New Tour of Saturn Available

[Bob Hegwood]

Hi again,

I've just placed the Saturn Tour script on my web page for anybody who's interested.

Please note that this script was complicated, and it still needs some more work. I think you'll find it enjoyable though.

The script can be download HERE.

If you'd like the FULL package, with new textures, etc... You can get that HERE.

Thanks, Bob

[Harry]

I've just placed the Saturn Tour script on my web page for anybody who's interested.

Please note that this script was complicated, and it still needs some more work. I think you'll find it enjoyable though.

Very nice script, thanks! You made good use of markers

Harald

[jestr]

Great script Bob,keep them coming.I finally know what a sulci is.Jestr

[granthutchison]

I finally know what a sulci is.Jestr

A sulcus... several sulci.
See http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/append5.html for a guide to the meanings (and the plurals!) of all those Latin terms.

Grant

[Bob Hegwood]

Great script Bob,keep them coming.I finally know what a sulci is.Jestr

Thanks Jestr...

I still don't know what a sulci/sulcus is though. It just depends on which of the myriad of NASA/JPL/USGS/Nine Planets/etc... sites you go to to get your definitions.

It's the same with the colors of the moons too. You can find colored photos of Rhea for example, on the same web page, at the same website, taken from the same camera onboard Voyager which show the moon in completely different shades of color.

So, I did the best I could, and I guessed at both the definition of Sulci and the colors of certain moons on the tour.

Sue me... Bob

[Bob Hegwood]

Very nice script, thanks! You made good use of markers

Thanks Harry...

I've got a bit more work to do on it though. There's a better way to go round Rhea in order to show its leading hemisphere in daylight.

I know... I know...

You want me to learn Lua. Sheesh!

Thanks, Bob

[Harry]

I know... I know...

You want me to learn Lua. Sheesh!

Use what fits your needs - while I try to point out its advantages, there is no point in using it you get along with CEL-scripts. After all, Lua is more complex and probably more difficult to learn and write

Harald

[Bob Hegwood]

Harry,

I know I'm stubborn, but I like the cel scripting language.

It's EASY to learn and use... Even for us brain-dead types.

By the way, I took my own advice, and fixed the problem I had with Rhea.
The revised script in now available from the same download site.

Take care, Bob

[granthutchison]

I still don't know what a sulci/sulcus is though.

Sulcus is the Latin word for a furrow or groove: it's the word the Romans used to describe a ploughed field, a set of cart-tracks, a ship's wake or (rather pleasingly) the track of a meteor across the night sky. In planetary geography the singular sulcus is applied to a set of more-or-less parallel grooves, looking like a broad strip of ploughed field. Sulci refers to a complicated patch of grooved terrain, made up of more than one grooved strip.
Have you run into a site that says something different, Bob?

Grant

[Bob Hegwood]

Have you run into a site that says something different, Bob?

No...

I've run into about 500 sites that say something different!

Here's a few of them for you.
http://uscneurosurgery.com/glossary/c/csf%20spaces%20cisterns%20fissures%20sulci.htm

http://17.1911encyclopedia.org/S/SU/SULCI.htm

http://www.marstoday.com/viewsr.html?pid=8338

http://trc.ucdavis.edu/mjguinan/apc100/modules/Reproductive/mammal/placenta1/placenta4.html

http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/d3s82.html

You asked...

Take care, Bob

[granthutchison]

Come on, Bob, now you're just messing around.
Most of these have nothing at all to do with planetary geography, and so have zero relevance to your problem; the single site that does have relevance is consistent with what I said: it just emphasises the ridges between the furrows, rather than the furrows themselves (I'd guess the author hadn't done much research on the meaning of the term [s]he was using).

Grant

[Bob Hegwood]

Man,

You really don't have a sense of humor do you?

My only point here was that you can indeed find different descriptions for the terminology used within Celestia. The differences are not as dramatic as I was trying to show, but if you are not familiar with the terminology, it is both frustrating, and confusing to the Celestia newcomer.

Jeez!

[granthutchison]

You really don't have a sense of humor do you?

