Constellation lines

[marc]

It would be very easy to add some sort of line style setting to asterisms.dat . . . is this a feature that a lot of people would find useful?

I think it would be useful to give asterisms.dat the ability to specify, at the very least, dashed or solid lines, and maybe two different levels of brightness in addition to that.

This isnt very elagent but you can define 'brighter' constellations simply by redefining them in the asterims.dat file. The more times you define a constellation the brighter it gets.

[Mikeydude750]

It would be very easy to add some sort of line style setting to asterisms.dat . . . is this a feature that a lot of people would find useful?

I think it would be useful to give asterisms.dat the ability to specify, at the very least, dashed or solid lines, and maybe two different levels of brightness in addition to that.

This isnt very elagent but you can define 'brighter' constellations simply by redefining them in the asterims.dat file. The more times you define a constellation the brighter it gets.

Heh, that's a pretty funny way of using constellations.

Someone should write up a program to define which constellations are visible(or choosing between fake and real constellations)

<off-topic>This must be a record on these forums for the number of nested quotes within a post. Let's keep it going(but add something important to the post as well, we don't like spamming)</off-topic>

[mediatiger]

@ Kendrix and Fridger

For educational purposes it would be great to be able to switch single constellations on and off or at least highlight them somehow.

Checkboxes may be good while using the mouse, but if it has to go fast - for example during a presentation - finding the right one out of 88 might take some time.

I would propose an additional system for the keyboard:
pressing a special key first (f.e. c for constellation)
and then three keys for the starsign's official abbreviation.

To toggle Taurus it would be: "ctau"

I can't program, but I wouldn't mind to write the abbreviations or provide other help.

mediatiger

[chris]

On a somewhat related topic, I just finished implementing constellation boundaries for 1.2.5 . . . It's a pretty minor feature, but if there are constellation diagrams, the boundaries should be there too.

--Chris

[t00fri]

@ Kendrix and Fridger

For educational purposes it would be great to be able to switch single constellations on and off or at least highlight them somehow.

Checkboxes may be good while using the mouse, but if it has to go fast - for example during a presentation - finding the right one out of 88 might take some time.

I would propose an additional system for the keyboard:
pressing a special key first (f.e. c for constellation)
and then three keys for the starsign's official abbreviation.

To toggle Taurus it would be: "ctau"

I can't program, but I wouldn't mind to write the abbreviations or provide other help.

mediatiger

I think there is a definite need for highlighting arbitrary objects in Celestia that e.g. are too dim to see otherwise or like the case of constellations, constellation boundaries etc.

This should be done, however, in a more general context, otherwise the operations might become to untransparent and incidentally, we seem to be running out of (mnemnonic) keys...

Bye Fridger

[Kendrix]

In fact, I haven't done checkboxes but a combo list...

So you just have to select the good constellation... It's quite fast enough for me !

[mediatiger]

@ Kendrix

Fine. A list is certainly faster than boxes.

@ Fridger (& Chris?)

I would say that Celestia has run out of "mnemonic" keys already.
To toggle the object labels I don't use the keys because - being an occasional
user of Celestia - they have no resemblance to their function. The same
applies to the rendering functions.
And that's a pity.

Whereas we would have enough "mnemonic" keys if we could use two of them,
f.e. "L" for label and then "P" for planet, "M" for moon, etc.
That is not more difficult than pressing the Ctrl-key but would be easier to remember.

I am sure that the Celestia programmers don't have this problem,
because they use it daily, but the average user might be thankful.

I fear, it might become important when it comes to internationalization anyway.
"=" f.e., which is far away on a German keyboard, as you know of course

I don't know if other users use the keys at all.
I do, when possible, because it's faster.

mediatiger

[t00fri]

@ Kendrix

Fine. A list is certainly faster than boxes.

@ Fridger (& Chris?)

I would say that Celestia has run out of "mnemonic" keys already.
To toggle the object labels I don't use the keys because - being an occasional
user of Celestia - they have no resemblance to their function. The same
applies to the rendering functions.
And that's a pity.

Whereas we would have enough "mnemonic" keys if we could use two of them,
f.e. "L" for label and then "P" for planet, "M" for moon, etc.
That is not more difficult than pressing the Ctrl-key but would be easier to remember.

I am sure that the Celestia programmers don't have this problem,
because they use it daily, but the average user might be thankful.

I fear, it might become important when it comes to internationalization anyway.
"=" f.e., which is far away on a German keyboard, as you know of course :-)

I don't know if other users use the keys at all.
I do, when possible, because it's faster.

mediatiger

Well, you are certainly right to some extent. The keys were assigned actually before I joined the team;-). But at least the important ones I find quite easy to remember. For occasional users there is always the (slow) menue, of course. But the GUI is being completely redesigned with a nice icon toolbar etc. So in a while, things will certainly improve. If you have a look at the large amount of available controls (controls.txt), even with 2-letter assignments you would not remain entirely mnemnonic, I guess;-)

Bye Fridger

[mediatiger]

And speech recognition? What about that?;-)

OK, I didn't know the GUI would be redesigned.
So I'll be patient.

