Transit Collection

[Guest]

I have tried to follow the instructions given by Oni2501 for using the Transit Collection as a script file. I have copied the script, given it the name transit.cel and placed it in my Celestia folder. If I open Celestia, go to File\Open Script I see my file transit.cel. I don't really know what to do with the file. How do I open the file, choose a particular transit, and run it?

[Guest]

I think I can answer my own question. You just click on Open, and each transit is loaded and run sequentially. Is there any way of choosing a particular transit and running it at leisure, as can be done by clicking the links as given in the original post by Hoover?

[Oni2501]

For Guest, I'm sure there is a way to set up each transit as a menu option in a script, but sadly I'm not yet up to speed on how to do that. I expect the folks working with Lua scripts could easily set up one to do what you request. Look under the Script forum and maybe ask around.

Thanks Hoover for your kind comments If you think this script is great you should check out some of Bob's Planetary tours and other scripts written by people that have more experience than I. I can only hope to catch up with them one day

[Jeam Tag]

Ok, here is the updated script.

Great! Thanks, all works fine for me now. If someone wants my translation in French, with my many improvments -full occultations/transits timed, as you can see in my previous testing- pm me.
So, Oni2501, Hoover, what do you think about this little correction of the 2065 Jupiter Activities:

Code: Select all

# 2065 Memes Ocultations Joviennes centr?es sur Venus
print { text "22 Novembre 2065 - Memes occultations Joviennes\ncadrees sur Venus - 11h13 - Temps accelere 30x" row -6 column 16 duration 13}
seturl { url "cel://PhaseLock/Sol:Earth/Sol:Venus/2065-11-22T11:13:53.01919?x=JE5cskPlLIbFDA&y=h4Ovj4pZd////////////w&z=vPkUPY3714Ly/////////w&ow=-0.325953&ox=0.009118&oy=0.945331&oz=-0.004650&select=Sol:Venus&fov=0.005732&ts=100.000000<d=0&rf=36755&lm=-506" }
timerate {rate 30}
labels { clear "planets|moons"}
renderflags { clear "markers"}
renderflags { clear "galaxies"}
wait { duration 15 }
print { text "(11h22 - Temps accelere 60x)" row -4 column 1 duration 5}
timerate {rate 60}
wait { duration 7 }
print { text "(11h30 - Temps accelere 500x)" row -4 column 1 duration 5}
timerate {rate 500}
wait { duration 7 }
print { text "(12h27 - Temps accelere 200x)" row -4 column 1 duration 5}
timerate {rate 200}
wait { duration 7 }
print { text "13h00 - Fin du Scenario - Presser Shift-1 pour revenir a la date courante" row -4 column 1 duration 3}
wait { duration 3 }


Seems to me it's a better Timing, yes?

Other Thing: I'm thinking about *All* Scripts, wouldn't it be interesting to announce their entire duration? It could be usefull, for thoses are pretty long, yes? Cheers, Jeam

[Hoover]

Oni2501,

I have some of Bob's tours. They are fun to watch and very educational. There was a lot of time dedicated into those which we should appreciate. I've got the Mars, Jupiter and Saturn tours but I'm sure there are more.

Jeam Tag,

Scripts are the solution to the timing problem for the movement of Venus in 2065. As a .cel I was stuck with one speed so it took a long time for Venus to get from Ganymede to Jupiter. Too fast and it passed Ganymede so fast it might be missed. The script you submitted needed { at the beginning and } at the end to run. Otherwise fine.

[Jeam Tag]

Jeam Tag,The script you submitted needed { at the beginning and } at the end to run. Otherwise fine.

Absolutely: this was just an abstract, I haven't quoted the entire script with all the events, just submited another timing version of this particular item Cheers, Jeam

[don]

Hello All,

Since Chris moved my Favorite Celestia Views (a cel://URL Repository) thread to a Sticky thread the Scripting forum, I decided to copy all of the URLs provided in this thread, over to that thread (http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5065). Now, they are all listed in a single message on page 2.

Cheers,

[Hoover]

Thanks Don. I was debating weather to put them in the sticky thread as well, but as you see there were some tweaks happening first. Probably a good first stop then.

By the way, I am also the "guest" who posted the Earth transits on Mars. I didn't do automatic login yet and it wasn't letting me post under "Hoover" so I just posted with no name and it went in as guest.

I'll be away until mid July but hopefully others might try their handy work and create more transits.

I heard a rumor that their might one day be a dual transit of Venus and Mercury many centuries from now. Now that would be something to try.

And I haven't heard anything about transits of Mercury and Venus from Mars. Are those possible? Transits of Mars from Jupiter? Etc. I found out they have Guide 8 down at the observatory. That should give me something to work with.

[don]

Thanks Don. I was debating weather to put them in the sticky thread as well, but as you see there were some tweaks happening first. Probably a good first stop then.

You're welcome. I copied them ALL over. FYI: When you login you can edit the messages you post under your login, but Guest messages cannot be edited.

By the way, I am also the "guest" who posted the Earth transits on Mars.

Thanks Hoover. I fixed it.

... hopefully others might try their handy work and create more transits.

Yes, please, it's really great to see them happening "live" in Celestia!

Cheers,

[don]

Just saw this ... can anyone duplicate it in Celestia and post a cel:// URL?

DOUBLE VENUS TRANSIT: On June 8th, in a tiny village in Slovakia, Tomas Maruska took a picture that is ... beyond rare. It shows the International Space Station transiting Venus while Venus was transiting the Sun. See it at http://SpaceWeather.com.