That little winking smiley (:wink:) was intended to show that I was teasing you for coming up with such a wild range of links. And then I thought you might have been genuinely confused by the fact that your one relevant link mention ridges and not furrows, so I thought I might try to explain what I thought was going on there.
But I guess I won't be doing that again.

Grant

[Bob Hegwood]

Okay,

Here's some more for you...

http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/help.html#S
Definition: subparallel furrows and ridges

http://www.mysky.org/aa/?article_get=1&article=2726
Description: Terrain units and topography of the area where a bright swath called Erech Sulcus intersects northern Sippar Sulcus on Jupiter's moon Ganymede are shown in these two frames derived from images of Jupiter's moon Ganymede by NASA's Galileo and Voyager spacecraft.

http://observers.org/tac.mailing.list/2004/Jan/0840.html
Description: It looks a lot like MOLA images of the 'sulci' around Olympus Mons on Mars, which are vast hummocky landslide deposits, or like the similar submarine landslide deposits around
the Hawaiian Islands. Exquisite!

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2003/pdf/1509.pdf
Description: Swaths of bright "grooved terrain" (sulci) on Ganymede are 10s ...

"Never Say Die" Hegwood

[granthutchison]

But I guess I won't be doing that again.

[don]

I've just placed the Saturn Tour script on my web page for anybody who's interested.

Excellent script Bob !!!

Your tour scripts are very educational. I learned LOTS!

Some of the text goes by a bit quick though. Hardly enough time to take a good look at the features you are pointing out. Maybe Fridger could write a handy-dandy perl script that would modify ALL of the duration values in a CEL script by some user-specified value, such as 120% (longer durations = slower script), or 80% (shorter durations = faster script)? And, rounding to the nearest tenth or hundredth of a second.

Very nice work Bob!



-Don G.

[Bob Hegwood]

Thanks Don,

I could easily change the timing of the text delays, but some people like them longer - and others like them shorter.

Tried to select a compromise which seemed reasonable to me. Then again, since I've seen the script run about 400 times now, maybe I'm missing the point?

I'll look at it again here in a day or two, and see if I can adjust it some more. It *also* makes a difference in the total package if I go changing the delays en-masse. You'll end up flying through Saturn if the timing isn't quite right.

Take care, Bob

[TERRIER]

What an excellent presentation of Saturn and it's moons.
I've just had a look at this after doing some work on the Hubble model and now it's 3:00am. This has chilled me out after getting a bit stressed , so I should get to sleep more easily.
I really like the use of the 'X' -marks.

Just noticed one error concerning Huygens probe, which i don't think is due at Titan until early 2005. I should know, because Jack Higgins recently corrected me on this info!

regards
TERRIER

[Bob Hegwood]

Just noticed one error concerning Huygens probe, which i don't think is due at Titan until early 2005.

Right you are Mr. Terrier...

I was again mislead by conflicting reports from the web. After thoroughly investigating the ESA site, it looks as if "The Huygens probe is set to be deployed 25th December 2004 and will reach Titan on 14th January 2005."

This according to ESA.

I'll change it momentarily.

Thanks for the info, and I'm glad you liked the script. I'm not sure that it's that good if it put you to sleep though.

Take care, Bob

[don]

Howdy Bob,

You're welcome!

Yes, some folks like text to appear only as long as it takes them to speed-read it. However, since this script is such an amazing educational tour, I would hope to see some younger, less experienced readers using it too. And they might read a bit slower.

It is indeed a tough decision as to how long to leave text displayed on the screen, which is why a simple "Press a key to continue" command would be a most excellent addition to CEL scripting.

It *also* makes a difference in the total package if I go changing the delays en-masse. You'll end up flying through Saturn if the timing isn't quite right.

Ahhhh yes, this would be a good reason to not create a perl script to make script-wide changes. Oh well.

Thanks again for creating such a great tour script Bob. Now it's time to take a breather ... relax ... soak up a few kudos ... and enjoy your own creation ... at least for a couple of minutes.

Cheers,

-Don G.