Stellarium - Custom Landscape, Knowing where your stars are.

[@rlmcnugsy1434]

For anyone looking for this info : 51°27'53.80" N , 2°37'35.37" W should be typed as Longitude = +51d27'53" , Longitude = -2d37'35" North becomes ' + ', West becomes ' - '. The degree symbol ' ° ' is replaced by a lower case 'd' and it doesn't want any decimal places. You should remove those.

[@michael.a.covington]

This may be the first video you've done that covers something I *absolutely* had not seen *anything* about anywhere else. Well done!

[@AmyAstro]

It is hard thinking out to the box sometimes. lol Actually there are a few videos out there.

[@michael.a.covington]

Outstanding! I had no idea it could be done this elegantly with so little effort. But -- of course -- if the horizontal size of the image is 360 degrees, then the vertical size of the image has to be proportional -- no math! Years and years ago I took altitude and azimuth measurements of obstacles from my telescope pier, plotted a graph, and made a Stellarium background that is just a line wending its way around the sky. This is better!

[@AmyAstro]

yes it is. :)

[@stevenickolls8016]

When taking the panorama placing a pole in the garden to show the position North from your imaging location will make establishing the rotatez value later easier. 😀 Thanks for the video.

[@AmyAstro]

Wonderful idea. Thank you!

[@Stu_Whittaker_Photography]

Fabulous. 👏 👏 possibly the best tutorial on how to do this. Weldone amy. Keep up the good work

[@AmyAstro]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@andyweeks2216]

Love the opacity hint! I changed my background with that. Thank you!

[@AmyAstro]

Glad it helped! I like it.

[@edjones3390]

Nice idea about adjusting transparency of background - might try that with mine

[@AmyAstro]

Go for it!

[@monikawagner2996]

Thanks so much for explaining how to do this. I love the cats at the end!!

[@AmyAstro]

You are so welcome!

[@timmiller8173]

Great video - thanks for posting!

[@AmyAstro]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@sodakastronut]

Great tute Amy. FYI - you should try using Photoshop's Color Selection tool (Select > Color Range..., then hold Shift to add color range) to select and then delete all the blue background - should be a much cleaner result. Keep up the great job! CS & GB!

[@AmyAstro]

Thanks for the tip!

[@clairebradshaw2415]

Going to give this a go Amy thanks! "Aww that sucks" ... ROFL... :D Edit - I did it! I followed your instructions - I used my Samsung S7 Surround shot with takes a 360 degree "globe" around you. Then followed your instructions (I had to photoshop out some of the suns rays over the house and the fences to straighten them) but I am smiling all over seeing the Stellarium sun right where the real sun is! This is soo useful! Thank you!

[@AmyAstro]

I am so happy this worked for you Claire. This opened a new world for me in planning.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Great tutorial Amy

[@AmyAstro]

Thank you! 😊

[@ntaylorblanchard]

Great video. Just did a quick version following your instructions. Worked great. Thanks so much!

[@AmyAstro]

Wonderful!

[@BrawlMaster895]

I followed every single step but when I go into landscapes in stellarium my custom one doesn't show up, do you know how to fix?

[@Kyle_Hubbard]

What should've taken half an hour at most took two hours. Problem after problem. Glad I got it done.

[@AmyAstro]

Yeah it happens the first time. Glad you got it done. It will go smoother the second try.

[@bloodstone2000]

I Absolutely LOVE this one Amy! I didn't Know if it was possible like this.. Going to Give it shot right now.

[@AmyAstro]

Have fun!

[@tribble1027]

Thanks so much for sharing this great info...had been trying to do this for my backyard but not successfully. Pester stole the show...love your cat snippets the end!

[@AmyAstro]

Pester makes sure he is center stage always.

[@MichaelRaybaud]

Awesome video ...thanks for the tip on how to do this. Windows tip. Just create a Notepad file for landscape.ini...turn on file extensions and remove txt and replace with ini. Much quicker imho.

[@AmyAstro]

Thanks for the Window tip!

[@AG-vk9gq]

Awesome video Amy as always! Very informative..

[@AmyAstro]

Glad you liked it!!

[@michaelturner7608]

Amy this video is awesome. I've been toying with this very thing but haven't gotten into it yet due to the potential learning curve that would be needed. Now, I'm ready. Thank you immensely!

[@AmyAstro]

You can do it!

[@Big.Ron1]

Very cool. Thank you.

[@AmyAstro]

Glad you liked it!

[@freddylq67]

Such a nice 😺 !

[@AmyAstro]

Thank you! 😊

[@iancoombes6120]

Very clever 👏 . Will attempt this when I have Photoshop, although if I get it to work will eat my hat 😆😆. Thank you for the info....

[@AmyAstro]

You can do it!

[@TheDJBozz]

I set this up on mine last week, makes planning a whole lot easier 👍

[@AmyAstro]

Yes it does!

[@OlliesSpace]

I might have to try this at some point. 👍

[@AmyAstro]

Go for it!

[@cliveroberts415]

Very helpful, I will try this. Thanks

[@AmyAstro]

Glad it was helpful!

[@stefangapko]

Hello! Brilliant tutorial, thanks! 👍

[@AmyAstro]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@theflyingcouch]

This works well in Starry Night Pro aswell..

[@AmyAstro]

Good to know, thank you

[@astronomynotebook]

Hi Amy…thank you….would you please do this also for SkySafari Pro

[@AmyAstro]

I will dig into this and see what I can figure out.

[@raymondfrenette229]

Hi Amy Well done, i did have a problem my Stellirum screen is all purple, What files need to be in the folder? I just had the PSD and INI files, do I need a Description file?

