want to find Niburu (Planet X)

What operating system are you using? What version of Stellarium?

For what it's worth, I cannot re-produce a crash in the development code.

Did you edit the ssystem.ini file or something? I only ask because I once saw a web page accusing us [the Stellarium developers] of being part of a conspiracy to cover up Nibiru's existence and impending collision with the planet Earth because Stellarium crashed after the user entered orbital data in the ssystem.ini file to simulate said collision. FYI making any planet or satellite collide with the object on which the observer is sitting causes a divide by zero error - hence the crash. A similar thing happened not long ago when a booster rocket re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, and the Satellites plugin calculated it's altitude as <=0, and boom, crash time. We should probably have better exception handling.

For the record, I have no information about such an object [Nibiru], and believe it to be entirely fictitious (but them I would say that because I'm part of The Conspiracy. Goodness knows all those pay-offs from the Men in Black come in handy when I'm designing new ways to make the program crash at the first sign of a commie pinko liberal truther).

Clear skies.
M

Dear Mathew,

   Since you are so kind as to reply, I would like to re assure you
that I am not trying to debunk or add fuel to any conspiracies either
now or in the future. All my curiosity comes from trying to use
Stellarium to find what may exist at a point in outer space. This
location was copied from a You tube video that I watched yesterday.
Here are the co-ordinates:
13H 48M 0S, -8 24' 25" Since you are the expert on Stellarium, maybe
you could punch it in on your computer and see what shows up?

I think the 64 dollar question is "Can Stellarium see a new object
approaching our galaxy?" I would think not, unless the source code
data had captured the object when the original scans of the heavens
were made. That would be a stretch of the imagination for sure. -
Unless the data is updated ?

Just FYI I think the original You tube video mentioned that he found
what he thought might be Nirubu on the Google Earth software using the
sky mode with the latest version downloaded. I'm not sure how he did
it but he also indicated that the object was moving in relation to the
stars and the other planets for what ever that is worth. Here is an
interesting simulation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h84ij0-MFtI&feature=related

Please let me know what you think??

There are also instructions on the web as to how to enhance Stellarium
so that it can find Niribu, but I tried them on my 11.1.1 version and
nothing downloaded. perhaps it will work with an older version?

Earl White

<email address hidden>

On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 4:35 PM, Matthew Gates
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Your question #190104 on Stellarium changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/stellarium/+question/190104
>
>    Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Matthew Gates requested more information:
> What operating system are you using?  What version of Stellarium?
>
> For what it's worth, I cannot re-produce a crash in the development
> code.
>
> Did you edit the ssystem.ini file or something?  I only ask because I
> once saw a web page accusing us [the Stellarium developers] of being
> part of a conspiracy to cover up Nibiru's existence and impending
> collision with the planet Earth because Stellarium crashed after the
> user entered orbital data in the ssystem.ini file to simulate said
> collision.  FYI making any planet or satellite collide with the object
> on which the observer is sitting causes a divide by zero error - hence
> the crash.  A similar thing happened not long ago when a booster rocket
> re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, and the Satellites plugin calculated
> it's altitude as <=0, and boom, crash time.  We should probably have
> better exception handling.
>
> For the record, I have no information about such an object [Nibiru], and
> believe it to be entirely fictitious (but them I would say that because
> I'm part of The Conspiracy. Goodness knows all those pay-offs from the
> Men in Black come in handy when I'm designing new ways to make the
> program crash at the first sign of a commie pinko liberal truther).
>
> Clear skies.
> M
>
> --
> To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/stellarium/+question/190104
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.

Co-ordinates on their own are only part of the story when it comes to planets, because they move relative to the stars (which appear to be static with relation to one another - at least when observing with the naked eye). Interesting aside: the English word "planet" derives from the Greek meaning "wanderer".

The co-ordinates 13H 48M 0S, -8 24' 25", without a date & time (and timezone) don't mean very much unless you're talking about less mobile objects like stars and galaxies. Strictly speaking you also need to state what coordinate system these numbers are for - one presumes equatorial, but there are variants, e.g. J2000 and "of date".

Of course, stars and galaxies move too, but they're so far away that the movement is not easily perceptible to the casual observer (and even not measurable), and indeed not modeled accurately in Stellarium (we do linear interpolation of proper motion for stars where we have a measurement from Hipparcos. We do not currently model annular parallax, or the motion of galaxies and nebulae.

