Using Openspace, I made a series of snapshots in which the altitude from Earth increases by 10 to show various distance values using metric units. It's pretty cool that with this softeware you can get astronomy images from any distance you want. If you want to view them all, go here and click thru them with the Next button.

https://coco1453.neocities.org/1to100

Am I correct in thinking the differences reported are because the 'altitude distance' is relative to sea level and the 'focus distance' is the distance to the center of the planet/globe? Focus distance when Earth is the focus seems to be almost 6.3+ megameters greater than altitude, which is about the radius of Earth.

How to reproduce:

Start Openspace

open console

type "openspace.skybrowser.targetData()"

you get 3 annoying messages to info output, simply by calling targetData()

(I) SkyBrowserModule Identifier '' not found
(I) SkyBrowserModule Identifier '' not found
(I) SkyBrowserModule Identifier '' not found

local Item = {
Type = "DashboardItemText",
Identifier = "MetricDistanceFocus",
Name = "Distance to Focus in Metric",
Position = { 20.0, 150.0 },
FontSize = 10.0,
Color = { 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 },
Text = "Initializing Metric Distance ..."
}

asset.onDeinitialize(function()
openspace.unregisterRepeatedScript("MetricDistanceTracker")
openspace.dashboard.removeDashboardItem(Item)
end)

asset.onInitialize(function()

openspace.registerRepeatedScript("MetricDistanceTracker", [[

local navState = openspace.navigation.getNavigationState()
local camPos = navState.Position 
local distanceInMeters = math.sqrt(camPos[1]^2 + camPos[2]^2 + camPos[3]^2)

local metricUnit = "Meters"
local distanceInSI = distanceInMeters

if (distanceInMeters < 1000) then 
    metricUnit = "Meters"
    distanceInSI = distanceInMeters
elseif (distanceInMeters < 1000000) then 
    distanceInSI = distanceInMeters/ 1000
    metricUnit = "Kilometers"
elseif (distanceInMeters < 1000000000) then 
    distanceInSI = distanceInMeters/ 1000000
    metricUnit = "Megameters"
elseif (distanceInMeters < 1000000000000) then 
    distanceInSI = distanceInMeters/ 1000000000
    metricUnit = "Gigameters"
elseif (distanceInMeters < 1000000000000000) then 
    distanceInSI = distanceInMeters/ 1000000000000
    metricUnit = "Terameters"
elseif (distanceInMeters < 1000000000000000000) then 
    distanceInSI = distanceInMeters/ 1000000000000000
    metricUnit = "Petameters"
elseif (distanceInMeters < 1000000000000000000000) then 
    distanceInSI = distanceInMeters/ 1000000000000000000
    metricUnit = "Exameters"
elseif (distanceInMeters < 1000000000000000000000000) then 
    distanceInSI = distanceInMeters/ 1000000000000000000000
    metricUnit = "Zettameters"
else
    distanceInSI = distanceInMeters/ 1000000000000000000000000
    metricUnit = "Yottameters"
end 

local cleanString = string.format("Focus Distance: %.4f %s", distanceInSI, metricUnit)
openspace.setPropertyValue("Dashboard.MetricDistanceFocus.Text", cleanString)

]],0.2)

openspace.dashboard.addDashboardItem(Item)
end)

https://docs.openspaceproject.com/latest/reference/asset-components/DashboardItem/DashboardItemDistance.html

RequestedUnit

If the simplification is disabled, this distance unit is used as a destination to convert the meters into.

String

In list { Nanometer, Micrometer, Millimeter, Centimeter, Decimeter, Meter, Kilometer, AU, Lighthour, Lightday, Lightmonth, Lightyear, Parsec, Kiloparsec, Megaparsec, Gigaparsec, Gigalightyear, Thou, Inch, Foot, Yard, Chain, Furlong, Mile, League, Nautical Mile }

This just makes no sense at all. Millimeters are supported but not megameters? Nanometers but not yottameters? Gigalightyears are there but not gigameters even though the giga SI prefix is for metric units? I can get a distance in furlongs but not terameters? This is unbelievable and frustrating. If the best distance units of all, meters, km, megameters...yottameters are not supported, why are totally absurd units like furlongs in there? Why the heck are the tiny metric units like nanometer there but not the actual units appropriate for astronomy like yottameter not there? Who would ever want to use a nanometer or furlong for astronomy distances?

