On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 9:28 PM, Kristen Aw <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > I was just wondering about the level of detail in comet rendering that > Stellarium wants. Currently, from afar, the comets are balls of light, and > when zoomed into, are rotating spheres with some crater-map. I understand > that the plasma tail comes out cone-shaped, and appears at 1.5 AU, the dust > tail appears at about 3 AU, and the coma is visible when it passes Jupiter > (5 AU). And that the brightness of the coma/ length of tail increases as the > comet approaches the Sun. > > So, from afar, a comet would have a coma and tails. But what about when they > are zoomed into? I guess it would have an irregular potato shape like > Hartley, but as it releases gas/dust, should we be able the material coming > out from vents, as the nucleus rotates...?
Getting right the coma and the tails has top priority. Things like venting and the shape of the nucleus are a finishing touch. Remember, Stellarium is supposed to be simulating mainly what can be seen with naked eyes, binoculars or an amateur telescope. Direct observations of a core is in the league of Hubble, space probes and programs like Celestia. ;) There are two major user groups of Stellarium - educators (including planetariums) and amateur astronomers. Try imagining that you are in each group and think about what would you want simulated and how much control on it would you like. "Everything" is not an useful answer. :) Regards, Bogdan Marinov ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Stellarium-pubdevel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/stellarium-pubdevel
