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Celestia User's Guide 1.4.1

1. Adjusting Time TIME MENU L K J Spacebar H 80 Many events in space take place at certain times Planets experience seasons spacecraft are launched and eventually fall back to Earth moons eclipse the Sun on specific dates comets pass by space probes fly by target planets and take their measurements etc Celestia gives you the opportunity to set a specific date and time or to speed up or slow down the passage of time Your time will appear in the upper right corner of the screen For example to see a planet turning under you simply speed up the clock and it will rotate faster Conversely since objects in space move at thousands of km sec they will disappear from view if you release your hold on them To slow things down a bit and watch them move away you can slow down time 81 You can use the Time menu at the top of the viewscreen to change the passage of time Simply pull down the menu with your mouse and choose an option Celestia also provides simple keyboard shortcuts They are Spacebar stop or pause time L Time becomes 10x faster repeat for faster time K Time becomes 10x slower repeat for slower time J Reverses time it flows backward Returns to Real Time Shift Sets time to the current clock time 82 For example to see things move faster position yourself hovering above Neptune and several of its moons by clicking here Notice that Neptune is not visibly turning in real time it
2. Capture Movie Choose the folder you wish to put the movie into and type a file name for the movie Then choose the size of the video Generally 320x240 or 640x480 file are the preferred sizes 320x240 creates a smaller sized image and requires less computer RAM to store 640x480 and higher are larger sized sets of frames and require considerably more RAM Next choose a frame rate We recommend 24 frames per second 24 fps is used in film 25 fps is used for PAL Europe video and 29 97 for NTSC US Canada video 15 fps is often adequate for displaying video on the web The lower the frame rate the smaller is the size of the file that is stored This is something to consider A 2 minute movie can require over 100 MB of RAM when saved in fast and larger frame rates 103 Click SAVE Another menu will appear asking if you wish to save the file compressed or uncompressed A compressed file requires less disk space than an uncompressed file but may not look as good when played back and the process of compressing video can dramatically slow down Celestia Celestia is set to save movie files uncompressed To save a compressed file choose the format you desire You may wish to try different choices and determine which one works best for your computer The free DivX video codec available from www divx com provides excellent compression and quality and is quite fast If you want to create many video files with Celestia and are c
3. and an important one Left click this option to open the View Options dialog box A list of choices will appear NEW The View Options dialog box has changed for Orbits Eclipse Shadows M i Atmospheres Constellations Celestial Grid iw Clouds Ca iw Comet Tails M Nebulae Planets Galaxies Ring Shadows iw Stars 31 Note version 1 4 1 Deciding which ones you want is a personal choice If your computer is a newer model we recommend the options listed in the image to the right and described below If your computer is slower or older and Celestia appears to be running slowly deselect some of these options as suggested in the following discussion Keyboard shortcuts to these options are listed in brackets below Also note that Celestia will remember which boxes are checked so that you will not have to check or uncheck them each time you run the program Constellation Borders W Orbits Labels Orbit Label Asteroids E Comets i Constellations Galaxies Open Clusters Filter Stars Distance OF Orbit Label we Night Side Lights Markers Information Text f None Moons a i Tere Planet n E ee Verbose Spacecraft Stars Nebulae 1000000 Cancel Celestia User s Guide 16 of 46 Atmospheres Radins ATA km Spend C400 m Celestial Grid Clouds Earth with Atmospheres selected Ctrl A is the keyboard shortcut
4. 61 At the top of the screen select the Navigation menu and choose Solar System Browser A complete list of all objects being tracked in our Solar System by Celestia will appear Next to planets or moons may be a sign which indicates that around them are more objects to choose from Select any one of them and choose either to Center it or Go To it Centering is useful when you want to see where an object is in space without going to it or when you want to use your spaceship to journey to that planet and you want to locate and center it first Go To is used when you just want to get there fast You should use this navigation menu frequently since it is the complete list of all objects in the solar system including all moons and spacecraft Try it Go to Neptune Saturn or one of their moons Please note that if you are in another star s environment or solar system its list of planets moons and space objects will appear in the Browser instead Also please note that the default download of Celestia comes with only a few spacecraft However over 40 other spacecraft are available as add ons for our Solar System from the Celestia add on repository and other sites and will all appear here in the Solar System Browser list if you install them all in your files To get add ons see our prior discussion Star Browser 62 Select the Navigation menu and choose Star Browser A list of a few hundred of the stars being tracked by Celest
5. Uranus and Neptune they all have lots of moons please keep your request dates between a narrow range of a few months or less Select Objects by Keystroke 67 There is another way to select planets The nine 9 planets in our Solar System have been given numbers from 1 for Mercury to 9 for Pluto The Sun is number 0 To go to one of them you can simply press the number at the top of the keyboard not on the numeric keypad to the right and hit the G key For example pressing 3 and G will take you to the ar planet Earth If you are in another fictional solar system number keys will also work but it will be that solar system s objects that will be selected If you press the H key then G you will always be taken back to our Sun Sol no matter where you are in the universe Selecting Objects by Enter Name Enter Method 68 You can also select an object or a Location via a convenient keyboard command Hit the Enter key and the Target Name window will appear at the bottom of the screen Type the name of some object you wish to visit such as a planet or moon or star or spacecraft or location As you begin to type Celestia will present you with a list of objects that begin with the letters you are typing For example if you type the letter M Celestia will display a list of up to 12 objects in its data base that begin with an M such as Mars the Moon Mir Mercury etc Note that the program has room to
6. you will begin flying away from Earth at the speed you selected Press Q again and you move forward again This command is useful if you overshoot a target Just reverse course and the target will again come into view in front of you 77 To stop press the S key 78 Celestia gives you the opportunity to accelerate to a hyperspeed billions of times faster than light c Just keep holding down the A key to speed up The A and Z keys are exponential speed controls As you gain speed the stars will whiz by you like a scene from StarTrek You will quickly be taken out of the Milky Way entirely and into the blackness of the space between the galaxies You can journey to the very edges of Celestia s universe There is not much to look at out there Swing the sky around and you may be able to notice some dim galaxies Generally to see the Milky Way from outside of its confines start your spaceship moving anywhere inside of our solar system press the Q key to reverse course accelerate to a warp speed of about 10 ly s light years sec and watch The stars and then the Milky Way itself will begin to recede from you Hit the S stop key and enjoy the view If you are following an object in our solar system press Ctrl K to turn on Markers then press Ctrl P to mark your object A green or red box will appear in the disc of the Milky Way showing you where our solar system resides To return press the H and G keys or hit the Q
7. Celestia has the ability to light up the night sky From space the thousands of cities across our continents are ablaze with light so bright that they can be seen vividly from hundreds of km up Turning on this option commands Celestia to add lights to the nighttime vista seen from space above Earth Night textures are also used in add ons to show fictional cities or volcanic lava flows at night and even glowing aurora Highly Recommended but does require computer resources Try turning off if Celestia is running too slowly Figure 18 click here to visit Figure 19 click here to visit Earth Sun and terminator with night lights enabled Same scene without night lights enabled Orbits Figure 20 click here to visit Solar System with planet orbits enabled and time speeded up The inclined orbit is that of Pluto a large Kuiper Belt Object that may have swung into its current orbit through a past collision with another object long ago Planets O Celestia will draw the actual path of a space object s orbit through the solar system The option draws orbits of all planets moons comets asteroids and spacecraft that you choose Each orbit type is drawn in a different color with the active orbits in red For example if you are centered on Venus and have planet orbits selected Venus s orbit will be highlighted in red All other planet orbits will be highlighted in blue Orbits are excellent for seeing the celestial
8. Read me files that accompany the scripts will explain what keys to press and when The Celestia forum has more information on how to create and use sound scripts Also the Celestia Motherlode website will be hosting sound scripts as they are created and submitted by designers Look for them on the Motherlode website under the Scripts section located at http celestiamotherlode net catalog scripts php Celestia User s Guide 27 of 46 Movement 36 General movement in Celestia is one of the highlights of this amazing program It is easy and versatile Movement keys are very important for enjoying the Celestia universe For example if you wish to go into an orbit hovering above a planet drop down to its surface or fly in your spaceship to the edge of the Milky Way you will need to change direction orientation and distance in space frequently There are 16 keyboard or mouse general movement commands Let s return to our opening scene of the Earth to do so click here A Right click on the scene in front of you and while holding down the right mouse button move your mouse Right click drag Earth will rotate left right up or down You can view it from any perspective you wish B Left click your mouse and while holding the button down drag the mouse The whole scene will shift as a whole Left click drag C Tap the down W arrow on the keypad or the 2 on numeric keypad Your view of Earth will pitch upward Before you
9. Set Time A dialog box will appear listing the date and time NEW Left click on either the date or the time and press the gt N or V arrow keys on the keyboard to advance or retreat in time When date and or time has been set to your new choice click OK and the menu will close Celestia User s Guide 37 of 46 86 NEW You can also change the date manually by selecting the month day or year with your mouse then typing a new value For months type 01 for January 02 for February 11 for November etc You must type numbers from the top keyboard not the numeric keyboard 87 NEW Resetting a date can now be done with this menu command back in time to the year 9998 BCE and forward to the year 9999 CE To type a year prior to 1 CE type the number then press the key For example to go back to the year 400 BC type 400 in the set time box Note however that Celestia s orbital parameters are based upon epochs and variables that change slightly over the years Going back in time 2000 years or forward in time 5000 years will result in exact positions for solar system objects that may not be precise 88 To set the time to the current date and time choose the Set to Current time button in the Set Time dialog box or press the key on the keyboard 89 Important Note Celestia has programmed some of its spacecraft to appear in space and then actually fall back to Earth disappear on the day that they re
10. Take up station behind comet Halley in 1986 as its gaseous lavender tail streams out behind it near Earth Seek out Planet 10 Sedna and Quaoar Kuiper Belt objects that are our Solar System s newest planets Fly out to the edges of our Solar System and follow Voyagers 1 and 2 as they speed away from their creators back on Earth headed on a one way journey to distant stars Experience a rendezvous with and fly by of the speeding asteroid Gaspra Witness the impact of the Deep Impact spacecraft onto the surface of comet Tempel in July 2005 Travel forward in time to the year 3000 CE to be there as giant mirrors melt the Martian polar ice caps and help to terraform Mars into a verdant world of water plants and cities of the future Set your ship at faster than light speed and sail to Rigel Kentaurus A located 4 3 light years away Travel far into the future and rendezvous with a colossal rotating Space Station as it orbits Earth Journey to the edges of a massive rotating Black Hole as it spins near its stellar companion Witness another Black Hole swallowing its companion star Travel to the heart of Betelgeuse a distant Red Supergiant star that will Hypernova someday See stellar creation from deep within the Rosette and Eagle Nebulas giant stellar nurseries Observe for yourself the deep field galaxies that were photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope Count the pulses of the new pulsar in the Crab Nebula spinning before you a
11. but if you deselect time synchronization you can set the current time in each view independently by clicking within the view frame and using the Time menu to change the date or time Turning time synchronization back on resets the time in all views to that of the active view Note that the time rate cannot be set per view the rate commands and pause affect all views Console Dis pla y New shite pageup pagedown 115 Celestia keeps a written log of what it is doing whenever it is loading files or textures That log can be displayed on screen to give advanced users an opportunity to see what is going on in the background of the program It is useful for troubleshooting see below 116 To access console mode launch Celestia then press the Shift keys together A running log display will overlay onto the screen To advance forward through the log press pagedown To advance backward through the log press pageup To cancel the log press Shift again Troubleshooting and Cautions read carefully l Some computers respond very sluggishly when Celestia is opened You may go to a particular location and the screen moves in jerks rather than smoothly or seems to freeze entirely It may occur no gt matter what angles you view an object from or may only occur sporadically when viewing a planet or spacecraft or moon from a particular angle Typically it may occur when more than one drawn object is in the view Eart
12. display only 12 objects Celestia therefore starts with all objects closest to you and displays the first 12 it finds in its database As you type the 2 letter in your object s name the list will now display only those objects that contain both letters For example typing Celestia User s Guide 34 of 46 Ma will reduce the list to only Mars and perhaps another object you may have as an add on e g the Magellan spacecraft You can complete typing the name or you can simply press the Tab key to cycle the cursor from word to word in the list When you reach the word you desire just press the Enter key again and Celestia will complete the spelling for you auto complete and select the object Now to go there press the G key or use the Home key 69 Try it Press the Enter key and type a single letter A list of objects will appear Type a 2 letter The list will shorten Use the tab key cycle through the remaining objects to any one you wish and press Enter again You will have selected that object Once selected you can use all the object commands such as Center Follow Lock Track Goto etc 70 If you are seeking a named Location on a planet or moon you must enter the name of the planet or moon where the location is found as well as the location itself For example instead of typing Cairo you must enter Earth Cairo or Sol Earth Cairo if you re outside the Solar System The slash mark is need