[Hoover]

I was reading about this last night. There is a sourceforge project devoted to this http://iss-transit.sourceforge.net/

Is a transit of the ISS possible in Celestia? If so, settings have to be very precise! The path of the transit is extremly narrow, and the timing may have to be sub-second.

If anyone can reproduce this, please say how you found the lat/lon and time. The web page above gives a few programs which can do this.

Edit: I couldn't get "World View" to run but there are some email and predictions services out there. See http://www.astrospider.com/iss_transits.htm
But future predictions wouldn't help to get the timings for the June 8th, 2004 Venus Transit.

[jestr]

Yes it is possible in Celestia,but not from the same position on Earth.something must be slightly out as the ISS is moving through a slightly different corridor to the north of the real thing.Here is the location where I viewed from,north-west of Berlin

and here is my view

here is the Cel:URL for it in Celestia
cel://SyncOrbit/Sol:Earth/2004-06-08T10:57:14.06585?x=mfjPXXCraFC6DA&y=1Wjs5s7nIw&z=k8es9pXto68P&ow=0.982765&ox=0.018354&oy=0.103295&oz=-0.152206&track=Sol:Earth:ISS&select=Sol:Earth&fov=0.837884&ts=0.000000<d=0&rf=2951&lm=49344
All the best,Jestr

[Hoover]

Jstr,

Yea, you found it.

I decided to try using the exact coordinates the fortunate astronomer used to capture it. http://iss-transit.sourceforge.net/MissionAccomplished.html Looking down you can see it is there but looking up the ISS was nowhere to be found.

I wonder if the ISS orbit can be corrected? How did you back out where to find it?

Venus/ISS transit looking down
cel://SyncOrbit/Sol:Earth/2004-06-08T10:09:17.00002?x=gKUOXpnpyFC6DA&y=zHYK7oaGbgQ&z=1aZoSD7kyaYP&ow=-0.164922&ox=-0.119179&oy=0.956229&oz=0.210294&select=Sol:Earth&fov=2.115859&ts=0.000000<d=0&rf=-1344692989&lm=-1074932158

Venus/ISS transit looking up - but ISS isn't there!
cel://SyncOrbit/Sol/2004-06-08T10:09:17.00002?x=AGDDPmX2Mk66DA&y=yr+ZPwblIA&z=VcrNr9u0JK8P&ow=0.987371&ox=0.012554&oy=0.104711&oz=-0.118225&select=Sol&fov=2.115859&ts=0.000000<d=0&rf=-1344692989&lm=-1074932158

[jestr]

I just backed away from Baden,Austria which was in the correct flight path of ISS until I could see ISS,which was above Germany/Poland then rotated around so I was above ISS then centered Earth and then moved in towards NE Germany.then pressed * to look back up,centerd Sol and zoomed in on it,cheers Jestr

[selden]

Hoover,

Don't forget that the orbit of the ISS is constantly changing due to many factors (contact with spacecraft, atmospheric drag, powered orbital corrections, insolation, etc).

What orbital parameters did you use for ISS in Celestia?

Did you verify that they were accurate for the time of the transit?

[TERRIER]

This is the latest celestrak NORAD 2-line element data......;

Code: Select all

ISS (ZARYA)             
1 25544U 98067A   04172.12859954  .00014933  00000-0  13056-3 0   312
2 25544  51.6331 310.7457 0005291 258.7667  90.1914 15.69159712318772

....which gives this .ssc......(I'm currently using model 11A - change the description to suit your own);

Code: Select all

 
"ISS 11A" "Sol/Earth"
{
  Class "spacecraft"
  Mesh  "iss_11A.3DS"
  Radius  0.030
  Beginning 2452602 # P1 Truss Launch Nov 23, 2002

  EllipticalOrbit  # updated 20-Jun-04
{
    Epoch  2453176.62859954
    Period  0.06372838
    SemiMajorAxis  6739.432
    Eccentricity  0.0005291
    Inclination  51.6331
    AscendingNode  310.7457
    ArgOfPericenter  258.7667
   MeanAnomaly  90.1914
  }
  Obliquity  51.6331
  EquatorAscendingNode  310.7457
  RotationOffset  164.9670
  # Orientation  [  ]
  Albedo 0.1
}


....it might be worth giving it a try!

[jestr]

This ssc puts the ISS over the Pacific at the time it should be over central Europe,where can I find out more details of the orbit?Jestr

[selden]

You need to use TLEs that were valid at the time of the transit. The orbit has drifted since then.

Appropriate TLEs can be found at http://iss-transit.sourceforge.net/MissionAccomplished.html

[selden]

This TLE

Code: Select all

ISSd
1 25544U 98067A   04160.42390752  .00014992  00000-0  13290-3 0  9491
2 25544  51.6329  10.4117 0005395 206.7073 225.7658 15.68815833316945

translates into this ISS Eliptical orbit

Code: Select all

  EllipticalOrbit {
    Epoch        2453164.92390752
    Period             0.06374234
    SemiMajorAxis   6740.417
    Eccentricity       0.0005395
    Inclination       51.6329
    AscendingNode     10.4117
    ArgOfPericenter  206.7073
    MeanAnomaly      225.7658
  }


Watch it with this Cel://URL
cel://PhaseLock/Sol:Earth/Sol:Earth:ISS/2004-06-08T10:09:09.86967?x=GtQN2LL0MU66DA&y=m2atpn2sIA&z=fdTgKiBoJK8P&ow=0.986336&ox=0.016747&oy=0.110980&oz=-0.120602&track=Sol:Earth:ISS&select=Sol:Earth&fov=1.129625&ts=1.000000<d=0&rf=68259&lm=49346

[jestr]

Nice one Selden,thats just about perfect,I have no idea how you converted the data,but it works,cheers Jestr