Hadn't really gone into guessing how you did it but I went ahead and was making
my own yesterday after seeing yours here.  That, and I was trying to help
someone with a planet/moon orbit question at the moray.win group.
I used an arealight for the sun and it seemed to be okay enough, also used the
spotlight behind the Earth concept.  Not much of any other way I know to cast
light on shadowed regions in space :-) Already did the negative light for the
umbral part of the shadow too, and a second one to try and mimic the apparent
darkness of the beginning/ending eclipse.  'no_shadow' is out because of the way
it illuminates all sides.
I've yet to add image maps, was just getting the layout done, and although I
have the POV Planetarium files here I've never had a lot of success getting
specific camera positions right.  Will take a look at what your working on.
Here's my try at the lunar eclipse so far.

Bob

"Chris Jeppesen" <chr### [at] digiquillcom> wrote in message
news:388a5e51@news.povray.org...
| The clouds parted over my site and I was able to see most of the eclipse.
| First
| one I have ever seen in person. It was great!
|
| The positions of the bodies were calculated using PovSolarSystem v0.02,
| which
| I will release shortly. This version is vastly improved and includes the
| Moon
| for the first time. I could go into detail about how I made it, but its
| better if you
| just go to www.kwansystems.org and read all about it.
|
| I have never had much success with area lights. This was no exception. I
| couldnt
| get a good area light to work for the sun, so I sprinkled 50 point lights
| randomly
| on a sphere the size of the sun.
|
| I put a dim orange spot light just behind the earth pointed away from the
| sun
| to get the orange shadow tint. Having never seen an eclipse before, I didnt
| know
| that the center of the shadow would be so much dimmer than the edge. I am
| working on an improved version now, with an added negative brightness spot
| light to cancel out some of the shadow tint in the center.
|
| I rendered it in PovWin (Took 13 hours, far longer than the eclipse itself!)
| and made an MPEG using mpeg_encode for Linux. I used 800x640 resolution
| because thats what it takes to get a proper aspect on a 1280x1024 screen.
| I used VMmeg 1.7, a very old but reliable mpeg player to run it. It seems
| like MS Media Player doesnt like anything over 320x240.
|
| I hope this answers your questions.
|
| Chris
|
|
| Bob Hughes <omn### [at] hotmailcom?subject=PoV-News:> wrote in message
| news:3889f05a@news.povray.org...
| > This was real neat to see, both in animation and real life.  It was a good
| lunar
| > eclipse.  Saw a total eclipse once that got very dark gray-blue then a
| deep rust
| > red as it emerged, another was very red all over and could have passed for
| being
| > Mars.  This one was probably number three in rank of the ones I've seen,
| too bad
| > I haven't seen any more than those 3 total ones.  A few other partial ones
| too,
| > just not as colorful.
| > The representation you have done here is nice and I'm wondering how you
| went
| > about it.  I had thought of doing one too but to try and mimic the others
| I've
| > seen also.
| >
| > Bob
| >
|
|
|

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Attachments:
Download 'lnreclps.mpg' (119 KB)

Hi Chris

Thanks to Sander I was able to see your very illustrative mpg.

When I tried to play your version off my hard drive Media
Player went looking for a web site.

>I rendered it in PovWin (Took 13 hours, far longer than the eclipse
itself!)
<grin>

>just go to www.kwansystems.org and read all about it.
This has always been a really great site. POV and Space Dynamics
is awesome. It is something I am very happy to have
archived on my hard drive. I only wish I had more time
to explore it. Someday, for sure.

Keep up the good work,
Peter Warren
war### [at] hotmailcom

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Saw your web pages and got your PovSolarSystem files which seem to be a
comprehensive set.  Wish you success on further efforts (even if it is a
self-serving wish of mine).

Bob

"Chris Jeppesen" <chr### [at] digiquillcom> wrote in message
news:388a5e51@news.povray.org...
| just go to www.kwansystems.org and read all about it.
|

Post a reply to this message

Very cool Bob,

The simplicity of this animation really works, at least for me.

Peter

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Thanks, have a look at the image mapped one in the new posting if you want.  It
needs to be redone but I don't know when I'll get to it again.

Bob

"Peter Warren" <int### [at] halcyoncom> wrote in message
news:388c26e2@news.povray.org...
| Very cool Bob,
|
| The simplicity of this animation really works, at least for me.
|
| Peter
|

Post a reply to this message

"Bob Hughes" wrote...
> This was real neat to see, both in animation and
> real life.  It was a good lunar eclipse.

Not strictly povray related, but for those of you who
didn't see the eclipse, take a look at...

http://www.xlcus.co.uk/photos/2001-01-09-totallunar/anim.html


Oh, and I have done some povray stuff too :-) ...
http://www.xlcus.co.uk/povray/


Cheers,

--
Jonathan Hunt
jon### [at] xlcuscouk

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Incredible!  On the small side and somewhat fuzzy but I can't recall having
ever seen such a good animation like that before.
Did the sky haze over or did the camera focus change?  It starts clear but soon
remains at a soft focus I guess.  Was this done using a video camera tracking
piggy back on a telescope?
I missed the latest solar eclipse here and wished I hadn't, Sun was 3/4
eclipsed.  Speaking of the sun I liked your sunset render too.

Bob

"Jonathan Hunt" <jon### [at] xlcuscouk> wrote in message
news:3a6236e0@news.povray.org...
> "Bob Hughes" wrote...
> > This was real neat to see, both in animation and
> > real life.  It was a good lunar eclipse.
>
> Not strictly povray related, but for those of you who
> didn't see the eclipse, take a look at...
>
> http://www.xlcus.co.uk/photos/2001-01-09-totallunar/anim.html
>
>
> Oh, and I have done some povray stuff too :-) ...
> http://www.xlcus.co.uk/povray/
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> --
> Jonathan Hunt
> jon### [at] xlcuscouk

Post a reply to this message

"Bob H." wrote in message news:3a637469@news.povray.org...
> Incredible!  On the small side and somewhat fuzzy but I can't
> recall having ever seen such a good animation like that before.

Thanks!  Glad you like it :-)

> Did the sky haze over or did the camera focus change?  It
> starts clear but soon remains at a soft focus I guess.

It turns fuzzy during totality because I had to change the
exposure of the camera from 1/250 second to an 4 second
exposure to pick up enough detail.

> Was this done using a video camera tracking piggy back
> on a telescope?

No, it was done using a Nikon Coolpix 950 digital still camera.
I took one photo every few mins over the entire three hours of
the eclipse.

I didn't use a telescope...  Just the standard lens, i.e. not a
telephoto lens, and used a tripod to keep the camera steady
during the 4 second exposures.  I didn't worry about the
positioning of the camera too much, as I aligned all the
pictures so that the moon was in the centre by hand in photoshop
afterwards.

> I missed the latest solar eclipse here and wished I hadn't, Sun
> was 3/4 eclipsed.  Speaking of the sun I liked your sunset
> render too.

Thanks, that's the render I'm most proud of so far too :)


All the best,

--
Jonathan Hunt
http://www.xlcus.co.uk/povray/
jon### [at] xlcuscouk

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