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Geek Culture / Need astronomy help

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Hawkblood
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Posted: 7th Sep 2013 19:37 Edited at: 7th Sep 2013 19:38
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I am creating a space sim and I need help locating stars. I already have 30,000 stars mapped out in 3D space. I got this data from the HABHYG database. I also have a panorama of the galaxy:



This is a low res version so I can post it. I got it from http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0932a/


I have tried to find a way to identify where the closest 30,000 stars are on this map, but I can't figure it out!


What I want to do is locate them, take them out of the picture and then make a different image (to go over top this one) with the stars in their positions. The reason I need this is that when the player goes from one star to another, the star positions in the field will be different for each star visited.

The fastest code is the code never written.

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mr Handy
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Posted: 7th Sep 2013 20:08
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Quote: "where the closest 30,000 stars are on this map"

Closest to what?



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Hawkblood
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Posted: 7th Sep 2013 20:41
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Closest to Earth. I thought it would be apparent that, having a map of the galaxy (from Earth's perspective), I was using Earth as a reference. Sorry for the confusion.

Do you have any ideas?

The fastest code is the code never written.
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Hawkblood
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Posted: 7th Sep 2013 22:15 Edited at: 7th Sep 2013 22:16
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Here's an example of the kind of info I need:

I know that's a galaxy (or cluster), but what is it-- what's it's name? If I had that info and the relative positions of the stars in question, I could get what I am looking for.....

The fastest code is the code never written.

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Phaelax
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Posted: 7th Sep 2013 23:07
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Quote: ". I already have 30,000 stars mapped out in 3D space. I got this data from the HABHYG database"

If you've already mapped the stars, then you must know their distance already, right?

http://zimnox.com
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Hawkblood
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Posted: 7th Sep 2013 23:38
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OK. The problem is I can't figure out where they are on the map (viewed from Earth/Sol).

I think I may have figured out that the "galaxy" in image 2 is Andromeda (maybe?).

I have located Vega, but the resource I used only shows a small portion of the map, so I can't use it for everything.....






Some of you may be wondering why I need the info if I already have 3D coordinates.... The 3D coordinates are relative to Earth/Sol, but I'm not sure if the orientation is according to the solar plane or the galactic plane. The solar plane is ~60deg off the galactic (in some direction.... not sure which). One of the 3 needs to be the "thing" that all other objects will be oriented to.

1. Galactic plane
2. Solar plane (Sol)
3. HABHYG coordinates

The fastest code is the code never written.
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Phaelax
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Posted: 8th Sep 2013 06:28
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I think you're best bet is to search the internet for raw data on the location of all this space stuff.

http://zimnox.com
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Hawkblood
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Posted: 8th Sep 2013 06:42
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I got Google Earth. It has a map of the star field around Earth. I've been using it to locate the appropriate stars.

The game play area is very tiny compared to the entire galaxy, so even going from one end of the playable area to another, the view of the galaxy is the same. The only thing that would change is the nearby stars (within 100 parsecs). This is why I wanted to locate them on the map image. I can remove the "bright" ones from the image and place them in the appropriate location relative to whatever star the player is at.

The fastest code is the code never written.
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bitJericho
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Posted: 8th Sep 2013 06:45
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Sounds awesome. Hope you don't have to do that 30,000 times!

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Matty H
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Posted: 8th Sep 2013 18:29 Edited at: 8th Sep 2013 18:30
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Interesting problem and project. Is there any way to map that image onto the inside of a box/sphere? If so then you can place it on your sky box/sphere, orientate it as best you can. Then raycast from the centre to each of your 30000 stars, where the raycast intersects with the sky box/sphere then that is where that star is on the map, you would need to retrieve the uv coordinate to translate the point back to your 2D map.

That seems difficult but like it might work?

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Hawkblood
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Posted: 9th Sep 2013 18:24
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What I plan on doing is to write, on a transparent image, the "star" locations. Then go into an editor, line up the images, and remove the very bright stars from the original image.

I originally wanted to generate an image to display the stars closest to the player and place that image over top the original image (with the removed "bright ones"). I have decided instead to make those "bright stars" into billboards-- so far this seems to be the best approach.

@bitJericho: No. I won't have to do all 30,000. Most of those stars will be too dim to distinguish from the background stars anyway. I think I will average about 25-50 stars at any given time.

The fastest code is the code never written.
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