azimuth" mode. It makes the arrow keys navigate much more like a stellarium.

(You've obviously already found where you live, but another useful option is "GoTo Object" in the navigation menu, as t alows you to type in the exact latitude and longitude you need).