Stellarium and the Time

[johnb]

Hi

Sure its obvious but when it change location to say South America the time does not seem to change it stays at my local time ?

John B

[hazegood]

Stellarium uses the date and time from your computer system, so even if you change location, it assumes that your system is in that location, and therefore your system time is correct.

Go intothe configuration screen, you might be able to change it there

[johnb]

cant seem to change the time at all, im trying to use a GRAS Scope for an asteroid so want to see its position in the sky using Stellarium but if the time wont display then its quite difficult, any ideas ?

John B

[JamesF]

cant seem to change the time at all, im trying to use a GRAS Scope for an asteroid so want to see its position in the sky using Stellarium but if the time wont display then its quite difficult, any ideas ?

Try the configuration->navigation menu. There are a number of options for setting the time there.

James

[johnb]

i have tried that but no matter what it seems to pick up the system time ?

[IanL]

Stellarium is a bit brain dead when it comes to handling time zones and locations. Had the same problem as I am preparing for my first forays in to remote imaging. What you need to do is:

- Go to "Configuration -> Plugins" and enable the "Time Zone" plugin to "Load at startup".

- Then click the "Configure" button for that plugin.

- Choose the "Offset from UTC (hours)" option, and set the offset to the number of hours ahead or behind UTC the remote observatory is.

- Click "Save settings"

- Exit and restart Stellarium. (You will need to do this each time you change timezone).

- Choose the appropriate observing location in the "Location WIndow"

Bob's your slightly dodgy looking uncle. Remember to re-set location and timezone when you are finished!

[johnb]

thanks, did that but its still giving local time

[IanL]

thanks, did that but its still giving local time

Stellarium does not link longitude, time zones and computer time in a sensible manner which is why it is a bit confusing until you figure out what is going on:

- The time displayed by default when you start Stellarium is the current time on your computer.

- Changing the time zone setting does not offset the displayed time relative to your computer time, it just uses your computer time (by default)

- You must change the time zone and change the location to match for things to make sense.

So for example, right now my default location is set to the UK, I have changed the time zone to UTC +10 hours, and the computer time is 22:15 BST. Stellarium is displaying the sun just past the meridian (start of the afternoon). When I look out of the window it is pretty dark, and I would not expect to see the sun almost overhead at 22:15 in the evening so clearly something else is wrong.

What I need to do is change my location to (say) Brisbane in Australia, which is 10 hours ahead of UTC. Bingo, Stellarium now shows a nice dark sky, exactly what you would expect at 22:15 AEST.

This is why I said Stellarium is brain dead when it comes to handling computer time, time zones and locations. Most planetaria handle time zones more elegantly and update time zones to match locations and date (for daylight savings), but Stellarium requires you to change both yourself.

The default displayed time is arbitrary and unlike the setting above is the right choice for most users who would want to see the sky as it is right now in their current location. For one thing you can change the default setting under Configuration->Navigation->Startup date and time. So you can use system date and time (i.e. right now), or system date at a fixed time (today after dark) or a fixed date and time as your default. For another thing you can spin through to any date and time you choose so the default setting (whilst confusing when you are trying to do RO) is pretty meaningless.

Still confused? It's easy:

- Set the time zone offset of your chosen location and restart.

- Set the location to your chosen location.

- Use the time control to set the sky view to the time you want to observe.

- Once you know what time you want to do your RO session in the observing location, then you can use http://www.timeanddate.com/ to convert that time back to the time in your home location and set your alarm clock!

[johnb]

thanks, worked a treat John B