comet lulin - stellarium program

[cjpops]

Has anybody got any clue how to 'add' comet lulin into the stellarium software? It's not in the stellarium list and i understand it was discovered early 2007 but can't seem to find a most recent/updated stellarium software/plug in.

Anybody got any idea what im doing wrong?

Thanks!

[kinetic]

Does Stellarium allow direct entry of Keps?
That's what I did in SNBY....

Steve B.

[Barrykgerdes]

You can edit the ssystem.ini file with Wordpad. The file is in the data folder.

Add this to the bottom of the file somewhere. Be careful of syntax. The position with these coords was correct about two weeks ago but could need an update.

[lulin]
name = C/2007 N3 (Lulin)
parent = Sun
radius = 100
oblateness = 0.0
halo = true
color = 1.0,1.0,1.0
tex_halo = star16x16.png
tex_map = nomap.png
coord_func = comet_orbit
orbit_TimeAtPericenter = 2454842.6414
orbit_PericenterDistance = 1.212289
orbit_Eccentricity = .999987
orbit_ArgOfPericenter = 136.8614
orbit_AscendingNode = 338.5353
orbit_Inclination = 178.373
lighting = false
albedo = 1
orbit_visualization_period = 10000000000

Barry

[GrampianStars]

Thanks Bazza :thumbsup:
works fine in ver:0.9.0
shows up on the eastern edge of Libra on the ecliptic

[mark3d]

thanks for that!

[circumpolar]

Cool,
Thanks :thumbsup:.

[cjpops]

Hey thanks for that!

I'm running a mac version of Stellarium and i've edited the system.ini file but it doesn't seem to do anything. I've also downloaded extra plug ins from the official site but again, it doesn't seem to be reading the system.ini information at all.

It's Stellarium 0.10.0 'beta', I'll try to find an earlier version.

[cjpops]

hmm not having much luck with the earlier version (0.9)

Could somebody here who use a mac, please explain how you got it to work?

basically, in the *users/Library/Preferences/Stellarium folder there is only a 'config.ini' - i created a new file 'system.ini' and entered the lulin script in and loaded Stellarium.. did a search for 'lulin' and nothing.. it's basically ignoring anything from the system.ini

does the mac version supposed have 'system.ini' ? it wasn't there originally, only config.ini (although i did try entering the information into config.ini just to see.. still no go)

Not having much luck with FAQ at stellarium site either... aaaah!

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi
I don't know where the files are stored in a Mac but I think the planet file should still be ssystem.ini. It is normally in the data folder of your main stellarium program.

Do a search for this file by name and you should be able to find out where it is installed. It should then be a simple matter to edit it in a word processor and add the new section.

Barry

[cjpops]

Hi Barry

Thanks for the info.. i've finally figured it out and its not even mentioned on the official site! (well i can't find it anywhere except the *users/library... method.

Here's what i did, hope it will help other Mac users out there.

On a mac:
- Right click on the Application 'Stellarium' and select --> 'Show package contents'

- A new window will appear, you are now 'inside' the application files

- Now open 'resources'

- Then 'data'

- and 'ssystem.ini' is there, open it with textedit and paste the information you need.

- Run Stellarium and the new info should be there.

Thanks all!!:D

[dannat]

Thanks for the scrip Barry, works great for me (MacOS X.5)

[pulimbatata]

Hi Barry, I've added these data to my ini file, and works great, but I'm wondering, these coordinates are universal? I mean, I'm from Brazil, these coordinates will show me in Stellarium the correct position of Lulin for my city? If not, how can I get these coordinates to my home place? And sorry about the horrible english, I'm still learning, hope you can understand me.

Thanks.

Paulo :thumbsup:

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Paulo

No those coords are universal. If stellarium is set to your location and time. Stellarium will automatically calculate where it is for you according to your local time and location.

Barry

[rastis95]

Thanks for that one Barry,
Works a treat.
Cheers
Scott:D

[pulimbatata]

So thank you very much Barry! Just one more question, can you explain me what these data means:

orbit_TimeAtPericenter
orbit_PericenterDistance
orbit_Eccentricity
orbit_ArgOfPericenter
orbit_AscendingNode
orbit_Inclination
lighting = false
albedo
orbit_visualization_period

and how or where can I find that kind of information for other celestial bodies? And how can I change the magnitude of a celestial body on stellarium?

Thanks a lot again :thumbsup:

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Paulo

I am no expert on this. However the first six items are orbital parameters that are used in the program to calculate the instantanious position of the comet.

lighting = false has something to do with how it is displayed.
albedo is the reflectivity of the object
and orbit_visualization_period is how much of the total orbit is to be displayed.

I just get the orbital parameters as provided and place them in the corresponding field of the program.

The magnitude is calculated mainly from observations and depends on the size of the object, reflectivity, distance, absolute magnitude etc.

Barry

[darkskybondi]

Sigh.. if only Stellarium didn't crash my computer, I'd be a happy man... it's by far the best program out there.

[Barrykgerdes]

Sorry to hear that. What are the symptoms. My program runs quite OK on
XP, Vista, Windows2000 and Ubuntu Linux. Give me all the details and we should be able to find a solution.

Barry

[darkskybondi]

Barry - I'm running XP Pro on a Dell 710m laptop (1.7GHz Centrino with 1GB RAM). I just tried Stellarium on a friend's newer Dell laptop and it works a charm - over 30FPS. On mine, I get less than 25FPS (often under 10FPS) - but that's not the real problem. As long as I don't switch out to another app, I'm fine. As soon as I switch out, everything hangs.

Stellarium doesn't like me too much, proven by the fact that I installed it on my well-endowed but under-used desktop and got less than 1FPS on it. Awful.

I'll try running it on Ubuntu on the laptop but to be honest I don't want to have to do that every time I'd like to use Stellarium! Any thoughts?

- DSB

[Barrykgerdes]

Stellarium needs just about all your processor power to run properly. So multitasking is marginal. When the speed is under 1 fps it generally shows lack of 3D from OpenGL. You probably need new drivers. Not avalable for lots of older cards.

My laptop and main computers seldom get above 10 fps. Things that slow it down most are large ssystem.ini files and extra nebula textures. For faster operation use a second ssystem.ini with all the unused objects removed.

Barry

[Robert9]

I found an update to the lulin orbital parameters at JPL. There are some minor changes but for the sake of "why not? " I've updated the Stellarium data set - see below.

Barry, you might like to check these with your data source(s).

[lulin]
name = C/2007 N3 (Lulin)
parent = Sun
radius = 100
oblateness = 0.0
halo = true
color = 1.0,1.0,1.0
tex_halo = star16x16.png
tex_map = nomap.png
coord_func = comet_orbit
orbit_TimeAtPericenter = 2454842.112213313327
orbit_PericenterDistance = 1.211815031505141
orbit_Eccentricity = 1.000243857235593
orbit_ArgOfPericenter = 136.8421983153854
orbit_AscendingNode = 338.5047481504214
orbit_Inclination = 178.3725975895116
lighting = false
albedo = 1
orbit_visualization_period = 10000000000

Robert

[flearosie]

Hi - Is there anywhere you can pick up instructions or user manual for Stellarium? I have it but just not experienced enough to know how to use it correctly.

[Tallstock]

I used Google. Search --> Stellarium wiki.
Lots of stuff to read.
Peter

[WhiteStarLine]

Hi flearosie,

This is the right forum to get you going on this! If you haven't already, download the PDF user manual, at http://waix.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/stellarium/stellarium_user_guide-0.9.0-1.pdf.

Have a quick read of Appendix E and F to get you started on the basic astronomy side.

Post any questions and try to help us to help you by pointing out if it is a question about Stellarium itself or something you don't quite understand about astronomy.