[@DawgcityClev]

You have to have admin permission to save into Stellarium. Which is a pain to figure out in these newer windows.

[@jesusbilbao]

Thanks Amy. Very well explained but I have one problem. I cannot find the Stellarium folder on my Mac!. I cant even find the application in my Application folder. Where would it be?. Thanks

[@AmyAstro]

I feel your pain. You may have to unhide folders on your mac. Google how to do that. Then search your mac for a folder named stellarium. From there you can whittle down to where they go.

[@vk2np]

Awesome explanation Amy, not sure what App on the iphone though.? Now all i need is a 360deg backyard more like 180deg here in a small Villa in Sydney

[@AmyAstro]

The iPhone app was Pano360.

[@vk2np]

@@AmyAstro Thanks will try it. Now if the weather co-operates a month of clouds :(

[@AmyAstro]

@@vk2np the app is actually Panorama 360 for the iPhone by Pelsynth

[@TMan4775]

Great video, I have always wanted to do that with my setup. Just a note, in Windows the extension (.txt, .exe etc.) is hidden by default, so you have to enable it via the view function in Windows Explorer.

[@AmyAstro]

Thanks for sharing!

[@waltdudley8375]

How do you find the Longitude and Latitude the way Stellarium wants it. I don't recognize this type of data? I do know 2 different types, but never heard or seen this?

[@rayjohnson7437]

Hi Amy, another excellent video, I followed along and got my own backyard all nicely set up, fantastic. It was so easy I could not believe it, the way you describe things is just fantastic. Just one question, when it is very dark at night I cannot really see the surroundings, is there a way to lighten the backyard up a bit so it does not just become totally black?

[@AmyAstro]

Yes! a viewer pointed this out to me yesterday. There is a setting in Stellarium where we load the background. Under Options there is a box that says from landscape if given and there is a check mark and there is a number. Raise the numbers and that brightens your landscape up. Default is 10, increase the number to 50 to see your background better. Best of luck.

[@rayjohnson7437]

@@AmyAstro Hi Amy great advice changed that value to 0.20 from 0.10 and it is now really good, slightly dark but nicely visible. This is a major improvement in designing my shooting schedule, thanks again, please keep your videos coming, they are excellent!

[@OnceShy_TwiceBitten]

How do you raise or lower Polaris? I have it perfectly center, but it's a bit higher over my tree tops than it is in real life.

[@Cheapass-tro]

Easiest way is to edit the image itself, shifting the horizon up or down as necessary (late I know, but others will read).

[@billmeador215]

Nice video, but the image file from Panorama 360 is a .pimg file not editable in Photoshop..................got another idea for an iPhone app to take the pano?

[@AmyAstro]

Try accessing the image on your phone in photos. Then select edit. Fix exposure or something and save. Now the file is a jpg and you can work with it. Good luck.

[@billmeador215]

That worked, thanks.....................now if I could just get the trees surrounding us here top bend over at night!

[@AmyAstro]

@@billmeador215 Wonderful! Yeah a bendable tree with the push of a button. Million dollar idea!

[@stevekaiser4959]

Unfortunately this method of copying the 2 files into the stellarium folder does not work for the newer versions of stellarium.

[@AmyAstro]

Hmmm. I am about to do this again I will check it out. Thanks for the heads up. Which version are you using?

[@stevekaiser4959]

@@AmyAstro Hi I am using 0.21.0 which should be latest released version I think. From WHat I can tell now the only way to add Landscapes is through the F4 , "add/remove Landscape" interface you have to create the ini and png file, then ZIP them together then use the add feature to select the zip file. let me know if you find a different method . take care

[@SuperKevinFS]

Amy on coordinates do I put alt = 53.345 and long= 2.474

[@AmyAstro]

For longitude (LONG=) and latitude (LAT=) try this converter to get them in the proper format. www.fcc.gov/media/radio/dms-decimal

[@garyausten5939]

Do you have to get the premium version of Stellarium or will it work on the free version?

[@AmyAstro]

I am using the free version! :D.

[@Oamaruastro]

I have been trying to do this on my Macintosh and nothing I do makes Stellarium recognise that I have a new landscape in there. Anyone know what to do to fix this?

[@AmyAstro]

Hi James, Last time I tried Stellarium on my Mac it crashed a lot. Give me a day or so to investigate and I will get back with you.

[@yellowlynx]

"... I am not that intelligent...." what?? And you can do all these things with your gear???? LOL Your video is fantastic!

[@AmyAstro]

Thank you!

[@AndrewMurphy8383]

how about us who dont have apple iphones it be nice if some one would try to find something and not just tell us there should eb etc out there

[@AmyAstro]

Every operating system offers different apps. The person who taught me was android. Use what works for you.

[@danieladamson860]

I can do every step until u have to find where Stellarium downloaded all the files because guess what….Mac OS doesn’t download the other files, it just downloads “Stellarium” itself so I have no option to find those landscape files….do you suggest anything?

[@AmyAstro]

I recall several years ago I had a friend fix my Mac so I could see hidden files. I wonder if those files are just hidden. Just a guess here. Best of luck.

[@danieladamson860]

@@AmyAstro I'll give it a go, thank you :)

[@danieladamson860]

@@AmyAstro Just did it several times and still cant find it :(

[@AmyAstro]

Dang. sorry. I will ask around

[@danieladamson860]

@@AmyAstro I appreciate that! I been trying so many ways haha

[@cjwagner2284]

How do you do it without photoshop?

[@AmyAstro]

Phone a friend. lol

[@cjwagner2284]

@@AmyAstro hello friend! LOL