Celestia User's Guide 1.3.1 now available

[fsgregs]

Hi everyone:

I have updated the Celestia User's Guide to reflect new additions in Celestia version 1.3.1, up to pre9. The guide also has some minor wording improvements. When version 1.3.1 is final, I will finalize the Guide and I'm sure Chris will post it on the site.

It is currently printed in MS Word as a .doc file. You can get it here.



http://www.fsgregs.org/celestia/files/CelestiaUserGuide1-3-1.doc

Enjoy.

Frank G

[El Pelado]

Time delay does not function for stars other than our Sun

are you sure that the time travel option works with our sun???
as i know it doesn't...

[Darkmiss]

very nice document, thank you Frank.

[fsgregs]

Dear El Palado:

Yep, you're right. It doesn't work for the sun either. Thanks for the catch. I'll fix it in the Guide.



If anyone else picks up some goofs, let me know.

Frank

Paul, thanks for the nice words.

[don]

I have updated the Celestia User's Guide to reflect new additions in Celestia version 1.3.1, up to pre9.

Thank you for your hard work and effort Frank!

Your guide can be priceless for new users, so it's real good to see it updated for version 1.3.1.

It is currently printed in MS Word as a .doc file.

Are you using Word 2002 or newer? If so, you can also Save As an HTML document.

If you are not using Word 2002, I am, and would be happy to provide an HTML version for you so anyone with a browser can view the manual. Just let me know.

-Don G.

[don]

Howdy Frank,

In some places, you use Pink as a text color (ie. page 8, items 3 on down) and it is very difficult for me to see. I use Silver as a background color instead of White because of cataracts. And, Pink on Silver is nearly a wash-out.

Since other folks might have the same kind of background color set-up (Silver instead of White), maybe you could change this text color to one with a higher contrast level?

Thank you Frank,

-Don G.

[don]

Howdy Frank,

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36) When interacting with an object, you can choose any one of the Follow, Center, SyncOrbit, Track, Chase and Lock commands at any time.  Only the most recent of these will be used.  If you type the [Esc] key, the current object will be completely released from all commands.


Center and Track can be used independently of the coordinate system being used (Follow, SyncOrbit, Chase and Lock). In other words, with any of these coordinate systems selected, you can additionally use Center and/or Track.

-Don G.

[don]

Howdy Frank,

Introduction to Celestia, paragraph 2...

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If you wish, you can fly via your own “hyperdrive” spacecraft

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46) What good is a space simulation program if you cannot fly around in it?  The designers of Celestia have created a seamless and beautiful way to fly through the Celestia universe.  You are in command of your own hyperdrive spaceship.


As much as this *sounds* cool, it really isn't the case, and may be one reason for folks asking (in the forums) how to get outside of their "ship" and watch it fly towards something.

This should probably reflect the reality of Celestia, in that the view one sees on the display is produced by a "virtual video camera", that can be controlled in many ways.

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46) ... Using the [End] or [Home] keys or [mouse wheel], position yourself about 10,000 km above the surface (look in left corner for distance reading). 


This worked with the old default FOV of 45, but not with the new default FOV of 25. It needs to be more like 40,000 km now.

-Don G.

[don]

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3) In the top left corner will be some information about your target (Earth).  The Distance will be the distance in kilometers (km) from you to the surface.  Earth’s Radius in km will also be listed. 


Actually, the text will read one of two different things, depending on how far away from an object the camera is:

1. Altitude. This is the distance from the center of the object to the camera. At exactly 4 times the radius of the object, it changes to ...

2. Distance. This is the distance above the surface of the object.

Chris has talked about changing this to ONE thing, instead of two, but I don't know if/when this change will be made.

[don]

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Atmospheres: ([Ctrl+A] is the keyboard shortcut to turn Atmospheres on or off (toggle))


This is a sticky area in Celestia right now. Celestia uses both lower and upper case letters by themselves and combined with the Ctrl key. This is unfortunate, because it seems to have created some problems, such as in the case of toggling the display of Atmospheres.

Many people will press Ctrl+a, instead of Ctrl+Shift+a. When they do this, the camera's speed is increased, as well as Atmosphere display being toggled! So, you might want to put a warning in this section, or???

[don]

In the Introduction to Celestia section, second paragraph...

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His vision and dedication gave birth to a program that is unlike any other planetarium program in existence.

Celestia is a space simulation program, not a planetarium program. Planetarium programs are usually limited to looking up, while Celestia gives you freedom of movement through the entire universe, to look in any direction you want.

[don]

Introduction to Celestia, paragraph 2...

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... to visit stars circling the center of the Milky Way beyond the confines of our Sun.

Celestia's star database does not contain any stars in the center of the Milky Way. Rather, it contains stars only in our "neighborhood", on the outside arm of the Milky Way. Here's how to see this...

* Turn up magnitude all the way with the ] key.

* Goto Earth.

* Press and hold the End key until you can see the spiral arms of the Milky Way.

[don]

Intro paragraph 4...

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Over 2 million people have downloaded the program...

Are you sure? I thought Christophe said 200,000 just a couple days ago?

[don]

Intro paragraph 5, header to bullet list ...

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Hopefully, you’ve already downloaded Celestia and are [b]really[/b] to install it and experience the beauty of space.

Bold word should be "ready".

[fsgregs]

Don, you are a great editor. Thanks for the comments. Specifically:


1. Colors - I colored some of the text pink/pale lavender to mimic the color of the screen text that appears on Celestia. Whenever I was quoting a screen reading, I made it pale lavender. You're correct that the contrast can be hard to read on a white background. I've darkened up the text considerably.