13. draw at one time It regulates star number by how far away a star is from your viewpoint By default it is set at 1 000 000 light years Since the diameter of our galaxy the Milky Way is about 100 000 LY across Celestia will draw all stars in its database at this slider setting However you can lower the slider and command Celestia to draw only closer stars For example if you set the slider to 100 the program will only draw stars within 100 light years of Earth Since this requires far less computing power than the highest slider value this may be useful if the program is running slowly for you Lowering the slider will speed things up Also you may have a scientific need to only see the closest stars to your viewpoint Obviously however the sky will look a bit empty if you filter out too many stars Locations Shift amp Under the Render menu is a feature that directs the program to mark and label any city mountain sea valley crater landing site or other feature you desire on a planet or moon and display its name above its latitude and longitudinal position To enable this feature press the Shift amp keys Celestia 1 4 1 comes with an excellent default list of locations when it is installed onto your computer To toggle the list of features on or off use the menu checkboxes in the Render sub menu 2003 08 31 05 08 01 Eastern St Celestia users continue to develop new locations files Some of them are available at http
14. end computers and those with up to date video cards can take advantage of tighter packed pixel sizes and more detailed appearance and many users prefer to view Celestia in Full Screen Mode at smaller pixel sizes The screen is uncluttered and your view really looks like the window in a spacecraft 28 However there are disadvantages to Full Screen Mode First in order to access the toolbars you must point your mouse toward the top of the screen and wait for the menu toolbar to be drawn With some video cards the entire screen may go black for a moment as the toolbars are being drawn Secondly some screen modes are simply not designed for certain monitors For example if you set your resolution at 1280 x 720 on a regular CRT monitor the screen will look warped and the planets will be ellipses not spheres Also be advised that the ability of Celestia to redraw complex scenes in different screen sizes varies from system to system Some users have reported lockups and program crashes when using Full Screen Mode at certain display sizes We recommend you experiment and choose the resolution that works best for you 29 Alt Enter is a useful keyboard shortcut that toggles between Windowed Mode and Full screen Note If you are in Full Screen Mode and wish to toggle between Celestia and another program simply press the Alt Tab keys together Windows systems View Options 30 View Options is the third option in the Render menu ae
15. exactly what you would see if you were really positioned in space inside a spaceship at that very spot at that particular time looking out your ship s front window In other words Earth Mars and all of the planets moons stars and spacecraft visible on your screen really are located in space where Celestia has put them Earth turns on its axis constantly and is always changing position Thus the screenshot above may or may not be the same scene you see when you open Celestia However it will be similar In the top left corner will be some information about your target Earth if you see no text press the V key once on your keyboard to turn on your text display Distance gives you the distance from the surface of the object to your viewpoint The Radius of the object will be listed in kilometers The Apparent Diameter will be a value in degrees representing the size of the object in front of you as seen from your current viewpoint If you move closer or farther away from the object its apparent diameter will get larger or smaller respectively In the lower left corner will be your Speed through space At the moment your ship is stopped relative to Earth so your speed is zero Later we will begin to fly on our own and your speed will be listed here In the top right corner will be the current date and time In Astronomy times are given in Universal Time UTC commonly referred to as Greenwich Mean Time and this is what Cel
16. graphics card at all i e your computer has a minimal built in graphics processor the Basic or Multitexture settings may be your only choices Celestia User s Guide 14 of 46 Figure 4 click here to visit Figure 5 Open GL 2 0 render path selected Same scene with Basic render path only 19 Texture Resolution Shift R or R Celestia opens for the first time with its texture level set to Medium Resolution Textures You may change this at any time by pressing Shift R to go up to High Resolution Textures or R to drop to Low Resolution Textures Celestia will remember that choice and open at that resolution the next time it is launched 20 Please note that in order to use a higher or lower resolution texture Celestia must have such files in its database Hires textures and Lores textures are not always supplied For example many add on designers only draw one texture level If you press the resolution keys and the image does not change it simply means there is no higher or lower resolution texture in the Celestia database for the program to use 21 Resolution is critical to an enjoyable Celestia experience if your computer has only modest graphic rendering capability and you are using add ons Some of them will cause your computer to lock up if you have selected High Resolution Textures Pressing R to drop to Medium or Low resolution can improve performance dramatically if such textures are provided Celestia
17. of space The stars will all look funny and in the lower right corner of the screen the text display will state that your FOV is some number greater than 80 If that occurs simply click on the hyperlink or cel url again just once The problem will typically fix itself On occasion you will find Celestia pausing a long time Perhaps the screen even turns white Be patient That means the program is loading a big data file and can take up to 10 30 seconds for it to load This is particularly true for media video files Sometimes a computer is capable enough to run Celestia but cannot run Celestia plus several other programs and documents MS Word requires quite a bit of computer resources at the same time If you are also running a music program and an internet browser things can get real slow If that happens close everything that is not absolutely needed for operating the computer Other Documentation Available This concludes the general User s Guide to operating Celestia 1 4 1 The Celestia community however has also prepared a variety of other tutorial and manuals that teach you what image files are how Celestia loads and uses them how to create scripted journeys and how data files of various kinds are used to instruct Celestia in what to do and where to do it Look for them under the Documentation link at http www celestiamotherlode net This guide is also translated into several languages Look for translations on
18. of the left mouse button so that its name appears in the upper left corner Then turn on Markers with Ctrl K A red box will appear on the object If you select another object the red box will jump to the next object Sometimes you would like an object to stay ame SH May DA cen AO 2 ase marked For example perhaps you are watching Siena Pe Sere ae i a spacecraft moving through space and would te like to track it anywhere it goes even if you click on another object To more permanently Mark an object select it right click on it and choose Mark or press Ctrl P from the keyboard A green box will appear on the object and will stay there until you turn off Markers You can mark as many objects as you like To unmark an object right click on it to select it Figure 26 Voyager 2 marked and choose Unmark or press Ctrl P again ae E en 7 E Oe apt ate ons To turn off all Marks press Ctrl K again Ea n a Marks are very useful for tracking an object in space that you ve lost sight of or for highlighting objects so that you can find them easily again For example you can mark the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it speeds alone out of the Solar System No matter where you travel in space you can always see it by scrolling to locate its green marker Note All Marks are erased and reset to zero when the program closes Orbits Labels New The central region in the View Options menu provides you checkboxes
19. program would be scientifically accurate a true source of dynamic astronomical graphics When Celestia version 1 0 first appeared available for download on the Internet space enthusiasts all over the world discovered and quickly realized the potential of this beautiful program Within a year many talented people worldwide joined Chris in a collaborative volunteer effort to make Celestia into not only a good graphical space simulation but into a great one capable of producing a meticulously accurate virtual universe rivaling the visual quality seen only in Hollywood films They have succeeded As of this writing over 4 600 members of the public are part of the Celestia forum community Over 2 7 million people have downloaded the program for use at home or school It is in use in homes schools and government agencies throughout the world The list grows daily and includes talented graphic artists computer programmers astronomers astrophysicists planetarium directors animators engineers teachers and students professionals from government private occupations and ordinary citizens in over 25 countries Together they have created a world of space that utilizes not only the basic Celestia program but over amp gigabytes of add ons and extras that truly bring your Celestia experience to life We invite you to join the Celestia forum by clicking here Celestia 1 4 1 is available free of charge for Windows Linux and Mac OS X from http www
20. takes 19 hours to turn once on its axis Now press the L key three times to speed up time to 1000x faster Neptune will visibly turn below you and its moons will noticeably orbit the planet To see how slowing down time can be useful let s visit the Hubble Space Telescope again To do so click here The HST is stationary because you are following it To see just how fast it is really traveling in space release your hold on it by pressing the Esc key Hubble will recede from you at over 24 000 mph Now press the F key to again follow Hubble and the G key to go to it Slow down time with the K key to about 100x slower and release Hubble by pressing the Esc key It will now slowly drift away from you 83 The date and time in Celestia is specified as year month day hours minutes seconds in a format called Universal time UTC UTC time is also called Greenwich Mean Time and is the time at the longitude of 0 located at Greenwich England The reading 2005 10 22 17 44 11 means the year 2005 on October qo month 22 22 day at 17 44 11 UTC 5 44 PM Greenwich Mean time 84 You can tell Celestia to use Local time by choosing that option in the Time menu If you are in the Eastern Time zone of the U S for example your date will now read Eastern Time Note Celestia uses the date and time zone assigned by the computer clock on your computer 85 To change a date or a time in Celestia pull down the Time menu and choose
21. to get the most from Celestia you should have a modern OpenGL graphics card with the latest drivers from the manufacturer If you have problems running Celestia verify that your graphics card is capable enough to run Celestia and that the drivers are up to date If in doubt about the OpenGL driver download and install a new one It will be available free from your card maker s web site Please Note While a graphic video card might use Open GL processing Celestia does not run well on all such card brands or models Several graphic cards handle images in a manner that Celestia may not control properly If a compatible Open GL card is not present in your computer Celestia can still offer you a beautiful space experience but some of its advanced features may not display These include shadows on mountains and craters bump mapping sunlight reflections off water specular highlights shadows of moon eclipses and atmospheric haze As development of Celestia continues additional support for graphics hardware will continue to be introduced If not all the features of your graphics card are supported yet be patient Better yet if you understand C coding join the Celestia development team and help improve the program For more key information on video graphics cards please see the section below titled Rendering and Resolution Installation Updating and Uninstallation Windows Operating System 98 ME 2000 NT XP Once you h
22. use the numeric keypad make sure you press the key labeled Num Lock at the top of the numeric keypad If so there should be a little light lit up above the numbers on your keyboard Tap the up arrow on the keypad or 8 on numeric keypad Your view will pitch downward Tap the left lt arrow on keypad or 7 on numeric keypad Your view will rotate roll clockwise Tap the right gt arrow on keypad or 9 on numeric keypad Your view will roll counter clockwise Tap the lt 4 key on the numeric keypad of the keyboard The view will swing yaw to the left Tap the 6 gt key on the numeric keypad The view will swing yaw to the right as a whole Tap the 5 key on the numeric keypad to stop all pitch roll and yaw movement Hold down the Shift key and press one of the Arrow keys e g Shift gt You will orbit around the object in view either left right or up down This is convenient to see all of an object quickly o oe N Mg Note The speed with which the view turns when you press the above keys is initially set at a particular value 120 in one of the files that Celestia uses to operate That file is called celestia cfg and can be found in the main root directory of the Celestia folder If you find that your view is turning too fast or too slowly for your taste when you press a movement key that file can be opened by you and the Rotate Acceleration turning speed of the above keys c
23. will be able to see the Milky Way across the sky and several galaxies in the distance You can even travel to them in your spaceship Highly Recommended but does require computer resources Try turning off if Celestia is running too slowly Figure 15 click here to visit Figure 16 click here to visit Neptune and Milky Way with Galaxies enabled Same scene without Galaxies enabled Galaxy Brightness NEW Shift or Shift Celestia 1 4 1 offers a new control to alter the brightness Nebulae of galaxies including the Milky Way When visiting galaxies outside of the Milky Way boosting brightness can improve your view of distant galaxies Press the keyboard controls above to reduce or increase brightness through 20 levels NEW Galaxy brightness will also respond to the AutoMag keys that control star brightness They are linked see later discussion Pressing the or keys alone will dim or brighten galaxies to some degree NEW Shift Celestia now incorporates a new keyboard control to toggle Nebulae on or off independently of Galaxies Currently all nebulae in Celestia are add ons provided by volunteers Dozens are available from the Celestia add on repository located at http www celestiamotherlode net To see them you must first download and place them into the extras directory then launch Celestia Figure 17 Eagle Nebula Celestia User s Guide 19 of 46 Night Side Lights Ctrl L
24. www shatters net claurel celestia files locations and at the Celestia add on repository site at http www celestiamotherlode net index html The forum also explains how to make your own list of locations To use a Locations list locate and download a list file from the web and place it in your extras folder in the main Celestia folder in on your computer It will then display when the Locations s option is enabled NOTE When observing a planet or moon from far away only the largest or 5s n most important locations are shown As you approach it more labels will appear To change the distance at which particular labels first appear move the slider in the Minimum Labeled Feature Size panel in the Locations sub menu NEW Markers can now also apply to locations and can be turned on or off from the Locations Render menu To mark a location simply select it by name see below then press Ctrl K to turn on Markers Locations may be manually selected by entering their names see Selecting Objects by Enter Name Enter Method section below Generally you must enter the name of the planet or moon where the location is found as well as the location itself For example to locate and go to Cairo press the Enter key and a sub screen will appear in Celestia with a place to type an entry Type Earth Cairo or Sol Earth Cairo if you are outside the Solar System then press Enter again and the G key to go there You w
25. your computer Note Keyboard shortcuts for turning on and off toggling the options and features described above along with other keyboard shortcuts are listed in printable format at the end of this document Celestia User s Guide 25 of 46 Alternate Textures Surfaces and Sound NEW 32 Celestia comes with a moderate collection of textures graphical files that the program uses to draw the surfaces of planets moons asteroids spacecraft etc Celestia takes great care to try to include textures that are true and complete or partial photographs of the planet or moon In that way the program s images are impressively accurate 2003 08 30 10 15 52 Eastern St 33 However add ons developed by forum members and others are available for download from various websites that define Alternate Surface maps for some space objects For example you can command Celestia to load an image of the Earth as it may have looked 4 billion years ago soon after it formed Its surface will be covered with craters and lava flows Another Alternate Surface available for Earth is this latitude and longitude grid figure 32 that overlays a map of the equator prime meridian Tropics of Cancer lt and Capricorn etc onto a modern image of the planet A third popular Alternate texture is of Earth at the time of the Ice Ages See the planet covered in ice and the extent of the ice sheet boundaries Alternate surfaces are also often used for glo