Bye mediatiger

[Matt McIrvin]

On a somewhat related topic, I just finished implementing constellation boundaries for 1.2.5 . . . It's a pretty minor feature, but if there are constellation diagrams, the boundaries should be there too.

Hey, that's great. I've wanted to see those for a while (and it's a feature that many commercial astronomy programs have).

[Mikeydude750]

On a somewhat related topic, I just finished implementing constellation boundaries for 1.2.5 . . . It's a pretty minor feature, but if there are constellation diagrams, the boundaries should be there too.

--Chris

What do you mean by constellation boundaries?

I can't resist, but can you tell us how far 1.2.5 is(in a percentage scale)?

[chris]

It's hard to give a good number . . . Here are features that I'd like to get into 1.2.5:

New and vastly improved scripting language: about half done
Toolbar: not started
Constellation boundaries: 90% done
Comets: not started
Better performance with lots of objects: ??
Extra stars in text files: 60% done
UNIX UI improvements: ??
Windows UI improvements: 50% done (Clint?)
Bug fixes:
XML: 70% done
Alt azimuth rotation control: not started
Bug fixes and minor tweaks (e.g. improved specular, 3ds fixes, ...)

I'm sure Fridger has a few things he'd like to add to the list

So there's still quite a lot of work to do . . . But I'll probably just make a release around the middle of the month with whatever new features are complete. I hate to keep people waiting too long for bug fixes . . .

--Chris

[Vicware]

So there's still quite a lot of work to do . . . But I'll probably just make a release around the middle of the month with whatever new features are complete. I hate to keep people waiting too long for bug fixes . . .

--Chris

I've mentioned in a number of forum emails that it would be great if
Celestia would remember what display mode it was used in, and
start off from there upon restart.

Here's one I never mentioned - When you save locations, certain things
like Track, Chase, and Sync modes are not stored. So very often when
you load a previously saved scenario, it's not the same as when you
saved it (for obvious reasons - if you don't include the various modes).

Chris - are you interested in any graphics for Celestia - maybe a newer,
stronger but simliar logo - stuff like that?

Vic

[Guest]

It's hard to give a good number . . . Here are features that I'd like to get into 1.2.5:

New and vastly improved scripting language: about half done
Toolbar: not started
Constellation boundaries: 90% done
Comets: not started
Better performance with lots of objects: ??
Extra stars in text files: 60% done
UNIX UI improvements: ??
Windows UI improvements: 50% done (Clint?)
Bug fixes:
XML: 70% done
Alt azimuth rotation control: not started
Bug fixes and minor tweaks (e.g. improved specular, 3ds fixes, ...)

I'm sure Fridger has a few things he'd like to add to the list

So there's still quite a lot of work to do . . . But I'll probably just make a release around the middle of the month with whatever new features are complete. I hate to keep people waiting too long for bug fixes . . .

--Chris

I think as I am concerned most is included somehow above.

And..

-Some new mouse functions (toggling between telescope mode and standard field of view with middle|wheel button)

-Specifically, Linux|Unix users may like that all keys now work and

-improvements related to small and large fields of view.

-Finally, the new constellation figures I made...

Bye Fridger

[Matt McIrvin]

What do you mean by constellation boundaries?

There is no established standard for the "stick figures" used to display constellations, but there is an established standard for what parts of the sky are in each constellation. This was set by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1929 or 1930 (oddly, sources differ-- maybe the process took a while). Before this time, in addition to the ancient constellations described by Ptolemy, there were many "modern" constellations made up by 17th and 18th century sailors and by 18th and 19th century astronomers, especially in the southern polar region. They were often made up whimsically as Easter eggs of a sort; for instance, there was a tiny, dim constellation of the Cat just because Lalande liked cats. Lacaille made up a large number of these little dim constellations named after scientific instruments. It got confusing.

The IAU decided which of the many described constellations should be considered official, and defined each constellation not as a connect-the-dots figure but as a region on the sky. The boundaries look like a patchwork of right-angled zig-zags, because they are made of lines of constant declination and right ascension (celestial "latitude" and "longitude", more or less).

Unfortunately they kept several of Lacaille's.

Ghosts of some of the dead constellations survive in odd ways. One "modern" constellation that was eliminated was a dim northern constellation called Quadrans Muralis (named after an old astronomical instrument called the mural quadrant), somewhere between Bootes, Hercules, and Draco. But a meteor shower that had its radiant there was already called the Quadrantids, and is referred to by that name to this day.