FOV=180 degrees?

[pjm90041]

I apologize if this has been answered elsewhere...

Is it possible to increase the maximum field of view in Celestia from 124 to 180 degrees? I would like to use the program in a class I teach, but I need to show the entire sky as seen from Earth... Thanks.

-Paul

[Boux]

Unfortunately this is one of several variables that are hard-coded in Celestia when they should be available either in the config file or way better, as an user choice in some yet to come "System Options" menu.
In the meantime, just go to line 77 of celestiacore.ccp source file, change the value of constant MaximumFOV to 170.0f or so and rebuild.
At very wide FOV, weird and unexpected, yet interesting, things may happen though...
YMMV!

[VikingTechJPL]

An easier way is to use a CEL://URL and change the FOV value near the end of the string. To create a CEL://URL just press Ctrl+C (Windows ver.), then paste it into a word processor that supports hyperlinks, like OpenOffice (free) or Word ($).

However, perspective projections exhibit increasing distortion the farther anything is from the center point. It gets quite bizarre as FOV increases toward (and beyond) 180?.

A few examples:

FOV 140.jpg

FOV 190-2.jpg

In the past, there have been inquiries about projecting Celestia on a dome, which would generally use a true or modified "fish-eye" projection. You might want to do a search to see if anyone's done any work on that.

By the way, as you're a new member, welcome to the Forum!