Hale Telescope for Celestia

Since I'm not an experienced blogger, I've gotta decide what to write. I've decided it might be of interest to some people if I wrote about the developments in the most recent Addon that I've been working on for Celestia: a model of the 200" Hale Telescope on Mount Palomar.

Information about previous versions of this Addon is available at
http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/hale_telescope.html

More information about the Hale Telescope and Mount Palomar Observatory can be found at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/hale.html and at http://palomarskies.blogspot.com/

Celestia is a 3D astronomical visualization program which has become significantly more sophisticated in recent months. Information about Celestia is available at http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

The initial version of the Addon includes a relatively low resolution model of the telescope which always pointed toward a fixed target. If you wanted to change it, the target had to be changed by editing an SSC file (the type of file which is used by Celestia to define objects.) I don't recall how long it took to create that version, several months, I think. It was published just after Christmas in 2006.

V2 of the Addon includes a more detailed model and makes it possible for its user to type commands to point toward various targets and to manipulate some of the model's components -- opening and closing the cover for the mirror, for example. (Details are at the Web site mentioned above.) Most of these updates happened over a period of about 3 months in the fall, and it was published just before Christmas in 2007.

Both versions are available at http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/hale_telescope.html

V3 of the Hale Addon is what I'm working on now. The models of the telescope and of the observatory dome are both getting more details. The telescope model is getting more holes cut into it. Less is more! The real telescope has many access holes not shown in the existing models. The support structure for the primary mirror, for example, has more than 40 of them.

The other major enhancement is the addition of two control desks. They emulate the controls which have been used for the real telescope. Instead of having to type textual commands to control the model, one can click on buttons and switches to make the telescope operate. These days, the Hale Telescope is primarily controlled from a computer, but I think that simulating its old fashioned controls is more fun.

More to follow -- maybe even a picture or two!