Still having problems with Stellarium

[Analog6]

I have long had the problem that the downloaded elements such as comets didn't show on my screen. When I searched it would go to the area but no handles or anything.

So yesterday I deleted Stellarium and uploaded a new version (I have an iMac running 10.6.8) and it now seems to find them but on every comet I search for it goes to the same place and finds an object with the label Atlas Centaur 2.

Suggestions? Are there settings I need to make different?

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Odille

It is difficult to say exactly what the problem is without knowing how you have added the extra comets.
The comet elements are stored in the system.ini file similar to this:

[CK08S030]
# M1= 4.0 M2= 4.0
name = C/2008 S3 (Boattini) MPC 66921

To search for a comet you will first need to check the system.ini file to ensure it is there and the syntax is correct.

You then search for it by name exactly as it is listed. However you will probably find it from the first seven or eight characters.

The amount of names shown will also depend on where you have the slider on the planet name display.

Barry

[Analog6]

Barry, they come up in the list and it acts as if it is going to them but it just keeps going to the Atlas Centaur thing wherever it is. If I happen across a comet while just scrolling across the screen it shows up OK, but my Search seems to be broken. No matter what I search for, Constalltion, star, comet, I get to the same thing! It's very frustrating, as you can imagine.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Odille

I don't know very much about Macs but for Stellarium I think they work very much the same as the PC.

However there will be two repositories for the user files. The main one is in your personal area where it is checked first and the other is the master downloaded version in your stellarium folder. The Mac version is very similar to Linux (unix based) and the user area is probably in a hidden file. Maybe that is why you cannot find the personal version.

It appears that you may have old copies of the config.ini and ssystem.ini files somewhere in the search pattern and these will need to be removed first particularly the config.ini file as the program will always try to use an existing file rather than write a new one.

You did not say what version of stellarium you are now using but I expect you did not erase the old config.ini file. I am not sure about the uninstall file in stellarium without testing it but if you use that to delete the old copy of Stellarium it might also remove the old config.ini file. The Atlas Centaur is part of the satellite.json file (it is not in my satellite.json file at all) and you should remove that also from the user area as the satellite updater only adds new stuff. It does not erase old stuff.

Barry