Well spotted, that does happen but when just travelling through the system after hyperspacing in - nothing. Could this be a bug??
Nope

They are there (all the time, not just near space stations). Once you jump into a system (or anytime flying in space), just turn your speed off (until you hit zero!), then slowly increase it, and you will see them. Once you hit around +1500 km/h they start to get more difficult to notice, and at normal speeds for flying around a system they simply get lost in the speed!
Slightly larger representations would make them easier to spot, but it would be trial and error to work out what size works best at all speeds, you wouldn't want football sized chunks when coming into dock at 100 km/h!!!
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Ok some other stuff to throw in here before we might have a separate thread:
I've updated my small mini mod to include the names of Steve Tyler and VampireDuCosmos in the credits of the readme, as i didn't know the exact names at the time i threw it together. I've also updated the mars texture, as i had made it too 'red' in relation to the planets in game view from space, so it is more blue now to better fit that.
The link should be the same, but i'll put it here now and maybe later as it expands look to add it to the file repository on spacesimcentral:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/keou20iameiad34/ZGtexturesMod.zip
In relation to something i mentioned in that large post i did, you do exit from Hyperspace facing 'backwards', so facing your entry cloud. Is this a deliberate change maybe? (a precaution to protect against bounty hunters?) or just a mistake? I'm not bothered by it, just curious and it was confusing the first couple of times!
Here is a screenshot of it, a few seconds after arrival in a system. Look! it's in front of me! My laser target is facing it, but my direction of travel is behind me:
Should the surface of Mars look like this, i know it has been terraformed, but dayglo green seems....very alien? The same for everyone, or am i missing a texture perhaps? Merlin, for example is fine, looks 'normal', but this is Mars for me:
And what textures deal with distant Suns and Planets when flying in a system?
When they are far away (say the Sun (Sol) from near mars space), they seem very 'dull', as in not very bright in the sky. What files deal with these representations, i don't think i've come across them in the texture or models folders? I could add some brightness to them if someone knew where they were in the game files?
Also i've seen people talk about performance issues in this thread (a number of years back it seems!), and i had noticed a sort of small lag around Mars, when in near space and maneuvering with Mars in view, some dark 'tears' in the blue surface etc. Not massive issues, just a little 'sticky'.
What textures are used here for planet views from space? maybe i could see about reducing their 'weight' to reduce the lag a bit? Or has this been tried quite a bit already?
And finally for this small post

Some shots that i feel just show what an awesome effort Andy has made to the game (or whomever was responsible for the water and atmosphere effects on planet). Well done, it is a kind of beautiful
Martian Seas:
Sunset over Hope:
