more deep sky object background photos...please!!!

[Anonymous]

Firstly Id like to express my gratitude to the stellarium team for producing one of the best planetarium packages I have yet come across. The software is phenomenal and has been like fire to a kindle in its bettering of my astronomical experience. Thanks alot for all your hard work...it is being noticed. Ive posted on the forum because of difficulties I have experienced in adding deep sky object photographs to the program. Maybe someone can simplify the procedure and help me to better understand it? I also thought that maybe a good way of solving the issue would be to include deep sky object background photograph catalogues like you did with the stars??? Please help...!!! Verney.

[barrykgerdes]

You can get an expanded set of deep sky objects from here to replace the existing one.

http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/uploads/stellariumnebula-1.ZIP

You can get a later version of the user manual that has an explanation of how to add you own textures.

http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/stellarium_user_guide-new.pdf

Barry

[Anonymous]

THanks so much Barry...using the expanded set now. I cant seem to open the json.dat file or the 2000.dat file so I cant edit anything though...will try find more ways of using them. A youtube tutorial might also be helpful if anyone has the resources to make one...regards Verney.

[barrykgerdes]

The json data file "textures.json" is an ASCII file and can be edited in a text editor. Be careful syntax errors will stop the whole file from working.

The ngc2000.dat file is compressed and should not be edited nor is there any need to edit it.

There is no tutorial for making extra textures other than the basic instruction in the user manual.

Barry

[Anonymous]

Hello. Got to start by saying thank you guys and gals so much for the best sky viewing software ever programmed. It's absolutely awesome. Fantastic job everyone! My question : Could someone kindly post exact instructions for installing the above mentioned expanded set of deep sky objects. I don't know if the files are to simply be copied into the nebulae/default directory, or is editing of some index files necessary? Files ngc2000.dat, ngc2000names.dat, nebula_textures.fab, textures.json already exist from the original install. Just overwrite them? I apologise for what is probaby a stupid question. I'm just a non-programmer trying to avoid messing up my Stellarium installation. Thanks :)

[barrykgerdes]

If you have downloaded my package. unzip it into your user area %-%/stellarium/nebulae/default.This will allow it to take priority over the nebulae/default in your program files/stellarium folder or you can just replace this default file with the new one. It has all the necessary files.

Barry

[Anonymous]

Thanks Barry. I put the unzipped files into appdata/roaming/stellarium/nebulae/default. Now the new nebulae pics show up in Stellarium. Just checked m82, much much better graphic now. There's a noticeably "less black" square area around the graphic, but I imagine running the graphic through photoshop or another graphics program could get rid of that. But anyway, much more detailed images now. Thank you very much Barry. And especially thank you and all the other programming contributers for a really impressive software in Stellarium. You've certainly got more people appreciating the vast beauty of our heavens. Thanks :)

[barrykgerdes]

Yes that new texture of m82 from Peter Vasey is very nice. Load the super nova plugin and see the position of the super nova.

Barry

[Anonymous]

Just tried the ZIP file link.....it keeps saying "problem loading page".

[Anonymous]

Hey guys...Ive managed to open jsontextures...but what do use to calculate 'worldCoords' and texturecoords??? The rest i understand just left with that part...please help...

[barrykgerdes]

Links to two programs that can be used to generate a json insert from the corner coords are provided in the

http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/stellarium_user_guide-new.pdf

Barry

PS This web site is down at the moment. Will be fixed on the weekend. However there are references in the on line wiki user manual as well

[Anonymous]

Hello barrykgerdes,
thank you very much for your files. I had some problems with the file names because linux is case sensitive and some of the file names are wrong and some are missing. I made a little python script to correct some of the problems. Just create a textfile e.g. 'checkfiles.py' with a .py ending and run 'python checkfiles.py' in the directory.

the script changes the filenames and re-writes the json file. If there seems to be a 'loop' in renaming files the problem is that there are 2 similar entries in the json file. have fun. would like to see more deepsky objets in stellarium :)

here comes the script:

import simplejson
import os, sys

filename = 'textures.json'
imgFileList = []

def query_yes_no(question, default="yes"):
    valid = {"yes": True, "y": True, "ye": True,
             "no": False, "n": False}
    if default is None:
        prompt = " [y/n] "
    elif default == "yes":
        prompt = " [Y/n] "
    elif default == "no":
        prompt = " [y/N] "
    else:
        raise ValueError("invalid default answer: '%s'" % default)
    while True:
        sys.stdout.write(question + prompt)
        choice = raw_input().lower()
        if default is not None and choice == '':
            return valid[default]
        elif choice in valid:
            return valid[choice]
        else:
            sys.stdout.write("Please respond with 'yes' or 'no' "
                             "(or 'y' or 'n').\n")

with open(filename, "r") as f:
    data = simplejson.loads(f.read())

if not os.path.isfile(filename + '_old'):
    print('re-exporing json file. renamed original file.')
    os.rename(filename, filename + '_old')
    # re export corrupted json file
    with open(filename, 'w') as outfile:
        simplejson.dump(data, outfile,sort_keys = True)

for imgFiles in os.walk('.'):
    for imgFile in imgFiles:
        imgFileList.append(imgFile)

for x in range(0,len(data['subTiles'])):
    f = data['subTiles'][x]['imageUrl']
    if not os.path.isfile(f):
        print('File \'' + str(f) + '\' not found!')
        for i in imgFiles[2]:
            if f.lower() == i.lower():
                print('but found: \'' + str(i) + '\'')
                print('renaming \'' + str(f) + '\' to \'' + str(i) + '\'')
                os.rename(i, f)
                imgFiles[2].remove(i)
            else:
                if i.lower()[:-4] in f.lower()[:-4] or f.lower()[:-4] in i.lower()[:-4]:
                    print(str(f) + ' could be ' + str(i))
                    if query_yes_no('rename ' + str(i) + ' to ' + str(f) + ' ?', default='no'):
                        print('renaming \'' + str(f) + '\' to \'' + str(i) + '\'')                  
                        os.rename(i, f)
                        imgFiles[2].remove(i)
        print('-------------')  

I added a codeblock since python is space sensitive. I also added a re-export of the json file. I noticed that there are some issues with the formating and thus some DSOs would not appear in stellarium. That fixed it.