Stellarium keeps an internal model of objects of interest. For "fixed" objects like distant stars all we know is brightness and position. For brighter stars we may also have colour, proper motion, approximate distance and so on. For planets we have a lot more data to model because the motions of the planets and their satellites is somewhat complex. Once we have a model which can predict where an object might be at a given time, we feed data to the model for each object. Stellarium crunches the numbers and decides what is visible at the point in the sky where it is "looking" for a particular location on a particular planetary body.

This entire process is only as good as the model + data, and both of those things have limited precision. It turns out that they're good enough to predict quite a lot of things, but only if fed the right data. As simulation time gets further from the time when the data and model were created/measured, predictions get less accurate. It turns out that groups of bodies interacting through gravitation form a chaotic system in the mathematical sense of the word, which means that tiny errors in measurement (because no instrument is perfect), lead to greater and greater errors in prediction as the gap between the original measurement and prediction increases.

Also, conditions change in ways which are impossible to predict. Artificial satellites fire rockets to adjust their orbits, and do so according to the desires of their operators - we are not party to this information. Moreover, artificial satellites are very close to the planet and even though there is not a lot of it, they pass through high attenuated atmosphere. These conditions are volatile and the orbital model we use does not (and cannot) predict them. As such the Satellites plugin needs to get freshly updated data pretty often - it's usually only good for a few weeks.

Conversely, planetary orbital data is good for much longer periods of time. You can find more details in the "precision" appendix of the user guide if you're interested.

But back to Nibiru. If Stellarium is to predict the position of a planetary object called Nibiru, that object must be defined in the ssystem.ini file. This is where Stellarium keeps all the data about planet-like objects. If you don't find it in there, Stellarium won't model it. We provide no data in the "default" ssystem.ini file which ships with Stellarium for such an object because we don't have it. As far as I know, no such data exists because the object does not exist.

A few years ago it used to be that the only way to add planetary objects to Stellarium was to edit the ssystem.ini file manually (with a text editor). In the fairly recent past, one of out developers (Bogdan) has added a very nice feature to be able to add planetary objects (asteroids & comets) from the main interface of the program (using the Solar System Editor plugin). It will download orbital data for asteroids and comets from online sources. NOTE: the predictions Stellarium makes based on this data can only be as good as the data source, so if you find Nibiru in it you should address your questions to whoever controls the source of the data.

The only questions (for Stellarium developers) which make any real sense about Stellarium and Nibiru are:

1. Is the orbital model used for [whatever planetary body] appropriate for the task of predicting it's position for a time which a user is likely to want a prediction?

2. Are the data used as parameters to the model an accurate representation of reality?

3. Given the model and orbital elements, is Stellarium computing the position as a function of time correctly?

The short answer is this:

As far as I know there is no Nibiru: it is a story/legend. No reputable observations have been made of such an object. In all likelihood it does not exist. Without observations, an orbital model cannot be chosen, and parameters for a model cannot be determined, and without those things Stellarium can make no meaningful prediction of a position for the object.

The summary of the summary: Nibiru is a hoax.

So back to my questions for you... operating system and so on. You didn't answer.

M

Dear Mathew,

   On the previous question about my version it is 0.11.1 and the op
system is windows XP service pack 3. I's still crashing with most any
searching for planets or what ever . When there is anything beyond one
character entered in the search box it locks up the computer.