2. Atmosphere with Ctrl+Shift+A. I never noticed it before because I never turn atmospheres off with the keyboard key. I have fixed the Guide to reflect the need to use the Shift key also. Thanks.

3. I've moved the position outward in paragraph 46 to 30,000 km.

4. I have revised the text to reflect either a Distance or Altitude reading as one approaches an object. Thanks.

5. I realize that some Celestia users prefer to consider the spaceship as a camera, but others like to think of their voyages as a trip in a spaceship. In fact, Celestia refers to the controls to move the spaceship around as "Spaceship" controls. From an image standpoint, the beauty of Celestia is not in sending a remote camera somewhere ... it is going there yourself ... in your own hyperdrive ship. I for one prefer to think of it that way, so ... I am keeping the reference to a spaceship. As I mentioned in the other post on that topic, Jack and I have even created a beautiful 3D modeled Celestia ship to voyage in so that you can in fact, go outside and look at your ship (to a limit). You can download it from my website.

6. I do have Word 2002 and can save the document as an HTML. I will do so when it looks like all the edits of it are done. Good idea.!!

I have posted the revised MS Word document on my site.

Thanks for the comments. They are all very good points.

Regards,

Frank

[don]

Wow, you are one quick writer Frank

Just took a break to go outside for a few minutes, come back in and here you have everything done and re-posted already. Wow!

You are welcome. I'm sure there will be more ideas, suggestions, etc. as I read through it, especially now that I have learned more about Celestia (than the first time I read the guide), mainly because of working on the scripting guide.

As I mentioned in the other post on that topic, Jack and I have even created a beautiful 3D modeled Celestia ship to voyage in so that you can in fact, go outside and look at your ship (to a limit). You can download it from my website.

Yes, I remember reading that today, and it reminded me of the many other previous posts about the same thing, which is why I mentioned it. Maybe you could put a short paragraph in the guide, at this "spaceship" position, about your add-on, with a link to it? Or are you saving that for Section #2?

Thanks for your hard work Frank!

More later ... dinner time here now ...

-Don G.

[don]

I LOVE the way you write up these scenarios Frank...

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Take a spin down to the Earth’s surface at a lazy speed or at thousands of miles/km per hour in your own spacecraft.  Skim over the oceans of Earth as you actually fly below the clouds.  See the sky turn a pale blue and eventually, transform into the crimson color of a sunset.  Soar back into space in time to see the lights come on in the cities of Earth and glow an eerie white as the dark side of Earth turns below you.

Ooo, Ooo, Ooo -- I wanna see this one in a script. It sounds absolutely beautiful.

Do you have a script to do this Frank?

Edited ...

Someone REALLY needs to do some of these scenarios in scripts

They sound REALLY COOL !!!

[don]

Here's a couple more...

Page 4, second to last bullet...

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Orbit the planet Tatooine and you will be amazed AS the realism of its arid deserts.


AS should probably be "at".


Page 4, What Is Available...

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For experienced programmers who have an interest, directions on how to locate and access Celestia’s source code on the web will be provided in Part 2 of this User’s Guide, now under development.


Why not provide a link to Celestia's Source Forge "Project" page? Folks want so many new things in Celestia, I think we should take every opportunity to get more programmers involved! I just added a similar sentence to the Scripting guide. The Celestia SF Project page is at http://sourceforge.net/projects/celestia/.


Page 4, What Is Available...

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If you choose to download the entire library of over 200 Celestia add-on files designed to date by its many contributors, they can take up over 2.5 GB (megabytes) of disc space.


The word in parens should probably be GIGAbytes.


Page 4/5, What Is Available...

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“Links” (web addresses) to guide you to the additional add-on files available are listed on the web within the User’s forum and Celestia website.


Since you already know how to use the Word Ctrl-k function (text/URL) ... I think it would be a real nice idea to include actual links to some of the "listing" sites (like Seldens), and change the sentence just a bit to the following, where the bold, underlined characters would indicate a URL/web link:

**********************************************************
Links to many web sites that have Celestia add-on files available for download, are listed on the following web pages: Celestia Add-ons, Selden's List of Resources for Celestia, and in the Celestia Forums, primarily the Textures and Add-ons forums.
**********************************************************

Since the user has already located and downloaded Celestia and the User's Guide, I don't think you need to tell them what a "link" is <smile>.

I added Selden's page because it is a well-maintained list of most Celestia resource web pages/sites that Celestia users can visit. Versus adding any person's singular/specific add-on web page.

Here are the URLs for the highlighted text links, so you don't have to look them up:
* Celestia Add-ons web page: http://www.shatters.net/celestia/extras.html
* Selden's List of Resources for Celestia: http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/#2.2 (indexed to the Add-ons section)
* Celestia Forums: http://ennui.shatters.net/forum/index.php

Gettin' kind of tired now, so I will do some more tomorrow.

Cheers,

-Don G.

[fsgregs]

Latest changes

Don, you are one super editor. I've made almost all of the corrections you discovered. In particular, I've dropped numerous links into the document to send visitors to some of the more comprehensive add-on pages.

You can find the latest revision on my webpage.

I have not yet created any scripts to take anyone on a journey. Frankly, I have to read your scripting guide to figure out how to do so. Eventually ....

Frank

[don]

I have not yet created any scripts to take anyone on a journey.

Awww shucks. I sure hope someone can create some scripts for the scenarios you wrote because they sound GREAT! I will need a LOT of practice before being able to write anything like these.

-Don G.