26. Celestia User s Guide For version 1 4 1 Rev 1 4 1 and 1 4 0 February 2006 Celestia User s Guide 2 of 46 Table of Contents click title below to go there roduc 0 0g Ke gl ie ic ie ee eee ne ee eee eee en ee gee ee eee 3 TINT SE Sy DEMO ase tt sensi occa cans un nce lb ce esate cniedce ba lesa cea E E 5 SS CPUS PEENE E E EI I O EE E A O A E E AT 5 FIG AO Hal OWING y oae E A E E E EE E 5 Program download and add ONS esssarrene tenies e aE a OEE E E Ei EE S 6 Computer Hardware Requirements ccccccccssssssseeceeceeeeesescceceeseaesseeeececeeeeeseceeeeesuaeaseeeeeessaaaaaeseeeess 7 Installation Updating and Uninstallation 0 ce ccccccccccssessseecceceeeeeeeseccececseeeeesecceceeaaeaseeeeeesssauaaeneesess 8 General Operation and Keyboard commands ccccccssesssescceceeeeseecceceecaeeeseeecceeeesaeeseeeeeessuaagaeeees 11 TRE OPEO o T e r E EO E EEEE 11 Field of View FOV shift left click drag or Or Jo onoeeeoennnnnssseennnnesssseeessssssssensssssssseseeees 11 Rendering amp Resolution Ctrl V Shift R or RJ cccccccceessseeeceeceessaeeseeeceeseseeeeeeeeeeees 12 Set View Options Render MENU ceecccccccccesssssceeceeesaeeseeeceeeeeaeeeeceeceessseeeeeeeeesseeeeaeeeeeeeeeeaageess 14 Alternate Textures Surfaces and Sound NEW ccccccccccccseccesccccsecceecececsecscceuceeensseeecseeseueesseeness 25 MOVE asters aire E EEEE E EEE NE E EEEE E E E E EEE EENE Zi Joy ac kC
27. If neither the KDE or GNOME versions of Celestia will build try falling back to the GTK version There are many options for configure you can view them all with a brief explanation for each by running configure help After running configure compile and install Celestia make make install Note make install will need to be run as root unless you ve overridden the default install directory by invoking configure with the prefix option Updating your Celestia installation When a new version of Celestia comes out it is a good idea to uninstall an older version and install the new one while archiving any add ons or other files you may have loaded into your Celestia folder in a safe spot The reason is compatibility Newer versions of Celestia may or may not work well with some of the files from older versions Once the new version is in place you can drag your add on files back into the new Celestia folder and continue using them Alternatively you can choose to install the new version of Celestia in a different folder Simply name a new destination for Celestia during the installation of the new version For example you can call it Celestia 2 Then you will be able to launch and run either version of Celestia as you choose by simply opening the program from either folder Uninstall To uninstall Celestia in Windows click the Start button at the bottom left of your screen select Settings then select Control P
28. ability that Celestia can use is determined by a piece of hardware in your computer called a Video Display Adapter or Video Graphic Adapter All computers have one but they come in many different models Some adapter cards are built into the computer and are typically modest in graphic drawing capability Others are added by users as separate plug in cards and can cost hundreds of dollars 13 All video cards are programmable meaning that a separate piece of software in your computer called a video driver controls what the circuitry does Obviously this software is pre loaded onto your computer when you first buy it However video card designers constantly write new software driver code that frequently will improve the performance of your display adapter card without you needing to buy a new one To run some of the recent gaming software available updated video driver software is a MUST To get such a driver you need only to visit the website of the display adapter manufacturer or your computer manufacturer and download and install the latest software drivers for your video card They are free 14 To update a video driver first identify what model of video display adapter card you have To do this in Windows open the Control Panel accessed through the Start button choose System then Hardware then Device Manager A list of hardware components in your computer will appear Choose the one marked D
29. acecraft are another category of events where multiple views can be illuminating 113 When multiple views are enabled one of the views is the active view and is marked by a thin highlighting frame around it All Movement commands will affect just the active view Other commands such as setting the time or date or Render menu commands are global ome all views New views are created through the keyboard commands of Ctrl U and cee O 2000 02 27 20 46 56 UTC Ctr R Ctrl U splits the active view pistes ie Chil BL Bees 2 horizontally leaving two identical views side by side Pressing Ctrl R performs a vertical split that gives two vertically stacked views A newly created view can be further split by pressing Ctrl U or Ctrl R again you can continue this until the views become impractically small The TAB key is used to cycle the active view A view that is no longer required may be rae ay removed by clicking your mouse on it and ES at pressing the Delete DEL key Ctrl D will delete all views except the currently Follow Sol active view Speed 0 000 mis ai F V 44 59 59 0 Celestia User s Guide 42 of 46 114 Views can also be created and deleted with the View menu The View menu also contains two additional options not available via a keyboard command When checked Show frames puts a frame around each Multiview The other View menu setting is synchronize time Ordinarily time is synchronized between all views
30. ad the keyboard and wait for certain keystrokes to be pressed Press that key and some function will occur in Celestia The time may change or a sound may play or the script may take you to a particular place Press a different key and a different function will occur 95 To cancel a running script simply press the Esc key at any time 96 Scripts are not that difficult to write and as you become proficient in Celestia you may want to try your hand at writing your own scripted journey To learn how visit the Celestia Motherlode Scripting site at http www celestiamotherlode net catalog scripts php 97 NOTE When a script is running it not only controls where you go in Celestia but it also changes some of the Render options that we discussed earlier For example a script may turn off the clouds or turn on Constellation labels in order to explain some particular point When the script is done it may or may not restore your Render options to the way you wanted them We recommend that after a script has run you go back to the Render menu and make sure your preferred options are set just the way you like them FILE MENU Saving Images Movies and Locations 98 Celestia gives you the opportunity to capture and save an image on your screen as an individual graphic file such as the figures seen in this User s Guide You can also save a series of images as a movie file and play it back later in your computer or even embed i
31. al with rendering and resolution 17 Vertex Shading Ctrl V Vertex Shading is a computer graphics drawing technique that creates shades haze shadows specular reflections off water or ice etc on Celestia objects To see such shading you must have a graphics card that renders shading via the Open GL process Celestia now handles Vertex Shading automatically With higher end graphics cards Celestia 1 4 1 gives you five choices for Vertex Shading They are Basic Multitexture Open GL vertex program Open GL vertex Nvidia Combiners and Open GL 2 0 Pressing the Ctrl V keys together will cycle through the choices A message will appear on your screen stating what rendering choice you have selected 18 These shading choices all affect how fast your computer will draw the scene and what kind of performance you will see The number of available render paths you can cycle through with Ctrl V depends on the graphics card and driver version you have By default Celestia detects the type of graphics card you have and starts up your program with the highest quality rendering possible If you have an Nvidia Open GL Graphics card all five choices may be offered Using the Ctrl V keyboard shortcut cycle through the choices You will see surface shadows reflections from oceans and a haze appear or disappear on Earth If you have another brand of graphic accelerator card cycle through whatever choices Celestia presents to you If you have no
32. ally did so For example the Russian space station Mir was launched on 02 20 1986 and fell back to earth on 03 21 2001 To see Mir in orbit above the Earth you will have to reset the date to some period between those two dates Light Travel Delay Shift and 90 Celestia has a feature called Light Travel Time Delay Light travels at a speed of 300 000 kilometers per second The sunlight we see on Earth actually left the Sun eight minutes before it reached your eyes Pressing the Shift key will display the one way light travel time from the camera position to the currently selected object The minus key toggles light time delay adjustment if it s turned on a message will appear and the displayed time of day in the upper right hand corner of the screen will have the light time delay subtracted If you move your position the time with move with you Most lists of solar system phenomena give times that include light time delay When observing these events with Celestia automatic light time adjustment is extremely helpful 91 For example if a transit of a moon of Saturn is set to occur at 14 00 hours and you are one light hour away from Saturn pressing the key will reset the time to 13 00 hours so that you can witness the event in real time If you press Home and move closer to Saturn the time will decrease as you approach the planet Note Time delay does not function for stars including our Sun FILE Menu Op
33. ample an image save by Celestia would use about 60 KB of RAM memory in jpg format and 360 KB of RAM if saved as a png file If you wish to use a Celestia image in a high quality presentation requiring the best image save the file in png format 100 To view a jpg or png image click on it and your default graphic image viewer or browser in your computer will open it You do not need Celestia running You can paste and view images anywhere you wish Celestia User s Guide 39 of 46 Save Movie 101 Celestia gives you the opportunity to create an animation movie of anything you experience in the program s universe For example if you wish to position yourself beyond Jupiter and fly past it at high speed with the planet whizzing by you can record that maneuver in a movie You can record a rare solar eclipse as it happens or demonstrate the occultation of a star by a planetary limb You can execute any command you wish while taping a movie For example you can accelerate in your spaceship move the screen with your mouse zoom in or out speed up time etc In this manner you can set up your own movie demo of celestial places or events for others to see 102 To save a movie file in avi format set up the screen as you want it and set the time moving forward at the speed you desire We suggest you then temporarily pause time with the Spacebar key while you complete the movie preparations Pull down the File Menu and select
34. an be lowered or increased To do so double click on the file If a menu comes up asking you which program you wish to use to open the document choose WordPad for Windows systems or the proper plain text editor for MAC and Linux systems When open locate the line RotateAcceleration 120 and change the number either higher to turn even faster or lower to turn more slowly For example RotateAcceleration 40 will result in your view turning more slowly when you hit a movement key Many users prefer the increased control it gives them particularly if they use the Celestia spaceship NEW You will also find that a variety of other commands in the celestia cfg file can be changed by you to alter the way Celestia does things Read the document s directions and make any changes you wish After changing save the change by clicking the File and SAVE menu choices and close the document then relaunch Celestia K Right Click Left Click Drag press all together your position will advance toward or recede away from the object L Ctrl left Drag same as k above M Roll Center Mouse Wheel Gif you have one forward or backward same as k above N Press the Home key on the keyboard This is the same as k but using the keyboard only Your position above any object will rapidly approach toward you Celestia User s Guide 28 of 46 O P Press the End key o
35. anel then select Add Remove Programs Locate Celestia in the list that appears and click the button that says Add Remove For Apple LINUX UNIX owners follow your system s uninstall procedure Celestia User s Guide 10 of 46 Note In the sections that follow images and screenshots from the program are displayed Many of the images use higher resolution graphics that are not part of the default download program but which are available from the Celestia forum and other websites as add ons As a result if your version of Celestia does not precisely match the enclosed screenshots don t be alarmed Note In the following Guide many keystroke commands will be referenced All keystrokes will be enclosed inside a square bracket Since all of the letters on a modern keyboard are in capitals e g K or L or M keystroke references will be in capitals also e g K means press the K key You do not have to use the Shift key On occasion however a keystroke will require the use of an actual capital letter such as the capital letter T If that happens we will instruct you to press both the Shift key and the T key For example the instruction will read Press the Shift T keys If the keystroke is a symbol that requires the use of the Shift to reach such as a colon or an asterisk please press the Shift key at the same time as you press the symbol keystrok
36. ave obtained and downloaded the executable file from the Celestia website simply click twice double click rapidly on its name with your left mouse button The file will begin running and will install Celestia in your C Program Files Directory In general just click Next whenever it asks a question Celestia has its preferred choices and unless you have good reasons for altering them we suggest you follow them Macintosh OS X Operating Systems To install the Macintosh version click on the installation file and follow the on screen menu instructions We recommend installing the program in the Applications folder NOTE Celestia uses a special hyperlink file internally within the program called a cel URL file When you click on a cel URL the program treats it as a kind of address and will respond by going to a particular place and time in the night sky It is similar to the way web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox go to certain web pages when you click on a hyperlink address In the Windows installation program the install procedure automatically associates Celestia as the program that utilizes cel urls In the Apple MAC OS X operating system however association of cel url file links to Celestia is not automatic If you are using an older version of OS X you have to do it manually New versions of OS X correct the problem however Be sure to visit the Apple com site and update to the latest ve
37. bal maps of temperature elevation or other geographical educational data gt Figure 3A Alternate Grid texture h Follow Earth Speed 0 000 m s s FOV 31 59 59 0 0 60 x 34 Only one Alternate surface is displayed at a time To choose an Alternate Surface right click on the object If an Alternate Surface is available has been installed in your Celestia textures or extras folders it will appear in the menu that is displayed Simply click on its name and Celestia will load and draw the Alternative texture To return to the original normal texture right click on the object again choose Alternate Surfaces and select the Normal texture Alternate Textures are add ons They must be downloaded and installed into certain folders in Celestia Typically the add on designer will include a read me file telling you where to install the add on 35 Ne Limit of Knowledge Textures Shift and key The surfaces of some of the bodies in our Solar System have only been mapped or photographed incompletely By default Celestia uses surface maps that have the unknown regions filled in with plausible surface features typically cloned from some part of the body that has been imaged But Celestia also includes a set of maps called limit of knowledge textures LOK that depict the unknown areas as blank clearly showing where our spacecraft have and have not aimed their cameras The Shift key toggles between the de