Earl White

On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 4:25 PM, Matthew Gates
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Your question #190104 on Stellarium changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/stellarium/+question/190104
>
>    Status: Open => Answered
>
> Matthew Gates proposed the following answer:
> Co-ordinates on their own are only part of the story when it comes to
> planets, because they move relative to the stars (which appear to be
> static with relation to one another - at least when observing with the
> naked eye).  Interesting aside: the English word "planet" derives from
> the Greek meaning "wanderer".
>
> The co-ordinates 13H 48M 0S, -8 24' 25", without a date & time (and
> timezone) don't mean very much unless you're talking about less mobile
> objects like stars and galaxies. Strictly speaking you also need to
> state what coordinate system these numbers are for - one presumes
> equatorial, but there are variants, e.g. J2000 and "of date".
>
> Of course, stars and galaxies move too, but they're so far away that the
> movement is not easily  perceptible to the casual observer (and even not
> measurable), and indeed not modeled accurately in Stellarium (we do
> linear interpolation of proper motion for stars where we have a
> measurement from Hipparcos.  We do not currently model annular parallax,
> or the motion of galaxies and nebulae.
>
> Stellarium keeps an internal model of objects of interest. For "fixed"
> objects like distant stars all we know is brightness and position.  For
> brighter stars we may also have colour, proper motion, approximate
> distance and so on.  For planets we have a lot more data to model
> because the motions of the planets and their satellites is somewhat
> complex.  Once we have a model which can predict where an object might
> be at a given time, we feed data to the model for each object.
> Stellarium crunches the numbers and decides what is visible at the point
> in the sky where it is "looking" for a particular location on a
> particular planetary body.
>
> This entire process is only as good as the model + data, and both of
> those things have limited precision.  It turns out that they're good
> enough to predict quite a lot of things, but only if fed the right data.
> As simulation time gets further from the time when the data and model
> were created/measured, predictions get less accurate.  It turns out that
> groups of bodies interacting through gravitation form a chaotic system
> in the mathematical sense of the word, which means that tiny errors in
> measurement (because no instrument is perfect), lead to greater and
> greater errors in prediction as the gap between the original measurement
> and  prediction increases.
>
> Also, conditions change in ways which are impossible to predict.
> Artificial satellites fire rockets to adjust their orbits, and do so
> according to the desires of their operators - we are not party to this
> information.  Moreover, artificial satellites are very close to the
> planet and even though there is not a lot of it, they pass through high
> attenuated atmosphere.  These conditions are volatile and the orbital
> model we use does not (and cannot) predict them.  As such the Satellites
> plugin needs to get freshly updated data pretty often - it's usually
> only good for a few weeks.
>
> Conversely, planetary orbital data is good for much longer periods of
> time.  You can find more details in the "precision" appendix of the user
> guide if you're interested.
>
> But back to Nibiru.  If Stellarium is to predict the position of a
> planetary object called Nibiru, that object must be defined in the
> ssystem.ini file.  This is where Stellarium keeps all the data about
> planet-like objects.  If you don't find it in there, Stellarium won't
> model it.  We provide no data in the "default" ssystem.ini file which
> ships with Stellarium for such an object because we don't have it.  As
> far as I know, no such data exists because the object does not exist.
>
> A few years ago it used to be that the only way to add planetary objects
> to Stellarium was to edit the ssystem.ini file manually (with a text
> editor).  In the fairly recent past, one of out developers (Bogdan) has
> added a very nice feature to be able to add planetary objects (asteroids
> & comets) from the main interface of the program (using the Solar System
> Editor plugin).  It will download orbital data for asteroids and comets
> from online sources.  NOTE: the predictions Stellarium makes based on
> this data can only be as good as the data source, so if you find Nibiru
> in it you should address your questions to whoever controls the source
> of the data.
>
> The only questions (for Stellarium developers) which make any real sense
> about Stellarium and Nibiru are:
>
> 1. Is the orbital model used for [whatever planetary body] appropriate
> for the task of predicting it's position for a time which a user is
> likely to want a prediction?
>
> 2. Are the data used as parameters to the model an accurate
> representation of reality?
>
> 3. Given the model and orbital elements, is Stellarium computing the
> position as a function of time correctly?
>
>
> The short answer is this:
>
> As far as I know there is no Nibiru: it is a story/legend.  No reputable
> observations have been made of such an object. In all likelihood it does
> not exist.  Without observations, an orbital model cannot be chosen, and
> parameters for a model cannot be determined, and without those things
> Stellarium can make no meaningful prediction of a position for the
> object.
>
> The summary of the summary: Nibiru is a hoax.
>
> So back to my questions for you... operating system and so on.  You
> didn't answer.
>
> M
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/stellarium/+question/190104/+confirm?answer_id=2
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/stellarium/+question/190104
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.

Three potential quick fixes:

1. Use the Stellarium (NoOpenGL2) option from the start menu. This avoids using some features which are not well supported by some buggy graphics drivers.

2. We just made a new release this weekend (v0.11.2), so you might have more luck with that. You can download it from stellarium.org site.

3. Make sure your graphics drivers are the latest version from the video card manufacturer's website (e.g. AMD/ATI, Nvidia or Intel). Sometimes drivers from PC assemblers sites like Dell are old).

If that does not sort the problem out, open the help dialog (F1) and click the Log tab. From here you can find the full path to the log.txt file. Note down this path - it'll be something like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium\log.txt"

Then close the help dialog and make Stellarium crash again. Then find the log file and attach it to this post. Hopefully there'll be an error message in there which is helpful.