Stellarium Landscapes

[Xunil]

Anyone want a custom landscape of their own observing location to use in Stellarium?

I think I've got it cracked, but don't have any images to stitch together other than images found online.

If anyone wants to be guinea-pig, I'll stitch a landscape for them.

It requires a series of images - a digi-cam mounted on a pier would be best - giving as much spherical coverage as possible. Marking north on a duplicated image with a simple paint program will help me align them. A slow moving cloudy day will also help (for once!) as it will give me reference to get the sky angles right.

Probably be easiest for those without equipment permanently installed but have a pier in the garden.

There's no need to supply me with lat/lon of your location by the way (security!) - I can just tell you where to type yours.

PM me if you want me to try it - once I've got one sussed I might put a tutorial up for everyone else.

[themos]

That's a great idea, I'll pick this up after the Easter break.

[Ferox]

That is a good idea, will be interested to see the tutorial.

[gary1968]

I am interested in this, once the new camera arrives I may try to get pics from my dark sky site and send em to you. How big does the overlap have to be?

Gary

[Xunil]

I am interested in this, once the new camera arrives I may try to get pics from my dark sky site and send em to you. How big does the overlap have to be?

Gary

It depends on the kind of projection. If I do a spherical for starters then somewhere around 15-30% of the area of each pic as an overlap should give me enough - the greater the better. Don't forget to mark North (and level) in some way on a duplicate image. A small + would help I guess.

The more complicated projection is the cylindrical, which requires more precise imagery: take evenly spaced pictures as if taking pictures inside a coke can of the walls. Don't angle down or up at all. If you can, take a picture of the floor without the equipment in place as square as possible. A better way to get the floor might be to use google earth to get a completely flat surface. The floor will look ugly if you try to make it "busy" - it may work best to just take a neutral colour and blend out the "wall" detail (but I'll take care of that).