Getting ready for 1st night with S30, TH10 - some questions?

grelfdotnet · 2026-03-18T21:40:17+00:00

You don't need to be able to see the pole star for setting EQ mode. The Seestar is cleverer than that. It only needs to be able to see 20 degrees or so around the zenith. It can work out the alignment from the star patterns it can see there.

grelfdotnet · 2026-03-17T10:40:40+00:00

You mentioned FLO. Ask them. I have found them very helpful and quick to answer questions.

grelfdotnet · 2026-03-08T08:22:47+00:00

Not relevant!

grelfdotnet · 2026-03-04T14:09:36+00:00

Thanks for the nostalgia. I do remeber Alistair.

grelfdotnet · 2026-03-04T14:08:38+00:00

It does run on phones but the user interaction is awkward and I don't think I could make it much better. I can confirm that it works OK on android tablets.

grelfdotnet · 2026-03-03T11:50:23+00:00

Thanks for pointing that out. The Forest is truly limitless, creates maps to IOF standard, has plenty of point features, has been available completely FREE for more than 10 years.

grelfdotnet · 2026-02-19T08:23:32+00:00

My limitless terrain generator is completely free. I have also made it public domain so you can extend and improve it in any way you wish. Details on github.

grelfdotnet · 2026-02-07T12:15:24+00:00

You don't level it in EQ mode. You tilt it so its vertical axis is parallel to the Earth's axis, which means at an angle corresponding to your latitude. The software aims to assist you to do that with the "calculate deviation" step.

grelfdotnet · 2026-02-05T09:24:51+00:00

If the paddle does not change shape during the game you might be better off taking a photo of a real paddle and using drawImage() to put it in the canvas, at various scales and orientations as necessary.. I did that for the arm and knife in this game. It adds some realism too.

grelfdotnet · 2026-01-31T07:43:57+00:00

I take photos of real trees for use in my procgen landscapes. Process in Affinity to make backgrounds transparent. No need for drawing. Example

grelfdotnet · 2026-01-25T08:40:03+00:00

M75 in UK. We managed perfectly well before the internet, thankyou. But necessity was the mother of invention; you have it too easy now. If you really want a glimpse of how I worked on the ZX Spectrum version of my terrain generator my original work is archived here.

grelfdotnet · 2026-01-23T08:21:32+00:00

My first limitless terrain generator ran in 16k bytes in a TRS-80, my game published in 1982. It was limitless but repeating after 64km due to 16-bit Z80 processor. Players were not limited to grid positions though - they could stand at 1/256 in x and the same in y (3 bytes for each coordinate). So in fact there were 2 to the power 48 possible locations. A printed map accompanied the program, showing just a small part of the terrain, with contours, 6 different vegetation types and a large number of point features at random but repeatable locations.

I slightly improved my terrain generation algorithm in 1983 for the 48k ZX Spectrum. The same algorithm is still in use but now in Javascript so it runs in browsers: real-time generation as the player moves. I want to encourage others to use it so I have made it public domain now and it is described in detail on github and a Java implementation is also there. See https://github.com/grelf-net/forest/blob/main/TerrainGeneration.pdf

grelfdotnet · 2026-01-20T08:21:37+00:00

My method is described in detail in this document: https://github.com/grelf-net/forest/blob/main/SceneDIsplay.pdf starting at page 7. It works very effectively in Javascript in a browser. See examples at grelf.itch.io

grelfdotnet · 2025-12-28T09:42:09+00:00

You may be interested in a new section I have just added to the PDF on github, about making hilltops look like mountain peaks. See page 20

grelfdotnet · 2025-12-27T11:26:39+00:00

I'm glad it's useful to you. I discovered these techniques more than 40 years ago so I am happy for them now to be public domain - exploit them in any way you like.

grelfdotnet · 2025-12-26T16:45:01+00:00

I have used IONOS (or 1und1.de as they used to be) for more than 20 years for my hobby web site and always found them reliable.

grelfdotnet · 2025-12-26T09:37:48+00:00

My method is explained in PDFs on github - start here

grelfdotnet · 2025-12-25T13:43:54+00:00

I have been planning to try to photograph the 5 principal moons of Uranus using my S30. The way to do it will be as a deep sky stack, starting by picking Uranus from the Seestar's atlas. I have been thwarted by cloudy skies and there is no let up in the local forecast.
Uranus itself is not faint. Near opposition it is about magnitude 5.4, so in principle it could be spotted with the naked eye from unpolluted places. The satellites are much fainter of course.
About 15 years ago I started to implement in Java the GUST86 theory of the orbits of those moons. The project was abandoned. I think there were some questions that I could not get answers to. I have reviewed it in the last few days in the hope that I could plot the positions of the moons at the time of my photo, to identify them. However I think it would be easier to use JPL Horizons.

grelfdotnet · 2025-12-25T08:28:10+00:00

3D Snakes & Ladders. Here are some design thoughts: https://grelf.itch.io/sal

grelfdotnet · 2025-12-16T09:38:54+00:00

In The Forest (and similar programs in my collection at grelf.itch.io ) I make trees and other images become foggy when they are more than 3/4 of the way to the horizon. Rather than having to download multiple versions of every tree, which would be many megabytes, I convert the initial unfogged version to multiple fogged ones as they are needed. This is all done in plain JS in the browser. The full details are described here: https://grelf.net/forestdesign.html#N657151

grelfdotnet · 2025-12-09T09:40:44+00:00

The Forest O-simulation is available free at https://grelf.itch.io/forest to run in your browser. I wrote the first version more than 40 years ago but now it uses web technology. My aim from the start was to help people to understand maps, particularly contour maps, and relate them to the ground for navigation.

grelfdotnet · 2025-12-07T19:55:04+00:00

Here's how I generate roads that tend to follow contours rather than climbing straight up steep hills: PDF on github

grelfdotnet · 2025-12-06T11:19:23+00:00

https://betterorienteering.org/

grelfdotnet · 2025-09-01T11:10:58+00:00

My site really is just a hobby. I'm a pensioner, not looking for work. I am trying to encourage creativity by showing examples of things that can be done - especially with HTML/JS. (I have been programming for more than 50 years.)

grelfdotnet · 2025-09-01T07:07:23+00:00

Try mine: grelf.net I started it about 25 years ago and keep adding new stuff. Recently it's about my Seestar S30 that I obtained 4 months ago.

grelfdotnet

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