Ciclope Astro - Web-based Planetarium A planetarium application based on Web 2.0 techniques only.

Installation

There are several downloads available of the web-based planetarium. One of them is the JAVA application for star chart generation, a second download contains the MySQL script to created the database necessary for the planetarium. The other downloads contain different versions of the planetarium itself. One is a standalone verion containing a very simple HTML page with nothing more but the planetarium in it and additional files either in PHP or JSP (both versions are available). The other one is an integration of the planetarium into the GWT-based framework of the Ciclope Astro project. Finally there's an example tile folder in case you want to testdrive the planetarium without spending quite an amount of time on tile generation.

Pre-Installation Requirements

The web-based planetarium needs a MySQL database being present on the server. Besides, either PHP with the MySQL module or JSP with the MySQL JDBC connector need to be installed. The planetarium is available as both, a PHP or a JSP version.Finnaly a web server capable to run PHP or JSP is necessary to run the planetarium.

Installation

Installing the MySQL Database

The web-based planetarium needs a database consisting of two tables. One of them holds the Yale Bright Star catalog, the other one holds the mapping of pixel coordinates in the tiles to the celestial object located at this position in the image.

The database will be used by the Mobile Star Chart for loading the data necessary draw the sky as well as for storing the pixel-to-star mapping information for the created tiles which will be used by the planetarium later to detect which celestial object has been clicked on.

Just execute the SQL script on the database you want to use for the planetarium. This will install a database with the following two tables:

• Table "stars" with the following fields:
  • ROWID: Unique Identifier
  • HR: The Harvard revise number/ Yale Bright Star catalog identifier of the object
  • RAh: Hours of right ascension of the object
  • RAm: Minutes of right ascension of the object
  • RAs: Seconds of right ascension of the object
  • RA: Right ascension of the object
  • DEsign: Declination sign
  • DEd: Days of the declination of the object
  • DEm: Minutes of declination of the object
  • DEs: Seconds of declination of the object
  • DE: Declination of the object
  • Vmag: The brightness of the object
  • HD: The Hipparcos catalog identifier of the object
• Table "mapping" with the following fields:
  • ROWID: Unique Identifier
  • Zoom: Zoom level from which the object will appear in the images
  • X: The x-coordinate of this object in the tiles
  • Y: The y-coordinate of this object in the tiles
  • HR: The Harvard revise number/ Yale Bright Star catalog identifier of the object
  • HD: The Hipparcos catalog identifier of the object
  • Type: The type of the object (e.g. Planet, Star, Messier, ...)
  • Time: The time / tile set to which this mapping refers

Installing Star Chart Tile Generator / Tiles

Using The Example Tile Folder

This step isn't absolutely necessary. If you just want to testdrive the planetarium application, you can also download the example tile folder. Just unzip it to a location on your web server. You also need to download the according SQL script with the according pixel-to-star mapping database. Execute this script to add the data to the planetarium database and your set to go. If you prefer to create your own tiles, please skip the above steps and continue with the following instructions.

Creating You Own Tiles

Installing the adapted version of Mobile Star Chart is quite easy. The download contains the JAVA source code of the application. Copy it to any place you like and just compile it.

Please note that you need to have the MySQL JDBC Connector installed on your computer. Before compiling the source code you'll also have to update the SQL connection settings in the file Main.java.

In addition to that, you might want to have a look at the file StarChart.java. At its beginning, you can find all the options you can set in the program regarding the display and drawing of the sky, zoom levels, number of stars, .... Besides, in the function GenerateGoogleMapsInformation() you can edit the time span for which to generate images and the location to save them to.

To start the generation of tile images, just run the compiled JAVA application and hit Enter on the applications main window. Console output will inform you about the progress.

As the application generates tens of thousands of small images, probably smaller than your file system's cluster size, you might prefer to use the ReiserFS file system on the disk to hold the images.

Note: In case you run into problems compiling the application, try to use J2SE 6.0 and version 5.0.4 of the MySQL JDBC Connector.

Installing the Planetarium Application

Installing the Standalone Planetarium

This package contains the actual files for the planetarium:

• planetarium.html
• planetarium.js

Furthermore it includes the files to regularly refresh the planetarium view based on the server's time and to respond to clicks on the planetarium and retrieve the object which has been clicked on:

• click.php
• time.php

There is also a JSP version of the planetarium application containing the same files written in JSP in case you're using a JSP web server.

Last but not least, there's two files which can be used to query data on a celestial object from two famous internet catalog sites:

• yale.php/jsp
• hipparcos.php/jsp

To install the standalone planetarium version, all you need is a PHP or JSP capable web server. Just put the file in a directory on that server and you're almost set. Just a few more little steps are needed:

• Adjust the database access settings in the file click.php/jsp.
• Adjust the Google Maps API key in the file planetarium.html at the line including the Google Maps JavaScript. Replace GOOGLEMAPSKEY by your own server's key (which you can get here).
• Adjust the tile path (and maybe the tile image file ending) in the planetarium.js file to match your server's configuration.
• Last but not least, in the file time.php/jsp there is a line saying: "time = 0;". This line is meant for use with the example tile folder as it only contains tiles for the minute "0" of the day in folder named the same way. If you generate your own tiles, replace this line by "time = time % NUMBEROFMINUTES;" according to the number of minutes for which you generate tiles (e.g. "time = time % 5;" if you generate tiles for the first five minutes of the day). If you generate tiles for all 24 hours (1440 minutes) of the day, just delete this line.

Install the GWT-integrated Planetarium

Assuming that you're familiar with using the GWT in general (e.g. by having read Googles Getting Started Guide), you'll have to compile the source code included in this package after making the following changes to the source code:

• In the file planetarium_click.php/jsp edit the database access settings.
• In the planetarium.js file, edit the tile path (and maybe the tile image file ending) and the file endigs of click.php/js and time.php/js to match your prefered configuration.
• The file ending of click.php/js may also have to be changed in the onMapClick() method in the file PlanetariumPanel.java.
• In CiclopeAstro.html, update the Google Maps API key to the one registered to your server. Just replace GOOGLEMAPSKEY with your own key where the Google Maps JavaScript is beeing included.
• In HipparcosPanel.java and YalePanel.java you also need to set the file ending of yale.php/js and hipparcos.php/js in the method querySite() to the version you prefer.
• Last but not least, in the file time.php/jsp there is a line saying: "time = 0;". This line is meant for use with the example tile folder as it only contains tiles for the minute "0" of the day in folder named the same way. If you generate your own tiles, replace this line by "time = time % NUMBEROFMINUTES;" according to the number of minutes for which you generate tiles (e.g. "time = time % 5;" if you generate tiles for the first five minutes of the day). If you generate tiles for all 24 hours (1440 minutes) of the day, just delete this line.

After this, you should be able to compile the source code and run the planetarium application either on a JSP or PHP webserver depending on what you selected during the process above.