38. d and add ons Celestia is a computer program written in the computer language C The code is Open Source and may be examined and modified by anyone under the terms of the GNU Public License If you have an interest in joining the volunteer Celestia development team contact Chris Laurel at claurel shatters net In addition to the actual program Celestia can include many other add on files graphics and data If you choose to download the library of over 500 Celestia add ons designed to date by its many contributors they can take up over 8 GB gigabytes of disc space For many people with limited computer memory and or internet download speed that is very large To offer Celestia in a reasonable fashion therefore the basic default program is provided for download with a comprehensive but limited set of files sufficient to experience its capabilities without overtaxing your computer Links web addresses to guide you to the additional add on files available are listed on the web within the User s forum and the Celestia website To fully experience what Celestia has to offer we urge you to seek out and download some of these other add on files Fortunately volunteers have assembled a central repository for many of them It is not complete but is growing rapidly Its web address is http www celestiamotherlode net and should be your first stop for add ons The Celestia Educational Activities mentioned above contain a compilation of s
39. d the GNOME GTK front ends the gtkglext library is required All of these libraries and their required development packages should be available from your distribution After you ve successfully built Celestia you will want to be able to run it with hardware 3D acceleration To take full advantage of your graphics chip download the X org driver provided by the maker of your video chip Computer Hardware Requirements Celestia is a sophisticated program that not only positions and graphically depicts our complete Solar System in 3D it also plots and tracks a sky full of thousands to millions of stars in real time This takes computer power and computer memory Celestia also has available hundreds of add on files Some of them are large model and graphics files that require lots of RAM memory Thus identifying what level of computer performance you need to enjoy the program depends upon what level of detail you wish to achieve In general to run the basic Celestia program your computer should have a CPU processor that has a speed of at least 800 million cycles per second 800 MHz Typically computers bought new within the last 3 years have adequate CPU speeds If your computer is more than 3 years old or is a Pentium II or equivalent with a processor speed slower than 800 MHz Celestia may run slowly and you will be disappointed The basic Celestia program also requires a minimum of 128 megabytes of RAM memory The graphics files that C
40. disc that varies in both diameter and brightness based upon the actual size magnitude and distance of the star from you For example a bright Red Giant star nearer Earth will be a larger reddish disc in the sky with this option enabled while a smaller main sequence yellow star will appear smaller and dimmer in size Scaled discs are not designed to mimic the true visual appearance of the sky Instead they enable you to locate stars by type and magnitude Fuzzy points take a similar approach but draw a smaller more realistic point that varies in size and brightness When your monitor screen resolution is above 800x600 or higher fuzzy points make a clearer distinction between brightness of a star and can produce a realistic sky view Stars displayed as Points draw stars as points of light of varying brightness and is the preferred choice of many users Selecting Points may also make Celestia run faster You can cycle between the three star styles with Ctrl S or you can set the style by using the Star Style sub menu on the Render Menu Figure 23 click here to visit Figure 24 Figure 25 Cassini Scaled Discs enabled Fuzzy Points enabled Same scene with Points enabled Markers Ctrl K and Ctrl P When enabled by pressing the Ctrl K keys Celestia will draw a small square box on any object star galaxy planet moon spacecraft etc you select and mark To mark an object simply select it with a single or double click
41. during your subsequent use of Celestia you may need to change or reset these options Celestia User s Guide 15 of 46 25 Display Mode To open the Render menu left click on the word Render at the top of the Celestia view screen and choose Select Display Mode or Toggle Full Screen These are instructions to Celestia to change the resolution of the view screen Choose the Select Display Mode menu first to choose the size of the viewscreen you prefer Windowed Mode is the default choice and sets your screen to the same resolution size your display monitor is set to display For example older desktop computers display a default screen resolution of 800 x 600 pixels while newer systems and laptops are typically set to 1024 x 768 pixels or higher in either 16 or 32 bit color To find out what your computer display is set at right click on your desktop choose properties and settings and read the monitor resolution setting 26 When running Celestia in Windowed Mode your screen gives you visible screen borders sliders and toolbars You can resize the screen by dragging its corners minimize the screen switch between programs etc If instead you select a different screen resolution from the Display Mode pull down menu Celestia will immediately switch to Full Screen Mode and draw the screen in that pixel size filling up the entire screen All of the toolbars sliders and side borders will disappear 27 High
42. e For example to type the amp sign you would actually press Shift and the 7 key at the top of the keyboard together at the same time Some keystrokes require the use of the Ctrl key or Alt key When they do we will instruct you h IMPORTANT NOTE on occasion we will instruct you to Click here to actually launch a scene in Celestia Itis VERY important that you click that link ONLY ONCE If you double click it two separate versions of Celestia will launch Since the program uses a lot of memory and computer resources two programs running at the same time will lock up your computer or slow things down dramatically Also note that in Microsoft Word you may have to hold down the Ctrl key while you click here m gt Note New features since the previous version of this Guide are highlighted in Red Celestia User s Guide 11 of 46 1 The Opening Screen Figure l Earth Click here ONCE ONLY to go to Earth 1f needed press Ctrl click 2 3 4 5 6 General Operation and Keyboard commands To launch Celestia double click on its icon on your desktop or single click in the Programs menu that appears when you click your Start button The program will load it can take up to 20 seconds to open and will position you out in space The beauty of Celestia is its accuracy The image in front of you is
43. e close it and launch Celestia The program will now always start with an FOV of 30 Figure 2 click here to visit Figure 3 click here to visit Radius 6378 000 km Speed 0 000 m s FOV 44 59 59 0 The FOV here is 45 Notice size of the moon behind Earth The FOV here is 12 Earth and moon are now enlarged Rendering amp Resolution Ctr1 vj Shift R or R 9 Celestia is a sophisticated graphic drawing and rendering program that draws objects using models it has in its database It then wraps various graphic textures and images around those models 10 There are three levels of textures it can use They are High Resolution Textures known as hires textures Medium Resolution Textures known as medres textures and Low Resolution Textures known as lores textures You can find those graphic files in the Celestia main directory inside a folder named textures The program model patterns can be found in a Celestia folder named models 11 Celestia also can contain customized add on files which are additional models textures and code documents that Celestia designers may offer to users These add ons are typically located or placed in a Celestia folder named extras Each add on may be inside its own folder in the extras folder and may contain its own models and textures Celestia User s Guide 13 of 46 12 The level and method of drawing rendering cap
44. e created a seamless and beautiful way to fly through the Celestia universe You are in command of your own hyperdrive spaceship The video screen in front of you is its window You can use this ship to fly through the Solar System chase planets drift above moons try your hand at rendezvousing with spacecraft or visit Celestia User s Guide 35 of 46 another star Start some beautiful music playing and your journey can become more stirring Right now your ship is stopped Let s get it moving Click here and you will be positioned about 6 400 km above India 73 Now press and hold down the letter A on the keyboard for a second or two This is the throttle for your spaceship You will begin moving forward Your speed is shown in the lower left of the screen You will start slowly in meters sec As you hold down the A key Celestia increases your speed exponentially Accelerate to between 40 and 50 km s 50 kilometers sec which is much faster than our fastest spacecraft the Voyagers have ever flown 74 To slow down press or hold down the Z key Your speed will drop the Brake 75 Don t worry about exact speeds just get close Earth will begin getting bigger as you fly toward it on a collision course To change course simply tap the arrow or other movement keys and your view and forward direction will change to a new orientation You will miss and fly by Earth 76 To reverse course instantly simply press the Q key Now
45. e planets in our Solar System and many fictional planets that Celestia users create in other solar systems have clouds drifting across their surfaces Celestia has the ability to display clouds and put them in motion Highly Recommended but does require computer resources Try turning off if Celestia is running slowly or if you want clear skies Figure 9 click here to visit Figure 10 click here to visit Celestia User s Guide 17 of 46 Comet Tails Constellations Figure 12 Constellations with borders and labels enabled As viewed from Earth the Sun is in Capricorn Click here to visit Eclipse Shadows Figure 13 click here to visit Ctrl T When closer to the Sun than the orbit of Jupiter about 5 6 au or closer Celestia will accurately place a gaseous comet tail behind all comets properly sized and oriented to always point away from the Sun To see those tails you have to be close enough to the comet NEW When a comet is far out in space far from solar heat no tail will be displayed Highly Recommended but memm o requires computer resources Figure 11 Venus and comet Ikaya Zhang in Feb 2002 Click here to visit Follow S j FOV 1 Celestia will display both constellation borders Ctrl B and their asterism shapes for each of the 88 constellations in the sky In the second Options menu you can also turn on constellation labels These 3 options are useful whe
46. ect that you have selected For example if you are above Earth with Africa below you selecting Syne Orbit will tell Celestia to keep you positioned above Africa all the time As the Earth turns below so will you To see that effect click here Many of our satellites navigation weather spy GPS TV and radio are in synchronous orbit around Earth You can use the command in fact to hover above a particular satellite as it orbits its host planet or moon The keyboard shortcut for Sync Orbit is Y Track Selection T 56 This command tells Celestia to track a selected object keeping it centered in view The keyboard shortcut for Track Selection is T To be useful the selected object should first be released from other effects then re acquired and tracked For example click here You are currently following Earth and it does not appear moving Now release your hold on it with the Esc key Earth will begin to move away from you at the speed it travels in space about 47 100 mph or 78 500 km hr If you watch long enough it would drift off the screen However if you left click on it to re select it and choose the Track Selection command T Earth will still be drifting away but your view will swing to center and track it 57 A particular excitement is to chase one of our interplanetary spacecraft or an asteroid using the Track Selection Command To see this in dramatic action click here You will be taken to a position in space abo
47. ed 71 One problem that you may encounter is what to call an object You can use common names or Bayer and Flamsteed designations and HD or HIP catalog numbers when entering stars and space objects in all of the Navigation and Enter menus Galaxies are generally referenced by multiple catalog number designations or Messier object references Celestia stores star data taken from the HD catalog or HIPPARCOS data set the prefix is HIP Both the 1 name or number and 2 name of the object star can be spelled out or abbreviated 3 letters with a space between them Examples Upsilon And Ups Andromedae Ups And 51 Peg Note This is 51_Peg not 51Peg 51 Pegasi HD 173739 HIP 5643 Planets moons asteroids and artificial satellites may be named by their common name e g Mir or Jupiter or Io or they can also be specified using Celestia s path syntax Type the name of the star followed by a forward slash then the planet name then the moon or satellite name etc For example 51 Peg b Sol Earth Sol Earth Moon Apollo11 Sol Earth ISS Sol Jupiter Europa Galaxies are named by their common name or through their Messier number NGC UGC or MCG catalog numbers For example Pinwheel M 101 NGC 5457 UGC 8981 MCG 9 23 28 All refer to the same object the Pinwheel galaxy Flying your Spaceship Aj Z S Q 72 What good is a space simulation program if you cannot fly around in it The designers of Celestia hav
48. elestia User s Guide F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 Set velocity to 1 000 km s Set velocity to speed of light Set velocity to 10x the speed of light Set velocity to 1 AU s Set velocity to 1 ly s Other commands Keyboard D Run demo F10 Capture image to file F11 and F12 Start and stop Movie Save Ctri INS or Ctrl C Copy location URL to clipboard Windows Display frames per second FPS useful for measuring Celestia response times Shift Toggle Console Mode shows text of what is going on in the background Page up Moves the Console display up a few lines Page Down Moves the console display down a few lines Ctrl W Toggle wireframe mode displays objects as wireframe models F9 Toggle overlay texture 46 of 46
49. elestia use are large and if your computer does not have at least 128 MB of RAM Celestia may run very slowly not run at all or may lock up In addition if you wish to explore Celestia s maximum capabilities you will need 512 MB to 1 GB of RAM Most importantly the program needs a 3D video Open GL graphics accelerator also known as a Video Display Adapter in your computer This is hardware circuitry that draws complex graphic images on your video display monitor Graphics cards are available for purchase at any computer electronics store and are easy to install Many come pre installed on your computer or they retail for between 100 and 200 and require manual installation Using them will dramatically improve your computer s performance in any graphics intensive application Celestia should run with any 3D Open GL accelerator with at least 64 megabytes of video memory However a 128 MB Video RAM card is required if you intend to use Celestia s more detailed graphic files and for the biggest add ons 256 MB of graphics memory may be desirable If you have such a card Celestia will run Celestia User s Guide amp of 46 smoothly and its graphics will be complete crisp sharp and fast If is runs too slowly locks up or objects appear to be moving with jerky motions you may need to locate a faster computer or one with more memory or graphics PLEASE READ CAREFULLY Celestia uses the OpenGL process to render 3D graphics In order
50. empt a difficult docking at the ISS Shuttle port Discover Mir as it passes over the Russian homeland with its cosmonaut crew onboard Hover over Mar s Gusev crater and Meridiani Planum and drop down to the surface to visit Spirit and Opportunity at their landing sites then fly over to Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris and fly through the canyon on a virtual flyby Be there in 2004 when asteroid 2004 FH misses a direct collision with Earth by a hair s breath Stand watch in the year 2029 when a new asteroid will approach Earth on a possible collision path Observe a spectacular lunar eclipse of our own Moon and a total solar eclipse on Earth Position yourself above Jupiter and watch as its large moons drift across the face of the planet casting multiple eclipse shadows on its banded clouds and Great Red Spot Examine the volcanoes on Jupiter s very active moon Jo as you pass above it Hover far beyond Saturn speed up time and count its many moons revolving around its magnificent ringed body like pearls swirling on an invisible necklace Be there when the spacecraft Cassini arrives in Saturn space in 2004 and drops the Huygens probe into the atmosphere of Titan in January 2005 Follow Huygens down to a parachute landing on Titan s surface Engage in a dangerous maneuver and plunge through Saturn s rings in the Celestia spaceship Journey to the frozen wasteland of Pluto and its three moons and see their icy coldness for yourself
