Adding multia-media
Objects to TheSky
Copyright Notices
TheSky has advanced features that
make it very easy to add your own Images, Textual Notes, Sound files, or AVI Movie files
to existing celestial objects. These features allow you to add images from any
source to the program so that you can display pictures of your favorite objects.
The images can be of the following common image types, .GIF, .BMP, JPG, TIF, PCX, PCT,
PDS, or TGA. You can have multiple image types and multiple image folders on multiple
drives. Compatible astronomical images can be found on many available CD-ROMS or many sources on the Web
(keep in mind copyrights!!). A great source for some of the best images to date can be found
at the Hubble Space Telescope site.
TheSky already has 175+ of the best Hubble Images
and associated press releases in the SDB (Sky Database) format already.
However, the Hubble Images are not activated by default!
To
add the Hubble Pictures and Hubble Notes SDB files to TheSky display you must use the
Data>Sky Database Manager to Add the image and press release SDB's to the Active
List. See below.
The Sky6 Database Manager
Highlight and Click Add or Double Click individually
You will need to Add the two SDB files named
"All Hubble Images" and "All Hubble Press
Release" located under
the folder
..\TheSky6\Data\Pictures\Hubble
Space Telescope
Once the two SDB files Hubble
Images and Hubble Press Release are
moved into the active
list try it out. Find the object M42 the Great Nebula in Orion, NGC1976, and see if
you have the Hubble images and Hubble press releases available on the Multi-Media Tab located on
the Object ID box.
Object Id dialog Box
Hubble Images and Press Release text!
Way cool!
You may see the Press Release
text first rather
than a picture if you added the SDB All Hubble Press Release first and the
All Hubble Images SDB
second. To change the order just REMOVE the All Hubble Press Release SDB and add it again. It will then be second in line.
Then when you click on an M42 you will get the pictures first. Scroll up and down the list
to see the Press Releases and Hubble Images associated with the object. You can have
100 image, sound, text, or AVI movie, files per object!
First you need to find an image that you
like of an object and then you need to create an SDB (Sky Database) file of object type
"Image" in order to be able to display your own images. In addition to
Images you can also attach Sound (Wave), Movie (AVI), and Text Notes (TXT) to any
celestial object. The following information applies to each of the multi-media
types, not just to images. Simply create new SDB files of the corresponding object
type "Image" for images, "Video" for movies, "Sound" for
wave files, or "Notes" for ASCII text files. The object types have their
own icons associated with them as follows,
Multi-Media Icons
Image, Sound, Video,
and Notes
These multi-media icons are not set to
"visible" by default. To make them visible on TheSky6 display use the menu option
View | Display Explorer to enable them. However, the icons do not have to be
set to visible to invoke a multi-media file, but you will not see what
objects have these options when the icons are not visible.
Here is an example of how to access the
famous Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC
6611 the Eagle Nebula, Messier #16, from within TheSky. First you will need to
acquire the image and have it saved on your hard disk. For this example from the
Web, simply grab the image below. To accomplish this, Right Mouse click on the
Pillars image from within your web browser and then use your Web Browsers' "Save
As" feature. Save the image on your local hard disk in a folder where you want
to store your own images.
NGC 6611 - the
Eagle Nebula
Right Mouse Click on
this image to grab it
You should create a new folder which
is where you will put your own images. This can be done from the Save As Dialog box
by right mouse clicking and choosing the Create New Folder option. Place your own
images under TheSky's Pictures
folder. Or you can go to the Windows Explorer right now before downloading and
create an images folder prior first.
See below example.
Save Picture As
Choose "Save Picture As" after
RIGHT MOUSE CLICKING on the image in your Browser and then SAVE the
image on your local hard drive wherever you like.
Remember, the multi-media symbols are set to
visible under the menu option View | Display Explorer. The object types
valid are Image, Note, Sound,
and Video. If you have more than one image associated with an object
when you have
the Camera icons set to visible you will need to hold down Shift+LEFT
Mouse click on the objects
to display the pictures individually from the Object Information dialog. Otherwise you will only see one image AUTOMATICALLY displayed. You can
also turn off Object Type Image to avoid this. View | Display Explorer
and DISABLE image.
