Tag: astronomy

Episode 9: Resources for Astronomy Art with Blender

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Episode 9: Resources for Astronomy Art with Blender
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This week I chat about some interesting tools and tutorials for using Blender for non-visualization Astronomy stuff.

Links for this week:

Cycles X   https://code.blender.org/2021/04/cycles-x/

Fulldome Production With Blender https://github.com/waystar/2019-Blender-Workshop-Materials

How to make planets in Blender   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6224Wisxwxc

Darkfall Shader Library intro  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbj20u53uW8

The Shader Library   https://darkfallblender.blogspot.com/p/the-shader-library.html

Mark Kingsnorth original nebula tutorial (files no longer available, but still good to read) http://www.markkingsnorth.com/2017/01/31/blender-nebula-group-node-tutorial-download/

Mark Kingsnorth Nebula Generator on BlenderMarket https://blendermarket.com/products/nebula-generator

3D Star Map (link to demo version and store in description)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRshK5qhJDA

Black Hole art from Void_SW on BlenderNation https://www.blendernation.com/2021/05/04/hand-picked-blender-art-4/

Create a Black Hole in Blender – Iridesium   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5naMFeWTBeY

Procedural Galaxies in Blender 2.91!  -CBaileyFilm   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XQXI5KownU

Procedural Solar Flare Shader Blender Tutorial!  – CBaileyFilm   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9anTO45bCM

Mustafar Procedural Lava Planet Shader  – CBaileyFilm   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCztNvPGq1w

Episode 8: Some Resources for Astronomy Visualization with Blender

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Episode 8: Some Resources for Astronomy Visualization with Blender
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Another update and a look at some interesting resources for learning to take astronomy data into Blender for visualization. It’s how the magic gets made!

AstroBlend   https://www.astroblend.com/

AstroBlend   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAUcA4vXe2IPdnCjBslj6XQ

AstroBlend at 2015 Blender Conference   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vY-sl1oXME

Dr. Jill Naiman   https://www.astronaiman.com/

Dr. Brian Kent   https://www.cv.nrao.edu/~bkent/blender/

Matías Gárate’s  Blender & Astronomy Tutorial. Using Voxel Data for 3D visualization    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjFmkbKBKd0WuhhbR2MGPXZyWW7TPcNSw

Episode 7: Open Source Astronomy Software Carte du Ciel and Virtual Moon Atlas

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Episode 7: Open Source Astronomy Software Carte du Ciel and Virtual Moon Atlas
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An update on what I’ve been up to and then checking out two more pieces of open source astronomy software.

Links for this episode:

Loading NASA Perseverance and Ingenuity models into Blender https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36u94eMMHuU

Sunset Meditation show from Brown Planetarium https://www.bsu.edu/web/planetarium/productions-and-show-leasing#accordion_sunsetmeditation

Mark Kingsnorth Nebula Generator for Blender https://blendermarket.com/products/nebula-generator

Cartes du Ciel https://www.ap-i.net/skychart//en/start

Virtual Moon Atlas https://ap-i.net/avl/start

Episode 6: Open Source Astronomy Tools KStars

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Episode 6: Open Source Astronomy Tools KStars
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A look at free and open source desktop planetarium software KStars, and why it deserves a a spot on the hard drive.

Links for this episode:

KStars https://edu.kde.org/kstars/

KStars user docs https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/kstars/kstars/index.html

Inkscape https://inkscape.org/

SVG format https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics

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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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/

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/

Stellarium remote fun

I LOVE open source software! 

Stellarium sky

Stellarium is one of the top open source software packages for desktop sky viewing. Since I won’t be presenting shows in a physical planetarium any time soon, I figured I should work out how to present better online.

Stellarium has a remote web interface plugin that is pretty easy to set up.  So I’m using my giant monitor for presentation and my little monitor for controls and for programming.

I’m clumsy with the on-screen menus, so having them on a separate monitor is great! Some actions take a while to set up, so I tried a little scripting to automate some stuff.
And then I decided that rather than hunting through pull-down menus for my little scripts I should make some buttons for scripts and actions.
So I started modifying the html. 
And relied on the kindness of a stranger’s blog post to expose the functionality.
Thankfully I found an Atom package to make that json readable.
I don’t often spend enough time in any given language to get good at it. But in this effort, I’m digging into Stellarium scripting/javascript, html, and to find the right language for scripting actions I found myself searching the source code for the project itself.