51. en Script 92 Pull down the Celestia FILE menu and the first choice will be Open Script A script is a file with a cel or celx extension that commands Celestia to go certain places or play sounds if you have the special Celestia sound version It can also have text The short Night Sky DEMO you may have taken at the beginning of this document is controlled by a script named Demo cel If you have not taken it yet click on the Help menu in Celestia and choose Run Demo Press the Esc key when done 93 Scripts are coded files written by Celestia developers and users to control certain Celestia program functions and or take you on a particularly interesting journey It controls the program and all you have to do is sit back and watch There are dozens of script files now available You can find many of them as add ons in the Celestia Motherlode website Look for script in the add on definitions If you do download a script place the file into your Celestia main directory or into a folder named scripts Then to launch run the script simply pull down the Open Script menu from the Celestia FILE menu navigate to look in the location of Celestia User s Guide 38 of 46 the script file and open it For example to open the Demo script navigate to C Program Files Celestia and it will be listed as a file in that Directory 94 A celx script is a special case It is a file that when opened has the ability to re
52. estia uses by default The date and time are in the format Year Month Day Hours Minutes Secs Thus 2005 10 19 14 10 06 UTC means that the time is October the 10 month 19 19 day 2005 at 2 10 06 PM If you find it more convenient you can access the Time menu at the top of the program screen and command Celestia to show your local time zone instead Celestia can also speed up slow down time or travel forward or backward in time with the touch of a button Now you are experiencing the program in Real time In the lower right of the screen will be a message telling you that you are Following Earth Wherever it goes you go Thus although Earth is actually moving rapidly through space you are moving with it 7 Field of View FOV ys shift left click drag or or Under the Follow Earth text will be your Field of View or FOV setting This is the amount of sky your view takes in Celestia starts you out with an FOV that it calculates based upon your screen size resolution and monitor settings It ranges from 15 to 45 which means your monitor is displaying about 15 Celestia User s Guide 12 of 46 45 of the sky most people have a total visual field of 120 However you can change the FOV easily by holding down the Shift key on the keyboard left clicking your mouse button and dragging the mouse forward or backward Try it As the FOV gets smaller the scene enlarges It i
53. et date and GoTo the planet button close the dialog box by clicking the Close tab and enjoy the show We recommend you speed time up a bit by pressing the L key 66 As an example here is a very exciting double eclipse of Jupiter by two of its moons Jo and Europa that took place in January 2003 The shadows of both moons can be seen on Jupiter s clouds Once the eclipse is finished Europa the moon closest to you then eclipses Io the more distant moon To see it click here and watch it unfold by examining both Jupiter and Io All eclipse shadows in space are actually composed of an inner shadow the Umbra and outer shadow the Penumbra Celestia draws both See figure 12 for an example of a total solar eclipse on Earth The Umbra is the darker inner shadow Important Notes To see eclipses you must have Eclipse Shadows selected in the Render Options menu Also note that once you examine an eclipse you will be in a new date in Celestia To return to your current date and time press the Shift key There is a limit to what Celestia can calculate between dates that are far apart For example Jupiter has 63 moons They all have the capability to pass between Jupiter and the Sun very frequently If you ask Celestia to compute a list of solar eclipses between say 1920 and 1990 the list will become so long that it will lock up the program Therefore when dealing with the four outer gas giant planets of Jupiter Saturn
54. evel to none to simulate this and get the most realistic views of space We recommend this be your default setting However there are times when a bit of extra light is useful or aesthetically pleasing For example go to the dark side of any planet and adjust ambient light from None to Low then to Medium You ll discover that portions of a planet s dark side become visible with some light scattering Having a bit of extra light is also good for seeing spacecraft When they re on a planet s dark side they almost disappear in the shadows Low or medium light allows you to track them better Use keyboard shortcuts Shift to decrease ambient light and Shift to increase it through several step levels Figure 30 click here to visit Figure 31 Pluto 2006 03 28 23 43 01 Eastern St Distance 4 733 610 km Radius 1 151 000 km Speed 0 000 mis Speed 0 000 mis Pluto and its moon Charon with Ambient Light set to None Same scene with Ambient Light set to Low Antialiasing Ctrl X On the Render menu select Antialiasing These are instructions to Celestia to use certain graphical processing and smoothing techniques when it draws lines on the viewscreen In general Antialiasing evens out the lines used to draw sharp edges of spacecraft orbit paths and constellation figures Highly Recommended Note that anti aliasing may not be available if you do not have a higher quality graphics video card on
55. eypad Your view yaws to the right on numerical keypad instantly stops yaw pitch or roll Orbit around the object automatically Look back view rear view Select planets around nearby Sun Cancel hold on object cancel command or script action Cancel current selection Time Functions Keyboard Spacebar L K J Shift Shift Stop or pause time or if paused resume time Time 10x faster repeat for faster time Time 10x slower repeat for slower time Reverse time it flows backward Return to Real Time Set time to the current clock time Display light travel delay between observer and selected object Subtract light travel delay from current simulation time toggle on or off Joystick Functions typical Note joystick buttons differ in function experiment with yours Y axis L trigger R trigger Button 1 Button 2 Enable joystick press again to disable yaw pitch roll left button C on a Microsoft Sidewinder Pro rollright button D slower trigger on Microsoft Sidewinder Pro faster thumb button on Sidewinder Pro Multiview Functions Keyboard CtrlH R Ctrl U TAB DEL Ctrl D Split view vertically Split view horizontally Cycle active view Delete active view Delete all views except active one Spaceship commands Keyboard Increase velocity Decrease velocity Reverse direction Set movement direction toward center of screen Stop Set velocity to 1 km s C
56. fault Interpretive maps and the limit of knowledge textures You can also load them with right click and selection of Limit of Knowledge from the Alternate Surfaces menu 2003 0322 19 47 42 UT ercur i 7 9305 Figure 33 Mercury with surface filled in click pictures to visit Figure 34 True Limit of Knowledge Celestia User s Guide 26 of 46 NEW _ Texture overlays F9 key In January 2006 volunteer programmers working with Celestia added a new feature to the program As of this printing the official Celestia program version 1 4 1 do not yet have this feature but it may be included in future releases The overlay program version can be obtained from the Celestia forum directly from this link http vincent gian club fr celestia celestia_win32_1 4 1_ patch zip A slightly different version of the same customized program can be obtained from the Celestia educational website located at http www celestiamotherlode net educational html After installation when Celestia is launched press the F9 key Windows system only If your Celestia program version supports this feature and if your program folders contain the appropriate overlay texture you will see a semi transparent overlay texture appear on your screen bracketing your view There are several overlays being designed by Celestia volunteers One of them is a cockpit overlay that simulates the instrument panel of a spaceship The window neatly simu
57. fictional ones Remember though that the star has to be reasonably close to Earth This menu will only display the first 500 stars that have planets To practice such a journey locate the star 51 Peg in the star browser list make sure you choose the with planets option and select Go To You will fly at great speed to a bright yellow star much like our Sun A planet will be seen near it Either point to it and left click to select it or right click on the star 51 Peg when you get there and select the planet named b Press the G key on the keyboard and you will be taken to the planet which will appear as a big gas world similar to Uranus Using the movement keys described earlier you can move around this planet Notice that the Solar System Browser in the Navigation Menu is no longer listing our solar system It now lists the one planet system of 51 Peg To return to Earth press H to select the Sun then G to go to it Celestia User s Guide 33 of 46 Eclipse Finder 65 The last menu item in the Navigation menu is Eclipse Finder When selected Celestia will calculate and provide you dates of all partial and total solar or lunar eclipses for all planets and moons listed in the Solar System Browser and offer you the option to go there to witness the eclipse Simply select the type of eclipse solar or lunar the planet and the date range you desire and click Compute When a list comes up pick one click the s
58. h and Moon both in the window for example Likewise perhaps you ve visited an object and it is exhibiting funny colors The cause of these performance problems may be as follows A Your video card drivers are out of date This is a common reason for poor performance particular for weird colors Celestia is sophisticated software that is continually undergoing updates and new versions to take advantage of newer video graphic rendering techniques You need to keep your video card drivers up to date as well or the program may not perform properly To update a video driver see prior sections B The object you re viewing may be larger in size than your video card can handle This too is a common occurrence Some add ons include textures of planets or models of spacecraft that require 100 MB of memory just to load If you have two objects in view e g Earth and Moon the program mayb e trying to use even higher video memory If your video card is not up to the task the image simply will freeze on the screen To fix that problem lower the resolution level that Celestia uses by pressing the R key on the keyboard once A message will appear confirming the lower resolution Then after you leave that particular object and go somewhere else in Celestia you can always return to higher resolution by pressing the Shift R keys Celestia User s Guide 43 of 46 2 5 4 NOTE Sometimes clicking on a cel url results in a weird view
59. hat cel URLs are hyperlinks You should only click on them once single click not double click In fact if you click one twice it will launch two copies of Celestia at once Since Celestia uses a great deal of computer memory two running programs could lock up your computer If gt everything seems to stop or slow down after using a cel URL hyperlink or if the screen view does strange things you probably clicked it twice Close one or both of the Celestia programs reclick just once and things should improve 109 To save your position in Celestia as a hyperlink you can use the Bookmarks menu mentioned earlier You can also press either Ctrl C or Ctrl INS This will save the hyperlink to your computer clipboard To paste that link into a web browser simply position your cursor in the address field at the top of the browser and press Ctrl V To paste the link into a text document or a PowerPoint presentation you may be able to simply paste the link by positioning the cursor on the page and pressing Paste from the toolbar menu or Ctrl V from the keyboard If successful the link will paste into your document and change color when you hit the Enter key Clicking on it will launch Celestia If that doesn t work you may have to paste the link by inserting a hyperlink See your application software for directions on how to do that You can also link a Cel URL to an image For example right clicking on graphic image
60. hift Increase galaxy brightness Shift Toggle Star Color highlights Shift Toggle Limit of Knowledge textures Alt Enter Toggle full screen display mode on or off Esc Escape key cancels command cancels script cancels movement or lock commands Celestia User s Guide 45 of 46 Navigation Functions Keyboard H C G Ctrl G F ENTER Y Shift Shift T HOME END Up arrow Down arrow Left arrow Right arrow 4 number key 6 number key 5 number key Shift arrow keys Shift 1 9 Esc Backspace Select the Sun Home Center on selected object Goto selected object Goto surface of the object Follow selected object Select a star or planet by typing its name then press Enter again Orbit the selected object at a rate synchronized to its rotation Increase Field Of View FOV Decrease Field of View FOV Lock on selected object Point at 2 object and press again to pair the two Chase selected object orientation is based on selection s velocity Track selected object keep selected object centered in view Move closer to object Move farther from object Your view pitches downward also see 8 key on numerical keypad Your view pitches upward also see 2 key on numerical keypad Your view rolls counter clockwise also see 7 key on numerical keypad Your view rolls clockwise also see 9 on numerical keypad on numerical keypad Your view yaws swings to the left on numerical k
61. ia will appear Clicking on the column headers at the top of the menu will sort the stars different ways For example if you click on the word Distance Celestia will sort the list of stars by distance from our Sun If instead you click on the column header titled Type Celestia will sort the list according to the star s stellar classification O B A F G K M W L T 63 The slider at the bottom of the list determines how many stars will appear in the list from just 10 stars to as many as 500 You have your choice of nearest brightest or stars with planets For example if you choose 500 stars with the slider and click the brightest dot Celestia will list the 500 brightest stars in the sky as seen from your current position apparent magnitude If you are in orbit around Pluto it will list the 500 brightest stars as seen from Pluto 64 Planets orbiting other stars Extrasolar planets have been discovered in the last few years At last count over 170 have been detected To give you an up to date astronomy experience Celestia includes some of those planets placed around candidate stars In addition Celestia s many users have designed fictional solar systems that they have placed around some of the stars in our sky When downloaded their solar systems will appear here in the star browser list also Selecting the With planets option will enable you to locate the stars that have planets including
62. ill be taken by the program to a position located directly above Cairo Note that if the location is on the opposite side of a planet from where you are Celestia will take a shortcut through the planet and stop above the location you select but facing into space You will have to rotate your view to see the location see later sections for how to rotate your view Celestia User s Guide 23 of 46 Stars Visible or On the Render menu select More or Fewer stars visible or toggle with the keyboard shortcuts Like the Filter slider discussed earlier this tells Celestia how many stars to draw in the sky at one time However it controls star numbers by Apparent Magnitude visible brightness On the surface of Earth our view generally includes stars of an apparent magnitude of 6 5 or less the lower the number the brighter the star Setting this option to Magnitude 6 5 results is a realistic sky as seen from the surface of Earth on a clear night with only about 3 000 stars visible However if you were living on a space station far above earth s atmosphere you might see stars up to a magnitude of 9 0 or more with the naked eye Because there are more stars in the sky many Celestia users prefer higher star settings of 8 0 to 10 0 The keyboard shortcuts are very useful here Experiment by using the keyboard key to decrease limiting magnitude fewer stars visible and to increase limiting magnitude more