The image can be of type .GIF, TIF, JPEG, or BMP or any combination thereof. Once you have the above image
"PILLARS.GIF" saved on your hard disk you are ready!
Now, we are going to use TheSky's menu option Data
|Add User-Defined
Data to create the necessary information for the PICTURE.SDB file. TheSky can automatically stamp the
objects of your choice with the RA, DEC, catalog number, and image name, for the object(s)
you want to associate an image with. All that you will need to manually enter is the
actual Image file name, i.e. "PILLARS.GIF" in the label field.
You should have something similar
to the following
Now you are ready to Control-Left Mouse Click on
any objects that will have pictures
We want to change the default values to the
following,
1) Snap to: Nearest non-stellar
2) Object Type: Image
3) Browse Button: Enter your PICTURE.TXT file name here and folder where
you want them
The
Data | Add User-Defined Data area is now ready to create the necessary data for
displaying the image file. Close
the User-Defined Data and get back into the main TheSky display.
Use
Edit | Find to
search for the Eagle Nebula. From the Find Dialog
choose the Center and Frame buttons as shown below.
The Find Object Dialog Box
Use the Center & Frame Button
Because the object type is
"Image" make sure that they are set to visible first or the camera icons
will not show indicating which objects have pictures.
In the Go to: entry found on
the View | Display Explorer dialog just type in "image" and you will be
taken there directly.
View | Display Explorer
Check Mark Object Type Image, and Notes
Now center on the Eagle
Nebula NGC6611 Messier 16.
Immediately after CONTROL+ MOUSE-LEFT CLICKING
within the Eagle Nebula get back into the Data | Add User | Defined Data dialog and assign the actual
image filename in the Label field as shown below. This allows the exporting of the text
file to have all the necessary information for compiling. Simple.
Add User-Defined Data
Assign the actual image filename
here in the "LABEL" field - PILLARS.GIF
WARNING! The "Snap to
Object" as shown above must be the correct object NGC 6611 the Eagle Nebula!
It is quite easy to inadvertently Snap to some other object, not the one you
intend. For example, the Eagle nebula also envelops IC 4703. If
the Snap to object reports anything other than NGC 6611 - The Eagle Nebula
"delete" the entry and try again.
Better yet. Turn off all other catalogs
FIRST like the IC, PGC, Caldwell,
Herschel to avoid this completely. See below. Stars are not an
issue BECAUSE you are using Snap To Nearest-Non Stellar!
Turn off what you don't
want
Disable all but the NGC catalog to avoid confusion
Use the Display Explorer and
locate the other catalogs under the Core databases and turn off everything
except the NGC catalog as shown to avoid confusion.
Now TheSky will create the necessary
information for the "PICTURE.SDB" file for you. This file includes the RA and DEC of the object, the
filename of the image you entered in the "Label" field for image, sound, movie, or note files.
Here is the text file that has been
Exported by TheSky's Add User-Defined Data
-
Export button. This text file will now need to be compiled into an SDB of object type
Image using TheSky's
Data | Import dialog.
;Copyright, Software Bisque, Inc.
>LABEL 1,30
>ALIAS 19,35
>RAHOURS 37,47
>DECDEGREES 49,60
>CATALOG CLASS=OBJECTS
>LOADMEMORY
>IDENTIFIER User-Defined Data <--Change this accordingly i.e. "My Photos"
>OBJECT TYPE 41
1 NGC 6611 18.31333333 -13.79722222 30.00 PILLARS.GIF
Change the IDENTIFIER User-Defined Data
accordingly! Something like My Pictures works. Now save the text
file with the change. Next you are ready to compile the text into an
SDB.
Use Data | Import and choose "Define
Fields" to access the following dialog.
