Astrocraft

Positions in the Sky

Unlike in vanilla minecraft, where the sun, moon and stars pass overhead, they will now be tilted by the latitude set in the configuration (30°N by default). Additionally, the sun's path is also affected by its declination which changes throughout the year cycle (365 ingame days by default). This makes it similar to real life, where the sun only passes overhead in the tropics. Disable the 'Angled Sky' setting in the config for vanilla behavior.

Throughout the year, the sun moves relative to the stars, travelling through the zodiac. This determines which stars can be seen at a given time.

The Moon

The moon's position relative to the sun will depend on the moon's phase. At full moon, the moon stays opposite the sun, just like in vanilla minecraft. However, during a crescent phase, the moon will appear just to the left or right of the sun, and can be seen during the day. This mod also adds moonlight, which lights up the night around the full moon.

Varying Day / Night Lengths

Times of sunrise / sunset are also affected by the sun's declination (longer days around the summer solstice, shorter around the winter solstice). Setting latitude to 90° or -90° in the configuration will simulate polar day / night.

Eclipses

This mod adds a rare event called a lunar eclipse. This occurs when the full moon coincides with the moon crossing the ecliptic. The moon turns red and moonlight dims for a few minutes.

Here you can toggle stars or planets off, disable star color, add your own stars and much more. The main option affecting performance is "Magnitude Limit", reduce this if you need to.

Multiplayer Compatibility

Other players on multiplayer worlds with Astrocraft installed will see the same stars and planets as you. However, this won't be the case if you change certain settings, such as "year length" or planets' orbits. Keep this in mind, if you are viewing the night sky with friends.

Planets

In the "Planet" category of the menu, you will find a list of all the planets added by the mod. Here you can edit the appearance and orbit of any planet, including earth. Each planet has a list of moons, these can be edited the same way as any planet. You can also add new planets and moons in the config. Using the "Observing Planet" option, you can easily switch the perspective from Earth to any planet or moon. This affects the position of the stars and other planets in the sky. It also allows you to get a close up view of nearby celestial bodies (like Jupiter from Europa)

Other

• Setting the latitude to a value above 90° will activate dynamic latitude (latitude is decided based on Z coordinate. A globe can be simulated by setting latitude to how many blocks away the poles are from the equator on your hypothetical globe. The stars will now tilt as you walk north or south.
• Background stars can be edited using resource packs, at "assets/astrocraft/stars.txt". If you only want to add a few stars, use the custom star list in the menu.