63. in When AutoMag is enabled Celestia will display stars automatically within a set range of magnitudes to maintain a reasonable visual range whenever you change your field of view FOV For example if you zoom your view with the FOV key controls it will automatically add dimmer stars to keep your star count constant It will also restrict your view to a magnitude range of 6 0 12 0 A screen display will advise you of your changes It is very useful if you change the FOV by zooming in or out We recommend you leave it activated NEW AutoMag also now controls galaxy brightness As you approach or leave a galaxy its brightness will change to mimic what your eyes would see in deep space Celestia User s Guide 24 of 46 Star Style Toggles between scaled disc fuzzy points and points as discussed earlier Stars by temperature Shift NEW Controlled by keyboard command this control toggles the appearance of stars to highlight accentuate their spectral class colors For example M stars are reddish When Shift is pressed all the M stars in the scene will be more red All the O blue stars will be more blue etc It helps you visually locate stars of a particular spectral class Ambient Light Shift or Shift On the Render menu select Ambient Light Since space is a near vacuum there is very little light scattered and shadows are completely black You can set the ambient light l
64. ing the location or enjoying the view that the cel url brought you to there is no quick reset command to return your view settings to the way you had them before You will have to open the Render menu and make sure the check boxes you desire are again Selected Alternatively you can choose all of the options you desire and create your own cel url hyperlink as a Bookmark Call it Reset Then if someone else s cel url resets your program to settings you do not want simply click on the Bookmark and Celestia will reset your parameters and take you to that location NOTE On rare occasions clicking a cel Url may result in the program doing some funny things It occasionally gets lost You may see the stars as bright dots instead of their normal appearance The gt screen may be warped You may wind up far from where you expected to be One easy way to tell if the program has gotten lost is to examine the FOV reading in the lower right corner If it is greater than 80 the program is lost Fortunately it is simply to overcome Simply click on the cel url link again That usually does it Multiview VIEW MENU 112 Celestia can also show you views from different camera positions simultaneously This can be very helpful for visualizing phenomena like eclipses where you want to watch a view from the Sun the eclipsed planet or moon and the occluding body all at the same time Planetary encounters by sp
65. instructions These scripted trips take anywhere from a minute or less to over an hour Scripts are also available on many forum member websites Educational Journeys The ability of Celestia to educate the public about Astronomy has also led to the development of a series of Educational Activities that take Celestia users on extensive detailed virtual tours of the universe some lasting several hours Designed for all general audiences and for students in 7 12 grades these exciting Activities teach you a host of facts about specific astronomical topics while employing the stunning ability of Celestia to give you control of your own spaceship to explore the universe at your own speed and pace Unlike a script you participate in an educational journey not as a spectator but as pilot of your own spacecraft Each journey includes student worksheets that can be printed copied and distributed by teachers to students for a grade and meet all National Educational Standards in Science Many of the highlights mentioned above are taken from these Educational Journeys Celestia User s Guide 6 of 46 There are 12 journeys currently They are available at no charge for download individually as zipped files from http www celestiamotherlode net catalog educational php They require about 1 4 GB of computer memory They can also be purchased on a self installing CD set for a modest fee from the author Details are on the website Program downloa
66. isplay Adapters click the button next to it and the name of your Video Display Adapter card will appear Once you know that go to the website of your computer manufacturer e g HP Apple Dell etc and look for links to download graphic drivers You can also go to the website of the video card manufacturer Nvidia ATI Radeon Intel etc and download the newest drivers from there Somewhere on those websites will be directions on how to install the new drivers on your computer Alternatively you can hire a computer store to load them for you 15 Celestia will read the type of video display adapter and driver you have and will select a drawing method it feels is best for that adapter From that perspective therefore you don t have to do anything specifically 16 Celestia offers you the ability to compensate somewhat for lower level display cards by allowing you to choose which level of graphic rendering you desire and which resolution of textures you may wish to use High Medium or Low These choices are selected by keyboard command For example if you have a fast computer with a good video display card you would use the highest resolution models and textures your system can handle without sacrificing performance Conversely if your system is a model with only a modest video graphics card you would want to lower the resolution and or rendering options to avoid overtaxing your system The following keystrokes de
67. key to reverse course again start your ship moving forward and you will fly back to your point of origin Please remember that Celestia only tracks a tiny few of the over 200 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxies contain FAR more stars than this program can track Celestia also provides shortcut keys for specific Spaceship speeds Fl Stop F2 Set velocity to 1 km s F3 Set velocity to 1 000 km s F4 Set velocity to speed of light F5 Set velocity to 10x the speed of light F6 Set velocity to 1 AU s F7 Set velocity to 1 ly s You can use these shortcuts to get moving at a particular speed then use the A or Z keys to boost or lower your speed further Telling Where You Are 79 Celestia will provide you a general idea of where you are in space by simply looking at the information view display The top left corner identifies which object you ve selected and how far away from it you are By changing objects you can determine a rough estimate of where you are in space However if you have taken up position above a star planet moon etc Celestia will tell you not only how far you are from it but what Celestia User s Guide 36 of 46 latitude and longitude above it you are positioned To see that pull down the Navigation menu and select Goto Object As long as you have an object selected you will see your Distance Latitude and Longitude from it If you are completely lost simply go home by pressing the H and G keys
68. lates what you would see if you were in an actual spaceship cockpit looking out its front window Another overlay displays a listing of Celestia s complete set of keyboard controls Several more overlays are under development Press F9 again and the overlay toggles off The overlay textures themselves are included in the add on mentioned above Examples of two of the overlays are Figure 36 controls overlay enabled ouse Funct dra Figure 35 cockpit overlay enabled ght pollution Ty discs points end scaled discs NEW SOUND In January 2006 volunteer programmers working with Celestia added a 2 new feature to the program They have inserted code in the program to play up to eight sound files WAV files from inside Celestia As of this printing the official Celestia program version 1 4 1 does not yet have this feature but it may be included in future releases The same custom program versions above that include overlays will also play sound files Sound is controlled from a script file which is a separate file containing written code commands that Celestia can understand When the script is loaded click here for details on how to load a script certain sound files will begin playing based upon the timing of the script The files can include music narration and sound effects Scripts can also be created that will accept keystroke commands Press a particular key and a particular sound will begin playing
69. llow star s name will appear in the lower right of the screen Now that you are following that object go to it by holding down the advance Home key When you get there back away from the object using the recede End key 40 Go to Surface Ctrl G If you are following an object pressing this key combination will take you directly to the surface looking at the horizon Although it will work for all space objects it s designed for planetary bodies moons etc Celestia User s Guide 29 of 46 41 GO HOME H To return to our Solar System from anywhere in the universe a very useful thing press the H key on the keyboard That will select Sol the Sun Tap the G key and you will be whisked back to our Sun Note You will use these two keystrokes constantly as you explore the Celestia universe and wish to return home 42 To cancel a current selection hit the Backspace key once on the keyboard To cancel a navigation command such as Follow or Center press the Esc key in the upper left of your keyboard You will now be adrift in space Objects will still be selected and you can return to going to them following them or tracking them etc by simply hitting the G or F keys again 43 Right Click There is another way to select objects and is one you will use often To demonstrate it click here You will be taken to a position above the planet Jupiter Right click on Jupiter to bring up a menu of o
70. mechanics of the solar system Turn them on zoom out from the Sun or planet and view the orbits from above Speed up time see later discussion and you will see the alignment of planets speeding around the Sun or view the orbits of satellites as they circle around a planet The Orbit Label section of the View Options Menu allows you to turn specific orbit types on or off with a check mark in the box Recommended when desired Does not use much computer resources Displays all planets as full color detailed textures Most are based on accurate satellite photos of the planets Normally selected no keyboard shortcut Highly Recommended Celestia User s Guide 20 of 46 Ring Shadows no keyboard shortcut Celestia can continually redraw the position of shadows that a planet s ring casts on a planet and conversely the shadow a planet will cast on its rings Highly Recommended but does require significant computer resources Figure 21 Ring Shadows enabled click here to visit Figure 22 Ring Shadows disabled click here to visit Stars Displays a sky full of stars Obviously a key part of the Celestia experience Normally selected no keyboard shortcut Highly Recommended Stars As Discs or Points Ctrl S Celestia can display stars either as points scaled discs or fuzzy points Which looks better is a matter of personal taste and the resolution of your monitor In general a scaled disc forms a prominent circular
71. n the keyboard This is the same as k but using the keyboard only Your position above any object will rapidly recede away Hold down the key and you can move light years away Press the Shift on the keyboard This is a Lookback command It will reverse your view so that instead of looking forward you will look behind you a rearview window It is very stimulating when flying from one planet to another or traveling in your spaceship You can see forward and then examine your journey from the rear view watching the planet or moon you just left recede from you Joystick Control F8 37 You can also control your movement via a joystick Windows only The commands for joystick control of Celestia are listed in the back of this document in the Keyboard and Mouse Command Summary Press the F8 key to turn Joystick control on or off Selecting Objects general 38 In Celestia you will usually have some object selected If so the program will list its name in the upper left corner It can be a star planet moon asteroid comet spacecraft galaxy nebula or location The simplest way to select most objects is to point at it with your mouse and left click on it note point click does not work with Locations Return to Celestia and try clicking once on a star to select it The information display changes to details about the star Note that you have not actually gone there or changed anything yet You ve simply told Celestia
72. never you wish to locate a constellation Recommended only when desired Does not use much computer resource Ea A 2003 01 27 14 48 25 Easten Real time rth Distance 31889 999 km Radius 6378 800 km Speed 0 000 m s Ctrl E Celestia can compute the actual position of the shadows a moon or planet will cast on a planet moon as the object passes in front of the Sun a solar eclipse Turning this feature on will cause shadows to be drawn on all planets moons whenever an eclipse occurs It is an elegant feature particularly when observing moon shadows drifting across the giant gas worlds of Jupiter and Saturn Highly Recommended but does require significant computer resources Io eclipsing Jupiter an example of Eclipse Shadows A total solar eclipse over Africa as seen from space Celestia User s Guide 18 of 46 Galaxies U NEW Rendering Celestia 1 4 1 comes with a galaxy data file that tells the program the position of over 10 000 galaxies in the night sky and what type they are When this option is selected Celestia will dynamically draw each galaxy based upon its type and magnitude and position it in the proper place in space Since galaxies are dim objects and are most are not visible without telescopes not all 10 000 will be drawn at once Celestia will also draw the huge band of starry haze we know as the Milky Way Selecting the option therefore will dramatically improve your Celestia experience and you
73. ny object that you have previously selected in the center of your viewscreen It is used frequently in Celestia For example if you select a star anywhere in the sky by left clicking on it you can center it by simply choosing this menu command in the Navigation menu or pressing the C key on the keyboard Double clicking on the object will also center it in your viewscreen 52 If you were orbiting a planet or star when you selected and centered a new object you might or might not lose sight of your original object as the viewscreen moved to center the new object To compensate for that possibility Celestia provides the Shift C key combination Pressing both of them together causes the viewscreen to swing to center the new object you selected without losing sight of the original To test this out click here You will be taken to a position behind the Moon with the Earth off to the right Earth has been pre selected but is not yet centered To do so press the C key The view will swing to the nght and the Moon will move off screen to the left Return to your starting view by clicking the above link again but this time press the Shift C keys together Earth will again center but the Moon will still be fully visible Your view will take up position behind the Moon This feature is obviously useful if you do not want to lose sight of the original object as you sight and center on a new one It s NEAT Go To Selection _ G 53 Previo
74. o launch ourselves into space and soar among the stars What do the astronauts of the Space Shuttle really see when they look down upon our beautiful Earth turning slowly below What wonders might we encounter if we could visit Saturn alongside the Cassini spacecraft and sail right through its rings If you have ever wondered about these things and would like to find out the answers we of the Celestia community are happy to introduce you to Celestia Celestia is a free real time space simulation that lets you visually experience our universe in three dimensions Celestia was the initial inspiration and creation of Mr Chris Laurel a Seattle WA computer programmer who in 2001 decided to write a free software program to be made available to everyone on the world wide web that would place you in control of a virtual reality world of the universe His vision and dedication gave birth to a program that is unlike any other space simulation program in existence Celestia doesn t confine you to the surface of the Earth as do many other programs Instead Chris created a dynamic capability to travel throughout the Solar System and elsewhere in space at any speed at any moment of time and in any direction you choose If you wish you can fly via your own hyperdrive spacecraft to visit stars within the spiral arms of the Milky Way beyond the confines of our Sun or leave the galaxy entirely to view the bigger universe from deep space Chris also insisted this