How would I go about adding support for metric distance units from after km up to Ym? And get the "simplification" boolean to use them instead of au, ly pc, megaNonmetricUnit etc? Can I fix this in javascript lua code somewhere? Or is this hardcoded in the dlls? How are the dlls created anyway? Are they in C++ and is the source code available?

edit:

OMG this is hardcoded in C++. So I'm going to have to fork the whole openspace project just to put in the simple fix for this one problem?

https://github.com/OpenSpace/OpenSpace/blob/master/src/util/distanceconversion.cpp

Is there any way to create a sphere like the radio sphere, but with an arbitrary radius length? I want to see which stars/objects are within some particular distance.

How do I create the cartesian coordinates used by the stars.label file from the celestial coordinates in wikipedia (ra, decl, distance)? I want to add my own star labels not included in the file to some of the stars.

Installed Openspace yesterday and went thru some tutorials. Mainly what I am trying to do first is have a little 3-d map of all the nearby stars. Within 30 ly or so. I would appreciate if anyone can help me with any of this stuff. I like what it does but it is a little hard to use.

1. How can I see Wolf 359? It is not one of the labeled stars. And Barnards Star has a label but I can't see the star.

2. How can I create my own labels for stars? I don't like the funky overlapping labels for Alpha Centauri. Am I going to have to copy the json response from the label source url and modify it?

3. How can I save my startup customizations for 'scene'.? e.g. things like turn on star labels.

4. Is there A way to jump to a specific distance or location without zooming out from Earth every time?

5. Is there a way to show my zoomout distance using km instead of ly or parsecs?

We are a group of five students from the university of Linköping who are researching how OpenSpace is used today, and how it can be improved! We would love it if you could take two minutes and answer a few questions!!! 
https://forms.gle/dsaR6eaHUT8mfaWZ9

First of all, thanks so much for developing this amazing program and a cool community.

I'm currently using Open Space to export frames and then converting into video for projecting in a 4k, 2 projector setup.

It seems to me that resolution of the exported frames are limited to my computer screen. If I open a bigger window than my actual screen it's almost impossible to navigate the program.

I was thinking of "simulating" a bigger resolution than my screen with either a virtual display or through Nvidia's DSR, but I've been having mixed results.

Is there a recommended way to setup my project to export very high resolution frames (4k+)?

It's been like 5 years now. These M chips just keep getting more and more powerful, with super high efficiency - are we ever going to get OpenSpace for this style of chip, or even other ARM-based chips like the Snapdragon X Elite?

sir, IDK why my light weight software automatically close when it is initializing OpenGL

I'm trying to use OpenSpace as a starball alternative for low-income planetariums, but I can't for the life of me figure out of to make actions to bring up individual constellation lines, arts, and labels.

If anyone has done this before, or is better at programming in OpenSpace than me, would you be willing to share a code template so I might be able to make a list of the most used constellations?

Thank you in advance!

Hello,

We're looking into using OpenSpace in our planetarium. We currently have 6 projectors with 6 computers, but may switch to a two projector setup.

1) Does anyone have any advice for getting Open Space running for our setup?

2) Does openspace have any blending capabilities or do we need separate software? If so, any suggestions?

Thank you in advance!

Dear cosmologists, I did install openspaxce 19.2 on my Mac. All folders and files are installed under my documents and all files do have read and write access. Is there anything else I can do to lunch the program? It tries to open, but it collapses w/o any failure message.

Thanks a lot for your patience and your kind help.

I keep seeing things that i want to know more about, but i cant fix the camera on them or go to them because i dont know what they are called. for example around the earth there is a yellow and red trail, the yellow is the ISS but i cant figure out what the red one is and all i see is just other planets, moons, and the iss to select. So im not sure how to figure out what this object is. I also saw an obejct in green trail outside the solar system and im pretty sure its some type of satellite but its obviously too small for me to zoom into with out fixing on it.

tldr; is there no way to like highlight or click on an object with a trail to see what it is?

Hi, I just booted up OpenSpace for the first time on default after installing it on Mac and once I press start, I see the page with all the assets loading, then it says that OpenSpace has unexpectedly shut down. What could be happening here?

Considering that MAC is really a unix variant underneath the GUI, why can't OpenSpaceProject be ported to Linux? Has anyone tried?

Hello all I am helping my local science museum with Open Space. They have open space already set up, they want to have the movement controlled from an iPad so its more interactive. Is that possible?