[vc_row row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" text_align="left" box_shadow_on_row="no"][vc_column][no_accordion active_tab="1" background_transparency="no" style="boxed_accordion"][no_accordion_section title="Creating a star" accordion_type="accordion_icon" icon_pack="font_elegant" fe_icon="icon_cog"][vc_column_text]This manual describes how to add a star to SpaceEngine. Before continue, it is recommended to read this manual: Introduction.
The majority of stars in default SpaceEngine installation are stored in the csv file data/catalogs/Catalogs0980.pak/stars/HIPPARCOS.csv. This is the HIPPARCOS star catalog with about 110,000 stars. Other stars, including binary systems, are stored in multiple sc files in the same system pak file. These default files should not be modified or changed in any way. If you want to update a star, remove it, or add a new one, create your own sc or csv file in the addons/catalogs/stars/ folder. SpaceEngine have scripting options to modify and remove a stars or other objects from the default catalogs, or to add a new ones.
The csv format for catalogs is designed to create a large catalogs of objects with similar data. It is more compact and load faster than sc, but have limited types of data which can be specified in it. It is just a table with values separated by coma. The sc format is designed to specify any possible data what SE can use to describe an object. It is a script-like text with 'tags' used to describe an object (star or star system in this tutorial) and its various parameters. First we'll describe the sc file format.
Code
// Create a new object - a solitary star.
Star "Mono"
{
RA 16 10 45 // right ascension
Dec -25 12 11 // declination
Dist 100.0 // distance from the Sun
Class "G5V" // spectral class
Lum 0.86 // luminosity, or
//AbsMagn 5.31 // absolute magnitude, or
//AppMagn 10.31 // visual magnitude
RadSol 0.95 // radius in Solar radii
MassSol 0.91 // mass in Solar masses
Teff 5200 // surface temperature in Kelvins
}
// Create a new object - a solitary star (black hole) with extra
// parameters (accretion disk) in the planets catalog. Note
// what it's name here is "Hole system", read below why.
StarBarycenter "Hole system"
{
RA 09 31 14 // right ascension
Dec 64 16 38 // declination
Dist 250.0 // distance from the Sun
Class "X" // spectral class - black hole
Lum 150 // luminosity of the whole system (accretion disk)// That's enough, accretion disk will be described in the planets catalog (see below).
}
// Remove solitary stars from the older catalogs.
Remove "Bin A"
Remove "Bin B"
// Create a new object - a barycenter of a binary star system,
// which components will be described in the planets catalog (see below).
StarBarycenter "Bin"
{
RA 19 50 18 // right ascension
Dec 28 18 47 // declination
Dist 251.652 // distance from the Sun
// That's enough, StarBarycenter tag may not have other parameters (see below).
}
To add a new star or modify a star which has been already described in the catalogs, simply define a new object (
Code
Name,RA,Dec,Dist,AppMagn,SpecClass,MassSol,RadSol,Temperature
HIP 14066/HD 18665,3.02094205,36.1179219,487.804884,7.24999999,K2V,,,
HIP 14775/HD 278329,3.17876994,36.5130485,505.050497,10.1093756,K0V,,,
HIP 12888,2.76132567,32.8238759,476.190497,9.64843834,K0V,,,
Note what star name and its spectral class does not enclosed in quotes, and missing parameters (MassSol, RadSol and Temperature) are just blank, but commas separated them are still necessary.
The csv catalogs have a priority over sc catalogs, i.e. they are loaded first. But then star solver takes the file/pak modification date to perform star data merging or updating. The config-file parameter