How I Set Up a Custom Landscape in Stellarium & Why!

Introduction

Figure 1 - Video

Most Stellarium users are fine with the default Landscape image especially if you have a decent field of view, however, I happen to live in a heavily wooded area in southern Connecticut and have a limited field of view (Fig. 1 - video).  Because of this, I don't have a lot of play time, therefore, it is important to know precisely how long the object will visible for so.

When doing research on building an observatory, most of the sources were saying the location (FOV) was the most important factor in building an observatory and would bother to put one without a great FOV.  What I have say is 'POPPYCOCK"!  The most important factor, for an amateur, is where are you going to get the most use out of this.  I have increased my productivity porbably by 4x since building this.  The ease of just running out and start imaging far out-ways the drawbacks as you can try on questionable nights that ordinarily you would not.  Yes it would be better if it was at remote site with a great FOV but I have a family and can't just bop of when the weather is clear.

For this post I will outline what I did but not necessarily go into all the detail.  For that, I will show the two links I used which has more in-depth instruction.

Links to Videos with in-depth Instruction:
1) Serhii Bazavluk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flwllEQTfVw
2) Amateur Astronomy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GUi_weVMhs

Making the Landscape
To start the Default image is a grassy field with some buildings presumably taken in Guereins, France (Fig. 2).  The Stelliarum Wiki page lists four possible ways to change it and they are:

  1) Polygonal Method Using a text file with azimuths/altitudes.
  2) Single Fish-eye Method Using a fish-eye panorama image.
  3) Single Spherical Method Using a spherical panorama image.
  4) Multiple Image Method (also called “old style” landscapes)

Figure 2 - Stellarium with Guereins Landscape (Default)

I used the the Single Spherical Method (3) in order to make my custom landscape.  The directions seem straight forward if you are photographer or computer graphic person but if you are not, you will probably need some other sources.

Step 1 - Make a 360 degree Panorama Image

I downloaded the 360 Panorama app on to my iPhone in order to make the spherical panorama image.  The app was super easy to use but any camera app or other panoramic method should work.  Next go to the place you want to make your panorama and take the image.  I stood on a step stool and did a complete circle in place.  My location is so bad I had to do a second pass raised above the first pass.

Step 2 - Size the image in Photoshop
Next import the image into Photoshop and make the width 2048 pixels.  Then click on edit canvas size and make the height to 1024 pixels with a transparent background.  Adjust the the picture so the horizon is in the center of the frame.

Step 3 - Make the sky transparent
This part was long and tedious.  I used the magic wand tool, however, there are several other ways to go about this.

Step 4 - Save image to the Desktop
Once image is complete, name it 'Landscape' and save it as a 'png' file.

Step 5 - Create Landscape.ini
Next, go to the landscapes folder in Stellarium (Windows C:> Program Files > Stellarium > landscapes > ) and create a folder named custom.  Once in custom, create a text file named landscape.ini and copy the following text into the file:
__________________________
[landscape]
name = Custom Landscape
description = Amateur Astronomy - Telescope, Binocular and Imaging Forum
type = spherical
maptex = landscape.png
latitude = +41d19'52"
longitude = +73d13'27"
altitude = 163
angle_rotatez = 85
____________________________

Step 6 - Adjust the Image to the Correct Direction 
You will have to change your latitude, longitude, and altitude to your location.  The angle _rotatez is the adjustment which lines up the image to the correct directions.  You will have to adjust a few times to line it up properly.

Done - Maybe
If you are happy with how the landscape image looks and works which most of you probably are, then you are done!

Making a Transparent Line Custom Landscape
However, in my case, the FOV is so bad that there was not much showing that was visible so I did not see what was coming up.  So what I did was create a second landscape where I traced a line around the landscape and made the interior transparent.  The advantage was I can now see what was coming up while still seeing the edge of the landscape.

Well That's I have Folks!  Cheers