The thought occurred to me tonight that it might be fun to do an exploration mission to map the constellations as we see them from earth. Has anyone done this already? I have not ever noticed them from orbit so I'm not sure exactly how to go about it, how would I approach the venture? suggestions and tips would be most helpful and appreciated.
constellations
- Thread starter Babellon
- Start date
[QUOTE="varonica, post: 8027187, member: 128242"
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well that's disappointing. I hadn't thought of that, stars being out of our galaxy in some cases. I'm trying to find something outside the games usual game play to focus on. Thanks though, I guess I'll try something else then. I spend all my time these days driving around mat gathering and randomly doing combat and trade runs, and am trying to find some way to create more focused content for myself.
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well that's disappointing. I hadn't thought of that, stars being out of our galaxy in some cases. I'm trying to find something outside the games usual game play to focus on. Thanks though, I guess I'll try something else then. I spend all my time these days driving around mat gathering and randomly doing combat and trade runs, and am trying to find some way to create more focused content for myself.
That is not the case. I have traveled to all the major stars in Orion and they are in the Milky Way. I've taken a Dolphin to the stars in Delphinus. As someone who lives in New Zealand, I have also visited the stars in Southern Cross. Next jaunt will be in an Eagle to the stars in the Aquila constellation.
Check here for details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(constellation)
Check here for details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(constellation)
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Some more nerdsplaining 'cause, dear sweet RNGeezuz, somebody needs it lol:
Orion's belt stars are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. These stars are relatively close to one another and are part of the young star cluster in the Orion Nebula region.
The Andromeda Galaxy is, of course, not in Orion but in Andromeda. You may be thinking about the Orion Nebula mentioned above.
Constellations vary greatly in terms of the proximity of the member stars to one another. For example, the Pleiades are all part of a compact star cluster. Those of Ursa Major, on the other hand, are widely separated save for one handful that seem to share a common motion. So tracking asterisms (aka constellations) is highly dependent on which you are investigating, and a good star reference such as Burnham's Celestial Catalog will be needed in some cases.
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None of the stars we can reach in ED are outside our own Milky Way galaxy, those are just too far to reach given current FSD technology limits. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, our nearest galactic neighbors, are 160,000 and 200,000 LY distant, respectively, with few stars in the space between to provide jump targets.
I suppose I should look up all the constellations to give me a reference of the stars I need to locate.
big dipper
little dipper
orions belt
I know there are more lol but I don't know their names off the top of my head.
a thing I thought would be amusing was to be able to look at my travel route on edsm and see the constellations from my travel lines displayed.
big dipper
little dipper
orions belt
I know there are more lol but I don't know their names off the top of my head.
a thing I thought would be amusing was to be able to look at my travel route on edsm and see the constellations from my travel lines displayed.
The constellations pretty much only look the way they are familiar to us when seen from Earth or very close by. Example: From even as close as Sirius, only about 8.6 light years from Sol, the constellation Canis Major would look very different because Sirius is part of that constellation (Alpha Canis Majoris). It's a case of not seeing the forest for the trees, so to speak.
Valid point. Primarily though it is doable yes? If I looked up the constellations and identified the stars within them I'd be able to go there in the game? As expeditions go it would be interesting even if I didnt see it the same way from earths perspective. It seems plausible since everyone says the games galaxy map is a 1:1 depiction of our actual galaxy. I don't know how accurate that is in reality but for the sake of something to focus on as a goal I'd find it interesting if so.
You could go for some galactic-scale graffiti, although reaching the heights of this awesome effort would be a challenge!
I never really looked into it, since I don't have access to Sol and generally my travels are much further reaching, but I had assumed the constellations were shown in the game or selectable. Hmm... I know from the space sim Celestia the constellation lines look quite interesting from different points, sort of like triangular spikes pointing toward and away from Sol.
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Thought so... I remember correctly. OP, you may want to check out this thread in the newcomers section https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/take-the-constellations-tour-choose-your-adventure.521459/
I'd love to see the log file for that.
Some things that should probably be noted.
