Episode 5: Open Source Astronomy Tools ESASky and Aladin Sky Atlas

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Episode 5: Open Source Astronomy Tools ESASky and Aladin Sky Atlas
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Links mentioned in the episode:

Prairie Skies Spotlight on Galaxies April 2 https://youtu.be/dh0biQnJmFQ

ESASky https://sky.esa.int/

ESASky documentation https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/esasky-help

“How to Use ESASky” https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/esasky-how-to

ESASky educational activities https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/esasky-for-education

Aladin Sky Atlas https://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/

Aladin Lite API documentation https://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/AladinLite/doc/API/

Aladin Lite API examples https://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/AladinLite/doc/API/examples/

Aladin tutorial on embedding chart https://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/AladinLite/doc/tutorials/interactive-finding-chart/

NOIRLab Arp 199 image page https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noirlab1912a/

Episode 4: Open Source Astronomy Tools -Stellarium

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FOSSdome
Episode 4: Open Source Astronomy Tools -Stellarium
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And intro to open source astronomy software and a bit of an overview on Stellarium.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Stellarium https://stellarium.org

Stellarium web https://stellarium-web.org/

Waylena’s post on custom Stellarium landscapes https://fossdome.com/a-stitch-in-time-or-space/

Waylena’s post on using Stellarium remote https://fossdome.com/stellarium-remote-fun/

Hugin Panorama photo stitcher http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

GIMP https://www.gimp.org/

Episode 3: Thoughts on Getting Started in Blender

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FOSSdome
Episode 3: Thoughts on Getting Started in Blender
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This week I talk about how I got started using Blender and ways to go about learning it if starting today.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Darkfall Cosmic Shaders https://darkfallblender.blogspot.com/ , https://youtu.be/vbj20u53uW8

Blender https://www.blender.org

Waylena’s inexplicably popular 8-second video https://youtu.be/PICxEYvYT-

Blender online user manual https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/

Blender Fundamentals playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa1F2ddGya_-UvuAqHAksYnB0qL9yWDO6

Waylena’s Blender for Fulldome Workshop Materials https://github.com/waystar/2019-Blender-Workshop-Materials

Ron Proctor’s Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/RonProctorProfile/featured

Cosmic Shaders from Darkfall

I saw this on my YouTube subscriptions feed last week. Very cool stuff. There is a good blog post on using the add-on as well: https://darkfallblender.blogspot.com/2021/03/blender-add-on-shader-library-version.html

Downloaded the python script from the Pastebin link provided in the blog post. Then installed the add-on through Blender Preferences.

The Shader Library is accessed through the 3D View. If you don’t see the tabs on the right, hover over the 3D View and hit the “N” key on the keyboard.

There are several shader types and options to choose from.

The add-on creates the node tree for the shader. This is a great way to quickly see what node trees can do without creating them from scratch.

I added some compositing to get a nice glow in Cycles.

Have to separate out the Environment (background as set up in “World” panel) and blur foreground alpha separately from the image to get that nice glow.


I always look for a Cycles way to make things glowy since I ultimately use fisheye for use in the dome. Eevee is super fast and that bloom is wonderful, but it’s a no-go when rendering straight to fisheye.

Episode 2: The Goodness that is GIMP

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FOSSdome
Episode 2: The Goodness that is GIMP
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This week I list 10 things I use GIMP for in my planetarium work.

Links mentioned in this episode:
GIMP https://www.gimp.org/
NASA Photojournal https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/
Using Gimp to Slice Images https://fossdome.com/using-gimp-to-slice-images/

Episode 1: State of the Open Sources

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Episode 1: State of the Open Sources
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In this debut, I briefly go over some of my favorite open source packages and what I typically use them for.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Blender https://www.blender.org/
GIMP https://www.gimp.org/
Inkscape https://inkscape.org/

Krita https://krita.org/en/
ImageMagick https://imagemagick.org/
G’MIC https://gmic.eu/

Audactiy https://www.audacityteam.org/
Scribus https://www.scribus.net/
LibreOffice https://www.libreoffice.org/
OpenShot https://www.openshot.org/

Fun with Blender and Mars

Had a bit of fun making videos to celebrate in the weeks leading up to the Mars Perseverance landing. This one was one of my favorites.

Links from the video:

Blender http://www.blender.org

Blender HiRISE DTM Importer http://github.com/phaseIV/Blender-Hir…

HiRISE DTM Quickstart http://www.uahirise.org/dtm/howto.php

Terrain model data http://www.uahirise.org/dtm/dtm.php?I…

Mars Perseverance Mission http://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

Plexus Effect

So I spent my morning digging into a tutorial by Chris P on YouTube building a lovely Plexus Effect using Blender and Animation Nodes. There were a few stumbling points due to the tutorial being for slightly older versions of both, but they weren’t so different as to be a huge problem. And if I were more practiced with Animation Nodes it would have been much easier to figure out those differences.

My resulting video isn’t a super high quality because it was rendered for upload to Odysee/Lbry. I don’t know if there is a way to embed as there is with the other video players out there.

My result video on Odysee

Outliner on the LEFT?

Just watched nice YouTube video from YouTuber Steven Scott, titled “Blender Blasphemy, outliner on the left?” and it got me rethinking my workflow, since I increasingly use the numpad keys with my left hand so my right hand can stay on the mouse. (especially since I’m using USB numpads with laptops more and more)

Anyway, check it out:

Construction Zone

I’m migrating to a different platform as a learning experience, so things could get weird.