Need a star map?

==> stars.chromeexperiments.com...

Ya, it's google, of course it is google. A detailed and interactive 3D map of 100.000 (and counting, I suppose) nearby stars in our galaxy. Below is a snippet from one of my favourite stellar bodies, Bernard's Star:

Barnard's Star (play /ˈbɑrnərd/), also known occasionally as Barnard's "Runaway" Star, is a very low-mass red dwarf star about six light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus, the Snake-holder. Barnard's Star is the fourth-closest known individual star to the Sun, after the three components of the Alpha Centauri system. Despite its proximity, Barnard's Star, at a dim apparent magnitude of about nine, is not visible with the unaided eye; however, it is much brighter in the infrared than it is in visible light. The star is named for American astronomer E.E. Barnard. He was not the first to observe the star, but in 1916 he measured its proper motion as 10.3 arcseconds per year, which remains the largest-known proper motion of any star relative to the Sun.

And yep, the texts is what came to be known as hypertext back in Year 2000. Many of the words are therefore hyperlinked with a well of information hiding behind many words appearing in the text. Nice for trekking round levelled space here in the Genesis quadrant. Given you have a wifi connection.... and a towel of course....

a reply to: Utnapisjtim

Fascinating STAR map

originally posted by: Ophiuchus 13
a reply to: Utnapisjtim

Fascinating STAR map

Yeah, beats animated gifs

Gets a little bit laggy with zooming out to the point of having star confetti filling the screen. The visualizations are a nice touch. Reminds me of the CIC galaxy map in Mass Effect... makes me wanna take a trip and map some coordinates!

a reply to: Septimus

Think when we can load maps like that into a mix between the Journey and EVE Online, Google Galaxy whatever, packing new info of stars and about their planetary systems and so on, as we get to know more about them. And then you could travel round the galaxy wearing Oculus Rift sets or some even more profound viewing devise, and get out on your balcony with the lady in the apartment you've designed at the end of the world, looking up you see unfamiliar constellations, until the first of two suns rise in the south.... now that's breakfast.

wow, this is impressive. good stuff!

a reply to: CallmeRaskolnikov

Looks like a platform they can build on and develop further. And it works quite seamlessly too, at least in this end of the line, but the GPU fans started doing their thing after a while. I can see a few useful applications for this platform, in education, scientific research, entertainment.... Not to mention the deja vu experience I had just now.

thanks alot, love it and i never like the music with such things, but i do here. i'll be toying with this map fo sure...

Cheers,
Nexo


a reply to: Utnapisjtim

a reply to: Utnapisjtim

yeah definitely something that can be built upon further. i'm a huge fan of the apple/droid star map apps. i use them all the time when im sky gazing at night.

this just takes it to a whole other level though. it's like something out of the movie Prometheus. like i can imagine this being projected into a space as a 3d model/hologram or what have you in the future. but even where it's at now, it's pretty sweet eye candy and useful too!

I am VERY happy that they didnt display the Sun as an orange/yellow ball.... I am getting really tired of "educational" programs (discovery/science channel/history channel) showing representations of the sun as orange or yellow....

a reply to: MrAoxx

In school we learned that Sol was a yellow star, but I always argued it was white as white can be. It would only appear slightly yellow to old farts with a stick. Then I went back to school and the same crap is still taught. There may be whiter shades than pale, but the light from Sol ain't bleeding yellow.