75. ome of the best add ons As mentioned the activities can be downloaded individually at no charge or purchased as a CD set See the educational website at http www celestiamotherlode net catalog educational php for details You can find another add on site here http www ikiru ch celestia index php lang en In addition these sites all have excellent add ons to use Jeam tag s add on site In French but all links work Praesepe s Files Texture Foundry Mike s add on list BT s Celestia add ons Celestia basic textures Don s Celestia Central Selden s Resources NASA s Celestia add on files Celestial Visions Jack s spacecraft add ons Jim s Celestia page Maxim s site http space graphics com Please note that the above links may be temporary Websites come and go based on member s arrangements with hosting servers However the above sites are an excellent start To see links to more of them visit and browse the forum at http shatters net forum index php The Celestia default program and package for computers running Microsoft Windows 98 ME 2000 XP or NT is offered as a fully executable program It will install itself onto your computer The current version is Version 1 4 1 and was released in January 2006 Celestia 1 4 1 is also available for the Macintosh using the OS X operating system and for Linux The Windows MAC and Linux versions are all available for download at Celestia s main site located at h
76. oncerned with file size we recommend you download and install DivX onto your computer then save your videos as a compressed DivX file 104 Click OK A red box will now appear on your screen You can move what is in that box by clicking on the screen with your standard movement keys When ready to start taping your movie start time moving forward if it was paused press spacebar again and press the F11 key on the keyboard Recording will begin To stop press the F12 key The recording will stop and the red box will disappear Your movie is saved To cancel a movie at any time simply press the F12 key Save Location BOOKMARKS 105 To save a particular location simply set up your position and time as you would like it pull down the Bookmarks Menu and choose Add Bookmarks Type a name and click OK Celestia will save a positional and time bookmark in its database To return to that location at the exact time you saved simply click on the Bookmarks Menu again whenever you wish choose a saved location from the list and you will go there instantly To delete a location rearrange the list or otherwise organize them use the Organize Bookmarks option in the pulldown menu The Location Bookmarks feature is very handy to have and use For example if you have taken some time to position yourself in a particularly good view location in space or at the beginning of a celestial event save that position with a bookmark and you can come back
77. onol IEG eee EER E EE E 28 Selec UMS D e onera eera an EEE AT E EE EE 28 IN VC AU O10 M E E EE E E 29 SCE Oi CCL D a ii OS ose E E 33 Selecting Objects by Enter Name Enter Method ccccccseessscccccecsseseeecceceeeeesecceceeeeaeeseeeeeeeeeseaeees 33 Bivins your Spaceship AI i Zi nO herr SE n EE 34 Teline Where TOUA eese a EE EE aoennuteact sotastahaieobaniasasacadecuasiasenanse 35 Adjusting Time TIME MENU L K J Spacebar H 0 ccc cccccccceceeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 36 FICE Menmi OP CN S D eenas E EE 37 FILE MENU Saving Images Movies and Locations essssasseeresssssseereessssssrrrsssssreereeesssssseereess 38 Cek URLs Ctr C or CHIFINS rnrn E EEA AEE REREN cen 40 Mice VIEW MENU eerren a E E wucnucenannsiaasmacarnatuceaes 4 Console Display New Shift pageup pagedOwn ee ecccccccccssseeseeceeceeaeeeseceeeeessaaaaaeseees 42 Troubleshooting and Cautions read Carefully 00 0 0 eccccccccccceseseseecceceeesesececeeessseeeseeceesesaeaseeeeeess 42 Other Documentation Available cscceensncteccecnetecnaseandevnsiaabeeeebrhbencnsdakdieeedasetnennnetsbandesnddeedeeeehomenenenbranes 43 O EE AI EAN E A AAA E E IA E EN A T 43 Celestia Keyboard and Mouse Command Summary cccccccccccsssssecccceeceaeesseecceeeeaeesseceeseesaaaaaeseees 44 Celestia User s Guide 3 of 46 Introduction to Celestia Many of us have looked up at the stars on a dark night and wondered what it would be like t
78. our guide opens a pulldown list of a few of the more interesting objects you can visit in Celestia Select the Tour guide option in the Navigation menu to bring up the guide window choose a destination by clicking on the pulldown arrow and select from the list click the Go To button and click OK to close the window You re off We urge you to visit some of these stops on the tour NOTE As you become more experienced with Celestia you can edit this file in your Directory and add your own tour stops Select Object 47 The Navigation Select Object option opens a dialog box that enables you to type the name of an object you wish to visit and then go there Select this option from the menu and in the space provided type Moon and click OK Now hit the G key and you will zoom to an orbit above our Moon Try another space object Note that this option does not work for Locations Celestia User s Guide 30 of 46 Goto Object 48 Choosing this option from the Navigation menu opens the Go to Object dialog box There are two uses for this dialog box First it can be used to find your exact position in relationship to objects you may already have selected For example if an object such as the Moon is already selected when you choose this option the information fields you see in the Dialog box will contain your current position in relationship to the Moon This will include the object s name and your Latitude Longitude and Dis
79. ptions One of them is Satellites Choose it and a list of some of Jupiter s moons will appear Left click on any one of them and press the G key to travel to it You can use the right click feature when the object you visit orbits the Sun or planet directly If there is no Satellites option in the menu that appears with a right click that means the planet or moon has nothing else orbiting it All of these keyboard key shortcuts are again summarized in the handy list at the end of this document Navigation Menu 44 Celestia has a complete menu at the top of the program dedicated to space navigation that you can use often Some of the choices are single commands e g Select Sol Others open dialog boxes that give you some choices to make or ask for some input Most of the menu choices have keyboard shortcuts Pull down the Navigation menu and you will see Select Sol H 45 The Navigation Select Sol menu item directs Celestia to select our Sun its Latin name is Sol You can select and locate it in space from anywhere even from far outside of our solar system It is very useful to do when you are far from home and simply want to return to our solar system The keyboard shortcut for selecting Sol is H Please note that all you have done is select the Sun You have not gone there or even centered it in your viewscreen To do that you must enter a 2 command as described later below Tour Guide 46 The t
80. re being added by Celestia s programmers and other talented contributors It is a program undergoing a rapid evolution in computer graphics Add on features for example will include entirely new solar systems with dozens of planets and moons drawn in vivid detail sound effects gaseous nebula clouds new galaxies stars globular clusters and spacecraft both real and imaginary Periodically as new features are added this User s Guide will also be revised If this list above excites you let s get started on our journey into the heart of Celestia Night Sky Demo Celestia is a stunning program to observe and explore the Solar System and beyond To help you discover some of its beauty and secrets Celestia has a short journey already laid out for you To see it launch the program as described below and pull down the Help menu Run the Demo When done press the Esc key Note The D key on the keyboard will also launch the demo Scripts Celestia developers have created a score of other scripted journeys that take you to a variety of fascinating places as a spectator To access and download them visit Celestia s add on repository website at http www celestiamotherlode net catalog scripts php Download the script of your choice and place it in the Celestia main folder located on your C drive in your Program Files directory or in the MAC or Linux Applications folder You can then launch it from within Celestia see later
81. rsion of OS X If you do not do this some aspects of Celestia will not work properly For example if you click on a cel URL file without associating it with Celestia your web browser will launch instead and try to take you to the Internet You may get a message saying Page not found Celestia User s Guide 9 of 46 Linux Operating Systems Most distributions package Celestia to best suit their users needs Check with your package management software as there is a good chance that Celestia is present there Alternatively there is a precompiled x86 AutoPackage provided on the SourceForge download site This package uses the GTK front end and should run on most computers Information about installing an AutoPackage is here http www autopackage org docs howto install Finally should you wish to compile Celestia yourself the process is fairly straightforward Unpack the tarball tar zxvf celestia 1 4 1 tar gz Then change directory cd into the newly created directory and configure Celestia Run configure with the appropriate command line for the version that you want to compile KDE configure with kde GNOME configure with gnome GTK configure with gtk The configure script may complain if you are missing a required component or if you have an out of date version of a required component Check the error output to determine what s missing install the necessary items and then try re running configure
82. s in word processing and presentation software will usually offer you the option to insert a hyperlink If you select it paste the Cel URL into the hyperlink address Clicking on the picture itself will then launch Celestia To see this in action return to figure 35 above and this time click once on the image not on the text above it You will be taken to Mars 110 As evidenced in this document Cel URLs are ideal for showing others a particular discovery or position made in the world of Celestia For example perhaps you ve positioned yourself to witness the passing of a Near Earth asteroid as it whizzes past Earth or have assumed a position off the North Pole of the Sun with Celestia User s Guide 41 of 46 orbits selected and the entire solar system orbiting below you Saving that location to a cel URL and pasting it on the web or in an e mail for others to activate is an ideal way to share your Celestia experience Youll find cel URLs also used frequently in the Celestia forum 111 Note Be careful using cel URLs with add ons If you save the camera position near a body that is part of an add on you previously installed someone who later clicks on the URL will likely see a very dull view of empty space unless they also have the same add on installed Also please note When you click a cel Url Celestia must reset your View Options to match the cel url commands the same as in scripts When you are done visit
83. s similar to a telescope magnification You can also press the key or the keys to change field of view from the keyboard Enlarging the FOV allows you to magnify objects in the distance while still keeping the planet in the foreground In general an FOV of between 25 35 presents a sky view that draws objects at about the size you see them in space If you wish to return to the default FOV that your program opened with and you have a mouse wheel click push the wheel button down once Please note that if you change your screen window size by dragging its borders Celestia will change the FOV based on the new screen size 8 You can also instruct Celestia to launch the program with a particular starting FOV rather than sizing it based on your screen settings To do so locate the file named start cel which is in the Celestia main Directory folder Right click on it and choose the option that says open with A list of programs on your computer will appear Locate a text editing program such as MS WordPad or Notepad and click OK The start cel file will open and you ll see a set of single line commands in English Locate the line that says set name FOV value Remove the symbol and in the space type whatever FOV value you wish For example set name FOV value 30 0 produces a 30 field of view that is about what your eyes would see without a telescope if looking at the Moon Save the fil
84. shatters net celestia download html Hopefully you ve already downloaded Celestia and are ready to install it and experience the beauty of space Using some of the add ons available for the program here is just a taste of what you will be able to encounter Learn the unbelievable size and magnitude of our universe firsthand with a journey from the surface of Earth to the farthest reaches of our observable universe at hyperspeed Take up station off our mighty Sun and watch solar flares rising off the surface in motion or count its sunspots as you measure its rotational period Hover over each of the planets in our Solar System as they rotate slowly below you See clouds drift by where applicable and shadows being cast on mountains and craters as the Sun sets low Fly along with Mariner 10 on its historic flyby of Mercury Visit the searing surface of Venus and view it in a panoramic 360 vista from the surface Take a spin down to the Earth s surface in your own hyperdrive spacecraft Skim over the oceans of Earth as you fly below the clouds Soar back into space to see the lights come on in the cities of Earth Be present as Apollo 11 lands on the Moon in 1969 or drop by Sputnik J in 1958 shortly after its launch Celestia User s Guide 4 of 46 Journey from the Earth s surface up to rendezvous with the International Space Station or the Hubble Space Telescope as they orbit Earth every 90 minutes Att
85. stars visible Note that by turning stars on or off you are changing the amount of data Celestia must process each second If you are experiencing slow performance reduce star count Figure 28 Figure 29 2006 03 28 23 43 01 Easte FOV 45 19 13 0 O Stars at Magnitude setting of 7 5 Same scene at Magnitude setting of 15 0 AutoMag Ctrl Y The default download of Celestia actually contains about 100 000 stars up to magnitude 15 0 visible from the vicinity of Earth A setting of 10 0 or more simulates the view you would see through a telescope However millions of stars have been cataloged by Astronomers and if you wish you can download a star database from the Celestia add on repository that contains over 2 100 000 stars You can find it and a 1 million star database here To use the bigger star file you have to change its name to stars dat and place it inside the data folder in Celestia move the original stars dat file already in that folder to another safe place first Then launch Celestia If either of the larger star files are loaded and you select the maximum magnitude limit of 15 0 the sky will be ablaze with stars Note that this level of star display can slow down many computers The choice is yours Fortunately Celestia helps you to set realistic star magnitudes with a feature known as AutoMag To enable AutoMag select it from the Render menu or press the Ctrl Y keys To disable it press them aga
86. t in a slide presentation Thirdly if you like a particular location and would like to return to that exact spot and time quickly Celestia can save your location internally within the program as a bookmark or as an external hyperlink which can be pasted into another software program Save Image F10 99 To save a graphic file in jpg or png format simply set up the screen exactly as you want it pull down the File Menu and select Capture Image or press the F10 key A menu will appear Choose the folder you wish to put the file into name the file decide if it is to be saved as a jpg or png file and click SAVE JPG files are common graphic files that have good quality and occupy less computer memory because they are first compressed by the program into a smaller size for storage Compression however always results in some small loss of image quality in exchange for smaller file size Thus jpg images can be convenient to use in e mails websites and documents where quality is not overly critical and too large an image size might slow down the software or make it difficult to transfer over the internet Note however that before you can view a jpg file your computer must first uncompress it which takes a bit of time PNG files are also somewhat compressed graphic files but they maintain a higher image quality due to the way they save data As a result they do require much more computer memory For ex
87. t over 30 times a second Contemplate the future and witness the end of Earth as it is swallowed by our swelling Red Giant sun billions of years from now Jump at hyperspeed beyond our Milky Way and cruise on over to the Andromeda spiral galaxy M 87 located in the rich Virgo Cluster or the beautiful Whirlpool galaxy or visit over ten thousand galaxies accurately drawn Be witness to the future of space travel as you cruise next to Cosmos a revolutionary new spacecraft that may someday sail on a wind of pure sunlight it has no engines Celestia User s Guide 5 of 46 Travel backward in time 4 billion years to witness the planet Orpheus catastrophically collide with Earth to actually form our Moon Learn what efforts are being taken to discover if extraterrestrial intelligence exists in the universe Travel in tandem with the USS Enterprise commanded by Captain Picard as it battles the Borg Empire Travel in the whimsical world of Hollywood and visit the StarWars worlds of Tatooine Endor and Hoth Fly next to the Imperial Death Star or Star Destroyer as the Millennium Falcon swoops in for an attack Explore over 20 different fictional solar systems many complete with meticulously detailed exotic alien civilizations terraformed moons futuristic space stations entire space fleets wormholes and interstellar extraterrestrial spacecraft These are just a few of Celestia s features Each week new features a
