Galactic Coordinates
- Thread starter t3l3c0n
- Start date
***I MESSED UP IN THE ORIGINAL POST. EDITED AND CORRECTED LATER. IS NOW FIXED. APOLOGIES!***
Make sure you have "SHOW GRID" activated in your GalMap options.
-Open your GalMap.
-Options Tab
-Check the Show Grid box.
If so, then zoom in at any spot. You will see a metered grid show up.
If you zoom in for Sol, you will see it is at the heart of this Cartesian system.
So, just to be clear, is not like you will see systems having coordinates displayed expressly. You won't get that. BUT, the grid helps to approximate so we can talk about those references here.
Coordinates go (XXX ; ZZZZ ; YYYY)
If you were standing right on SOL, facing the Galactic Center -Sag A*:
XXX:distance from SOL, left to right orientation. + going to the right, - going to the left.
ZZZ: the "altitude" from the galactic plane (+up and -down. )
YYY:distance from SOL, say + toward Sagittarius A, and - towards the edge of the galaxy.
All numbers are in Light Years.
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Kancro,
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you have the definitions for XXX and YYY transposed.
Nope, the number in the middle is the above/below the plane coordinate. This is normally the Z axis and is why Kancro (and others like me) prefer to think of the coordinates as X,Z,Y as that hurts our brains less than keeping the X,Y,Z standard but remembering that Y is the one that's orthogonal to the plane.
Kranco does have the X & Y co-ords the wrong way round. The first of the co-ordinates is the left / right distance from Sol, not the to / from Sag A* one.
The ED co-ordinate system makes sense if you are looking towards the centre of the galaxy from Sol. The first co-ord is then the 'horizontal' axis, the second is the 'vertical' and the third is the 'into the page' one which corresponds to the usual X,Y,Z convention. But as explorers we are rarely looking at the galaxy from Sol! For that reason I much prefer the idea of using the compass points along with up and down that is used by a lot of experienced explorers. In this convention the ED co-ordinates are:
1st co-ord +ve = East
1st co-ord -ve = West
2nd co-ord +ve = Up
2nd co-ord -ve = Down
3rd co-ord +ve = North
3rd co-ord -ve = South
The ED co-ordinate system makes sense if you are looking towards the centre of the galaxy from Sol. The first co-ord is then the 'horizontal' axis, the second is the 'vertical' and the third is the 'into the page' one which corresponds to the usual X,Y,Z convention. But as explorers we are rarely looking at the galaxy from Sol! For that reason I much prefer the idea of using the compass points along with up and down that is used by a lot of experienced explorers. In this convention the ED co-ordinates are:
1st co-ord +ve = East
1st co-ord -ve = West
2nd co-ord +ve = Up
2nd co-ord -ve = Down
3rd co-ord +ve = North
3rd co-ord -ve = South
I tried to ask a streamer when I seen him noting coordinates but what are the advantage of those over just writing the system name down? Wouldn't system name be more pin pointed?
Thanks guys, that makes sense. Typical case of not seeing the woods for the trees, I must have looked at every piece of information available on the galaxy map EXCEPT the grid looking for this. Thanks for the explanation of how to read them as well, I now understand my place in the galaxy a little better 
OMG! Holy Galactic Mistake, Batman!!
Yes, indeed I tried to answer from top of my head -on the cell phone, away from home- and accidentally flipped the coordinates!!
The first set is left-right and the last set is north-south!!
Hope this helps to make it clearer!! Sorry!!!
These are the most common uses I've noted for the coordinate system:
1.-When talking about a general region containing many systems.
2.-When a explorer wants to protect the exact location for discovery purposes, but want to share the general area.
3.-When the exact system name can't be found by the GalMap or reports an error and the CMDR prompts you to the general location so you can look it up manually.
4.-Some third party apps, request the system coordinates as you visit them so they can triangulate location and calculate distances to give back users a 3D map outside the game.
So, is just in some instances, and very specific ones, and that's also why is not widely used or known.
Thanks for the info. Never thought about those reasons.
That's what EDD does when there's no system in EDSM that the route plotter can use. So you need to scroll the map to about those coordinates and find a system. Open the gal map and note the coordinates on the grid where you are - scroll around and watch which one changes then you know what way you need to scroll to get them to about 800,-200,-900 and look for a system you can jump to around there.
"Dist 35.00ly" implies you've entered your actual jump range - you can also enter a larger "jump range" and get systems the in game route planner can plot between. So if you were to enter a 3,000 as your jump range you're more likely to hit known systems and then you can plot the detailed route in game. That's a lot easier than trying to transpose a long route from EDD one jump at a time into the gal map. This is less useful now the game can plot up to 20kly but the longer plots are occasionally stymied by low density or permit-locked regions in the way.
"Dist 35.00ly" implies you've entered your actual jump range - you can also enter a larger "jump range" and get systems the in game route planner can plot between. So if you were to enter a 3,000 as your jump range you're more likely to hit known systems and then you can plot the detailed route in game. That's a lot easier than trying to transpose a long route from EDD one jump at a time into the gal map. This is less useful now the game can plot up to 20kly but the longer plots are occasionally stymied by low density or permit-locked regions in the way.
That's quite the problem: permit-locked regions.
I got a passenger mission in Guathiti, should take the turists to HEN 2-23. But through the galaxy map I can't plot a "simple" route. There is the damn COL-70 sector/region in the way. I was hoping EDDiscovery, EDSM or some other tools would help me plot a route which would divert those permit-locked regions
So, what I am doing for now is ploting the route manualy, trying to find away around those locked regions/sectors
I got a passenger mission in Guathiti, should take the turists to HEN 2-23. But through the galaxy map I can't plot a "simple" route. There is the damn COL-70 sector/region in the way. I was hoping EDDiscovery, EDSM or some other tools would help me plot a route which would divert those permit-locked regions
So, what I am doing for now is ploting the route manualy, trying to find away around those locked regions/sectors
I believe the X,Z,Y thing is a product of the programming tool they used. [Thinks nasty thoughts]
One thing I feel would be a great QoL improvement is the ability to retrieve and enter co-ordinates in the Galaxy Chart. Seriously, why is this not possible? Sooo simple. Every time i ask this I hope that someone will point out that it is possible, but they never do
One thing I feel would be a great QoL improvement is the ability to retrieve and enter co-ordinates in the Galaxy Chart. Seriously, why is this not possible? Sooo simple. Every time i ask this I hope that someone will point out that it is possible, but they never do
Deleted member 38366
D
Today must be Necro Day!
(check the dates on this Thread, that opening Post is almost 6 years old
)But what you seek is nicely written up here : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/rv-sonnenkreis-decoding-universal-cartographics.196297/