Where To Place Moons On Your Layout

Ok I downloaded a bunch of different moons from the DLS - - full moon, half moon, quarter moon etc. Always liked it when I worked night shift on the railroad and I was switching locomotives around during the dead of night - while the moon peacefully glowed in the night sky from afar.

So I downloaded almost every moon I could fine. Now for placement: Where and how many feet above the layout should I place the moon of my choice and obviously this is for the Session Layer, correct?

Let me know. Any and all statements on this are welcome.

Peace.

- RR70

To be totally prototypical it should be placed 384,400 kms above the layout.

You can place as many moons as you want, as it is a scenery/building asset, it is only viewable at a limited distance away. Set it too high, and you won't even see it. I place it as low as possible on the horizon, as a real moon looks bigger, when it is compared by the eye and terrain assets.

pware said:

To be totally prototypical it should be placed 384,400 kms above the layout.

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I see you are in Sydney. I'm on the east cost of U.S. How do I adjust for location on globe and do I consider my terrain height and Mean Sea Level?

Set it too low and you will not even see it.

The moon rises in the East and sets in the West (just as the Sun does), at midnight it is at it is straight up (and you won't see it unless you lie on a blankie, on your back), the position N/S depends on the season of the year.

Place it where it looks visually best.

You will not be graded on your astronomical accuracy

MP242 said:

Set it too low and you will not even see it.

The moon rises in the East and sets in the West (just as the Sun does), at midnight it is at it is straight up (and you won't see it unless you lie on a blankie, on your back), the position N/S depends on the season of the year.

Place it where it looks visually best.

You will not be graded on your astronomical accuracy

Click to expand...

Sounds good. Thanks for your input on the matter. It is a big help.

Make sure that where ever you go on your route, that the moon follows you...as in real life . How to do that ? I have no clue.

pware said:

To be totally prototypical it should be placed 384,400 kms above the layout.

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I think you'd have to ask NASA if they'd take one along and place it up there on their next trip

JimDep said:

Make sure that where ever you go on your route, that the moon follows you...as in real life . How to do that ? I have no clue.

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Yeah I was wondering about that as well.

I'm also curious on moon placements as well, since if I can have a moon placed, then I can make a night time session

Cheers

hiawathamr said:

I'm also curious on moon placements as well, since if I can have a moon placed, then I can make a night time session

Cheers

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I'm doing some placement tests of various moons I downloaded from the DLS. The moon should be visible from the cab of the train I found or visible from a siding in the boonies where the driver is picking up a bunch of rolling stock. The moon should be placed in an area based on the sessions and also how far the camera (free roaming) can look up to the sky. That's what I seem to be going with at the moment.

JimDep said:

Make sure that where ever you go on your route, that the moon follows you...as in real life . How to do that ? I have no clue.

Click to expand...

Serious hat on this time. The only way I can think of that would allow a scenery item to move with you would be to make it a locomotive and put it on a track, high in the sky. The problem then becomes one of speed and consistency in motion. It would have to move at the same speed as your earth bound train and when you stop your train the "moon train" would also have to stop. I suspect that this is not impossible but it would certainly be tricky.

pware said:

Serious hat on this time. The only way I can think of that would allow a scenery item to move with you would be to make it a locomotive and put it on a track, high in the sky. The problem then becomes one of speed and consistency in motion. It would have to move at the same speed as your earth bound train and when you stop your train the "moon train" would also have to stop. I suspect that this is not impossible but it would certainly be tricky.

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I'm surprised Trainz hasn't already done this. I mean, they got the sun down pat and how it moves with the train in a sense as the clock ticks. Not complaining, but I'm just making a point is all.

Good point. It seems like it should be possible to do that........but how, given the tools we have to work with. Maybe the concept could be invisible track in the sky that has a moon instead of an engine. How to coordinate it to match the train you are operating is where I'm stumped.

I suspect that a Moon object is not just a priority. Of all the countless sessions that I have created over the years, only one was set at night. You can edit the environment settings to reduce the "blackness" of night and give some light background glow to the sky.

I seem to recall this point (of the moon) being raised some time ago along with sunset and sunrise times that match the locations longitude and season. Currently the sun rises at 06:00 and sets at 18:00 regardless of the time of the year and the longitude of the layout.

JimDep said:

Good point. It seems like it should be possible to do that........but how, given the tools we have to work with. Maybe the concept could be invisible track in the sky that has a moon instead of an engine. How to coordinate it to match the train you are operating is where I'm stumped.

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I know what you mean. The question is just that: How? Hopefully some of the Trainz Creators weigh in on this question. It would be really good to know, or at least something for them to think about when it comes to future Trainz releases.

Just guessing, but I assume you place the asset where you want the moon to appear, and raise it up just above the trees in that location. The unfortunate part, unless there's a night-mode associated with the asset, you'll end up with a moon for 24 hours.

It always shocked me, to see the Moon at noon, when the Sun is 90 degrees from the east and west horizons, the Moon has to be within 90 degrees of the Sun either east or west. That means you can only see the Moon at noon between third and first quarter. We can see the moon during the day for the same reason we see the moon at night. The surface of the moon is reflecting the sun's light into our eyes. When we see the moon during the day it's because the moon is in the right spot in the sky and it's reflecting enough light to be as bright, or brighter, than the sky. The moon is visible in daylight nearly every day, the exceptions being close to new moon, when the moon is too close to the sun to be visible, and close to full moon when it is only visible at night. The best time to see the moon during the day is when it's in the first and last quarter phases (90 degrees away from the sun) because that's when we can see half of the moon's lit side while the sun is still up.

No telescope on Earth can see the leftover descent stages of the Apollo Lunar Modules or anything else Apollo-related. Not even the Hubble Space Telescope can discern evidence of the Apollo landings. The laws of optics define its limits (because we never even really been there) :hehe: Six missions landed men on the Moon, beginning with Apollo 11 in July 1969, during which Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon. Apollo 13 was intended to land, however it was restricted to a flyby due to a malfunction aboard the spacecraft. All nine crewed missions returned safely to the Earth.

I edited the Moon asset to be Mars and Jupiter once

JCitron said:

...The unfortunate part, unless there's a night-mode associated with the asset, you'll end up with a moon for 24 hours.

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I put my moon on a show/hide layer that is controlled by a rule. This rule is also a child of a time of day type rule. This will auto hide it during the day and show it at night. (Have also done this for people group types to match time of day as well.)

maruffijd said:

I put my moon on a show/hide layer that is controlled by a rule. This rule is also a child of a time of day type rule. This will auto hide it during the day and show it at night. (Have also done this for people group types to match time of day as well.)

Click to expand...

Cool! That's a nice use of layers and rules and pretty cool too. That could work around stations for static traffic and crowds for rush hour and other busy times throughout the day. Back in the olden days, I asked for such a feature when TRS2006 was coming out and was told it was impossible to do so don't bother asking. How times have changed over the last decade and a half.