88. tance above its surface This is very useful when you are positioned above something and you want to know exactly where that spot is If no object is selected the fields will be blank 49 You can instead change the values and go somewhere else For example in the box type Mars enter 30 for the latitude 5 for the longitude and 5000 km for distance Click GoTo You will be taken to a position 5 000 km above the surface of Mars at 30 N latitude and 5 E Longitude You will automatically be placed in Sync orbit around the object meaning that as it turns you will turn with it so you are always above the spot you desire This is an excellent way to position yourself for eclipse events or above craters etc Please note however that when you arrive you may be on the dark side of a planet In that case you may have to reset the clock to a time when daylight is shining on your position see later discussion or you can move your position to a different longitude If you move your position by dragging on the screen the positions in the GoTo Object box will automatically change to reflect your new position close and reopen the box 50 Note that Longitudes are values for positions East of O E and negative for longitudes West of O E For example longitude 40 would be 40 W Distance is distance to the surface of the object Center Selection C or Shift C 51 This command will direct Celestia to reposition a
89. that you have selected a new object if you see no text on the screen type the V key on the keyboard 39 To go to the star you just selected you have four main ways to make the journey practice doing all four A B C D If you right click on the selected star and select Goto Celestia will take you at hyper light speed directly to that star and position you in space at a convenient distance Alternately you can press the letter G on the keyboard That is the shortcut command for Goto and is used extensively in Celestia You can select the star and fly to it in your spaceship It takes longer but sometimes the journey is half the fun of getting there How to operate your spaceship is explained later below You can also select an object using keyboard commands then use the advance Home key or recede End key to get there To do so simply point at a star or planet left click on it with the mouse so that it is selected and tap both the C and the F keys on the keyboard The C key tells Celestia to center a selected object in the middle of your viewscreen Double clicking quickly on an object will also center it The F key tells Celestia to follow the selected object keeping it the same distance from you even though it is moving through space Let s try it Point at a star left click on it to select it and tap the C key It will swing and become centered Then press the F key The words Fo
90. the Motherlode net site above and on the main Celestia net site Credits This User s Guide was written by Frank Gregorio a Celestia forum volunteer in Manassas VA Version 1 4 0 and 1 4 1 Copyright February 2006 Frank Gregorio Celestia courtesy of Developers Chris Laurel Clint Weisbrod Fridger Schrempp Bob Ippolito Christophe Teyssier Dan Ramsey Grant Hutchison Pat Suwalski Toti Copyright 2000 2006 Chris Laurel Permission is granted to freely modify copy and distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License Version 1 1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections no Front Cover Texts and with no Back Cover Texts Celestia User s Guide 44 of 46 Celestia Keyboard and Mouse Command Summary Print these three pages as a convenient keystroke summary This command summary can also be accessed within Celestia Simply pull down the Help menu and click on Controls Mouse Functions Left click on object select object Right drag orbit the selected object in any direction Left drag orient scene in any direction Rotate Mouse Wheel adjust distance to selection Right Left drag adjust distance to selection Ctrl Left drag adjust distance to selection Shift Left drag change field of view FOV e g gt telescopic view Wheel middle button click toggle field of view between 45 degrees and the pre
91. tionary above both objects even as they move in space To see that effect click here You will be taken to the same spot with time speeded up and the two objects locked to each other The sky behind them will be moving but your viewpoint will be locked This command is also particularly useful for watching spacecraft orbiting around planets Go to and follow the spacecraft of your choice then left click on the planet below press the Shift keystrokes and the spacecraft will be locked around the planet As it orbits you will have sight of both of them To see what we mean click here You will be locked above Earth with the Hubble Space telescope orbiting below you Celestia User s Guide 32 of 46 60 Note When interacting with an object you can choose the Follow Center SyncOrbit Track Chase and Lock commands at any time Center and Track can be used alone or in combination with the other commands The others will execute only the last command given For example if you are Following an object and press the Chase or Sync Orbit command it will replace the Follow command If you press the T Track key however you will both be following and tracking your target object both work together If you type the Esc key the current object will be released from all commands To unlock two objects replace the lock command with another one such as the F command or press the Esc key Solar System Browser
92. to it or show others the same event by an instant click on the bookmark Celestia User s Guide 40 of 46 Cel URLS Ctr C or ctri tNs 106 Celestia makes it possible to share locations and export them out of the program by inserting them in a web page or another document through cel URLs A cel URL is a string of text a hyperlink that contains your current ship location orientation time render options and field of view With it you can take a snapshot of your precise position time and view in space and save it as an external hyperlink a URL If you then paste that text string into a document that recognizes hyperlinks word processors web browsers notepads etc a user clicking on that link will automatically launch their own copy of Celestia and be taken to the exact position in space that you were viewing It can be used anywhere you would use an http hyperlink Obviously the user must have Celestia on their computer for this feature to work 107 For example cel urls have been used extensively in this document to take you to different locations associated with the figures Another example below is a cel url that captures the position of Phobos one of Mar s moons orbiting high above the planet in January 2000 Click on the link below and you will be taken to that exact position time and place in Celestia Click here for a ticket to Mars Figure 37 image captured via cel URL 108 Please note t
93. to turn Atmospheres on or off toggle Celestia will draw colored atmospheres above all planets and moons that have them You will be able to see them from space and even fly through them As you do the sky will lighten Atmospheres will even dim and turn color as you view them near the terminator near the dark side Highly Recommended but does require computer resources Try turning it off uncheck the box or toggle the key shortcut if Celestia is running too slowly on your system Figure 6 Click here to visit Figure 7 click here to visit Speed 1 000 m s row Same scene without Atmospheres selected Celestia places an equatorial coordinate grid on the screen showing you the celestial position and direction you are facing in space The grid follows the standard convention of Right Ascension and Declination used in Sal pin tid 2a aaa CE Astronomy Recommended when needed to Werommmpmrupa lt Real time coe locate a direction in space Abs app mag 4 83 26 75 Class GZ V S NN For example you can turn the grid on temporarily to identify direction of an object in Celestia then go to a real telescope and swing to that approximate coordinate You can also use the Celestial Grid to help you decide where to S place a fictional add on or to locate an object SARITHA poueas na whose RA and DEC you know from another source Figure 8 Sky with Celestial grid Enabled Click here to visit I Some of th
94. to turn on or off various labels for planets major stars moons etc and to select which orbit paths you want Celestia to draw New to Celestia version 1 4 1 is a variable label feature based upon distance Labels for far objects are not displayed until you get closer to them For example there are hundreds of thousands of stars and 10 000 galaxies in the Celestia sky If labels were enabled for all of them the sky would become filled with text Only when you approach an object star galaxy planet etc will its label turn on You can select which labels turn on or off as you desire by checking the boxes They do not use much computer power Labels keyboard shortcuts are Toggle constellation labels B Toggle prominent star labels E Toggle galaxy labels M Toggle moon labels W Toggle asteroid labels Shift W Toggle comet labels n Toggle spacecraft labels p Toggle planet labels None Nebulae labels are now toggled only via View Options menu NEW None Globular Cluster labels are toggled via View Options menu NEW Shift amp Toggle location labels see below Information Text V This box allows you to choose how much data you want displayed when you select an object Pressing the V key also toggles the information display on or off through two levels of detail If you see no text at all on the screen press V to turn it on Celestia User s Guide 22 of 46 Filter Stars This slider determines how many stars Celestia will
95. ttp www shatters net celestia download html Additional customized versions of Celestia can also be found at different websites of their authors Two such versions will be mentioned below Celestia User s Guide 7 of 46 m Please note that this User s guide is also generally applicable to Celestia version 1 4 0 Required Linux Libraries Which version of Celestia you choose to install depends upon which desktop environment you have installed If you do have KDE3 it is recommended that you choose the KDE version of Celestia For those running GNOME there is the option of downloading or compiling the GNOME front end which includes several integration features with the desktop environment There is also a simplified GTK interface without GNOME features for those who prefer the minimum number of outside libraries Most distributions package Celestia themselves The Celestia SourceForge download page also provides a pre compiled package with the GTK front end All versions of Celestia for Linux require that you have OpenGL installed More and more distributions are shipping with OpenGL so if you ve recently installed or re installed Linux there s a good chance that you already have a working OpenGL configuration In order to build Celestia you need to have the OpenGL development packages installed Celestia requires the image libraries libjpeg and libpng to both be present on all up to date Linux installations In order to buil
96. usly mentioned this command will direct Celestia to go directly to your selection and position you a pre calculated distance above it You can use it with any of the Selection options mentioned here or in the following paragraphs For example if you select an object with a left mouse click choosing this command from the Navigation menu or pressing the G key as a shortcut will send you directly to the object you selected at high speed If you choose it again or press the G key again you will move closer to the object G is used constantly in Celestia Follow Selection _ F 54 This menu and keyboard command will direct Celestia to lock onto the object selected and follow it As it moves through space on its orbit you will move also The object can turn below you on its axis if it is Celestia User s Guide 31 of 46 rotating so the longitude will change constantly but you will stay the same distance and latitude above it It is routinely used when you wish to take a position in space above a star planet moon asteroid or a spacecraft and is highly recommended The keyboard shortcut for Follow is F and will be used very frequently To test out its use click here You will be positioned above Earth Watch as Earth drifts slowly away Now press the F key Earth stops drifting and you are locked onto it moving with it Sync Orbit Selection Y 55 This feature lets you hover directly over the same position spot above an obj
97. ve the asteroid Gaspra You are tracking it and as you watch it coming at you your view will swing as it flies by just missing you and you watch it recede Note Tracking will stay activated on a space object and your screen will remain pointed at it even if you gt select another space object You must cancel tracking on the first object before you seek to view another object To cancel tracking simply press the T key again Try it with Gaspra Chase Selection 58 Although not in the Navigation Menu this command is available by pressing the quotation key on the keyboard Shift It instructs Celestia to chase a selected object in space It is similar to the Follow command but locks you above the object at the same position while the object is moving Try comparing the two commands Lock Selection Shift 59 Not available in the Navigation menu but available through a keystroke Shift the Lock command is used in conjunction with other commands to bind two separate celestial objects together in space For example click here to select Jupiter and follow it You will be positioned above Jupiter with its moon Io prominently in front of you Notice that Io is slowly moving in its orbit around Jupiter Now left click once on Io to select it and press the Shift keys The display in the lower right corner will now say Lock Jupiter Io The command will place you in a position that remains sta
98. vious field e g telescopic view Left double click center selection Right click bring up context select menu Label Functions Keyboard R Decrease texture resolution Shift R Increase texture resolution P Toggle turns on or off planet labels M Toggle moon labels E Toggle galaxy and nebula labels B Toggle star labels W Toggle asteroid and comet labels N Toggle spacecraft labels Toggle constellation labels Shift amp Toggle Location labels Ctrl K Toggle Markers Ctrl P Set a Marker Vv Toggle info text Render Functions Keyboard U Toggle galaxy rendering O Toggle planet orbits I Toggle clouds Toggle Celestial grid Earth based equatorial coordinate sphere Toggle constellation diagrams Ctrl A Toggle atmospheres Ctrl B Toggle constellation boundaries Ctr E Toggle eclipse shadows Ctrl L Toggle nightside lights Ctrl S Toggle stars as points discs or fuzzy points Ctrl T Toggle comet tails Ctrl V Cycle through vertex shading options Ctrl X Toggle antialias lines mode Ctrl Y Toggle autoMag auto adaptation of star visibility to field of view Shift Toggle Nebula on or off If autoMag OFF Decrease magnitude fewer stars visible If auttoMag ON Decrease magnitude at 45 deg field of view If autoMag OFF Increase magnitude more stars visible If autoMag ON Increase magnitude at 45 deg field of view Shift Decrease ambient light Shift Increase ambient light Shift Decrease galaxy brightness S
99. will retain the last texture level you choose the next time it is opened 22 Frames per Second FPS Sometimes it is useful to see how efficient or inefficient your video card is in handling certain scenes in Celestia You can of course choose a high resolution texture option and see if your computer locks up or you can activate a keystroke command called FPS To do so press the key it s above the Tab key on the keyboard In the lower left corner of your Celestia display it will now list your FPS This tells you how many times per second Celestia draws the scene you are looking at 23 To animate a scene and see it moving realistically you must have at least 6 FPS or higher For example to view a planet rotating or a spacecraft moving through space FPS should be as high as possible FPS values exceeding 700 FPS are possible with expensive video cards If the scene you are viewing is under 6 FPS and is moving it will appear jerky to you If high resolution textures or a particular rendering option causes your FPS to drop below 6 FPS we recommend you lower the resolution by pressing the R key or select a different rendering option by pressing the Ctrl V keys Set View Options Render menu 24 When you use Celestia for the first time you will need to choose some options that will tell the program how you want things done Celestia will remember these settings once you initially establish them However

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