Define Fields Dialog
Assign columns for the image filenames here
You can manually enter the Columns values as
starting from 68 and ending at 85 or even higher as needed to accommodate longer filenames
by entering the values in the Columns Section above. After entering the column values
68-90
mouse + left click on the field named "File Name" to assign it.
If you prefer you can drag the
mouse through columns 68-90 and then click the File Name field to assign the
image file names to the File Name field. Please see TheSky
manual for complete details on the Database Compiler.
Now you can compile this text file
using Object Type " Image" as shown.
Creating the
SDB using the Data |Import dialog
Compile the text
Find your text file using the
browse button. My example is in the D:\Images folder and is named "EXAMPLE.TXT". When you have found the
text file the Identifier Name is
shown. If you have not changed the identifier name it will say User- Defined
Data. Change the identifier as explained above. The label you enter for IDENTIFIER will
appear on the Active List of Databases when using the Database Manager to
enable and disable or Add/Remove SDBS.
The Database Manager allows you to activate
or deactivate the databases by name easily. After compiling your picture database
answer "Yes" to the "Add to Auto Load Database" question. You now have
a PICTURES.SDB file for displaying the pillars
image from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Check it by finding the Eagle Nebula and
clicking on the little Camera icon located on the Object Identification dialog box to
display the picture. If you have the camera icons set to visible when you click on the
object the image(s) will automatically show.
Note: When the multi-media icons are
set to "Visible" you can SHIFT+LEFT MOUSE CLICK on the object to
display the Object Information dialog first (rather than showing the
object(s) immediately) and then you can choose the image or other
multi-media files from the Object Information dialog as you wish.
See below showing this.
SHIFT+LEFT MOUSE CLICK
Pick from the list
For questions or additional help, contact the
Software Bisque Support Corner
The solar system objects are
handled slightly differently because they are moving objects. The command
used in this case is ">XREF PURE" in the SDB. You can edit the text file
that displays pictures for Solar System objects and see how this is done.
The file is called SSPICT.TXT. There is a second called SSNOTE.TXT which
allows text data to be displayed for the planets as well.
Now let's say you want to add an AVI movie
file to a solar system object. Currently AVI is the only video formatted
supported but conversion from Quick Time to AVI or other formats is
reasonably easy to accomplish.
Below is an "SSMovie.TXT" file that can be
compiled into an SDB using Data | Import. The object type needs to be "VIDEO".
This will allow AVI's to be played using the
multi-media tab on the object information dialog.
Note in
the following the HEADER below attached to the text takes care of
everything allowing for automatic compiling into a working SDB. That is all
the fields are predefined, the ALIAS assigned to the solar
system object by name, Object Type is 42 - Video and the SDB is always loaded
in memory. The Identifier of the SDB file is named "SSMovies" but the Identifier can
actually be named
anything you like.
>XREF PURE
>ALIAS 1,12
>LABEL 16,32
>OBJECT TYPE 42
>Identifier SSMovies
>LOADMEMORY
Mercury Mercury.avi
Venus Venus.avi
Earth Earth.avi
Mars Mars.avi
Jupiter Jupiter.avi
Saturn Saturn.avi
Uranus Uranus.avi
Neptune Neptune.avi
Pluto Pluto.avi
Sun Sun.avi
Moon Flare.avi
Minor Planet MinorPlanets.avi
Comet Comets.avi
Data | Import the text file
Press Compile
Now just dump an AVI in the
\TheSky6\Data\Pictures\Solar System folder and they can be found listed on
the multi-media tab.
Edit | Find Sun
Click AVI by name and it will play!
Cool! Actually it is quite hot ;)
Absolutely. You can add as
many AVI's or pictures/notes as you like! The list will simply keep growing.
What about Satellites?
At this time no only moons,
minor planets, comets, and the major planets will work with the multi-media
objects.
Photographs in the
Anglo-Australian folder of TheSky’s media are copyright © Anglo-Australian
Observatory (AAT images) and/or © ROE/AATB (UK Schmidt Telescope images) and are
reproduced with permission. Photographs from the Anglo Australian Observatory
telescopes are by David Malin.
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