First, the stars in ED are a quite good representation of the real-world galaxy, at least as far as visible-in-the-night-sky-of-Earth stars are concerned. So all of the bright stars that make up the familiar and even the not-so-familiar constellations will be in-game. Example: the relatively obscure constellation Scutum. I made a side-by-side pic of it's appearance in ED and a real-world starmap:
As you can see, even the relatively dim stars of this small, unremarkable constellation (such as Zeta Scuti) have been added to the game. UY Scuti, on the other hand, is not in-game, because it's too dim to be naked-eye visible from Earth, and was not known to be "the largest star in the galaxy" at the time the ED galaxy was created.
Second, all of the bright, visible-from-Earth named stars will already have been visited, so you won't actually be "exploring" them, just visiting them. Lots of them will be within 200 LYs of Earth, so will therefore be likely to be inhabited, and therefore regularly visited by players.
Third, be aware that stars are not like people: they have more than one "name" by which they are known, and the name by which they are perhaps best known is not necessarily the name they are known by in ED. Take the Cygnus constellation: the brightest star in Cygnus is the supergiant star which everybody knows as "Deneb", but in ED, this star is known as "Alpha Cygni". If you're looking for a star and can't find it, it's probably in-game under a different name; use a reference like Wikipedia or SIMBAD to find the alternate names for the star, and look those up in ED.
Finally, some of the stars on your short-list of constellations are permit-locked. Alioth is a star in the Big Dipper; it's the Alliance capital and is permit-locked by the Alioth Independents minor faction; you will need to do some work for the Alioth Independents to become Allied with them and gain the permit before you can visit Alioth. Polaris is in the Little Dipper, and is permit-locked with a special permit that no-one yet knows how to obtain (apparently, there's something super-secret and Thargoid-related going on down there), so you won't be able to visit Polaris at all.
First, the stars in ED are a quite good representation of the real-world galaxy, at least as far as visible-in-the-night-sky-of-Earth stars are concerned. So all of the bright stars that make up the familiar and even the not-so-familiar constellations will be in-game. Example: the relatively obscure constellation Scutum. I made a side-by-side pic of it's appearance in ED and a real-world starmap:
As you can see, even the relatively dim stars of this small, unremarkable constellation (such as Zeta Scuti) have been added to the game. UY Scuti, on the other hand, is not in-game, because it's too dim to be naked-eye visible from Earth, and was not known to be "the largest star in the galaxy" at the time the ED galaxy was created.
Second, all of the bright, visible-from-Earth named stars will already have been visited, so you won't actually be "exploring" them, just visiting them. Lots of them will be within 200 LYs of Earth, so will therefore be likely to be inhabited, and therefore regularly visited by players.
Third, be aware that stars are not like people: they have more than one "name" by which they are known, and the name by which they are perhaps best known is not necessarily the name they are known by in ED. Take the Cygnus constellation: the brightest star in Cygnus is the supergiant star which everybody knows as "Deneb", but in ED, this star is known as "Alpha Cygni". If you're looking for a star and can't find it, it's probably in-game under a different name; use a reference like Wikipedia or SIMBAD to find the alternate names for the star, and look those up in ED.
Finally, some of the stars on your short-list of constellations are permit-locked. Alioth is a star in the Big Dipper; it's the Alliance capital and is permit-locked by the Alioth Independents minor faction; you will need to do some work for the Alioth Independents to become Allied with them and gain the permit before you can visit Alioth. Polaris is in the Little Dipper, and is permit-locked with a special permit that no-one yet knows how to obtain (apparently, there's something super-secret and Thargoid-related going on down there), so you won't be able to visit Polaris at all.
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Excellent points, Sapyx, particularly about the naming of stars. A catalog or reference such as Burnham's is invaluable for sorting that out. Burnham's is likely more than most would go for, as it is a relatively expensive 3-volume set (but chock full of great information!), perhaps available online but I've not searched that out as I had the books from decades of amateur astronomy activities. But I'm sure there are comparable online resources, if not so extensive in detail.
They look completely different from another angle.
Ursa minor
Ursa Minor viewed from Orbis Starport M.Gorbachev, Earth, Sol as seen today, 01.April 2015, at about 22:00 1: Polaris, HIP 11767 2: Yildun, HIP 85822 3: 22 Epsilon Ursae Minoris, HIP 82080 4: 16 Zeta Ursae Minoris, HIP 77055 5: Kocab, HIP 72607 6: Pherkad, HIP 75097 7: 21 Eta Ursae Minoris...