I remember a few times in the past, people have used plotting software to map out stars in the Galaxy, for example when working out that the UA shell was indeed a shell.

I need to find a point in space. I know the rough area of where that point is but not the exact point (system). However I can find this via two other known points. But I need to be able to plot those two points somehow and draw a line through them. Then start plotting in candidate systems as I visit until I find the one I am looking for.

Can anyone point me in the direction of such software?
 
I'm not aware of any software in the context of ED that could help with that. Anyway, as there's no complete list of systems it'd be useless at finding systems not reported to EDDN/EDSM by players.

Can you give some more info on what you're trying to achieve? As far as I've understood you've got two systems, and are looking for a third system somewhere inbetween - correct? How far apart are the first two? Where abouts in the galaxy are they? How far off that line can the third system be? Any additional info on that third system?
 
You need Stellar info figuring where you want to go then start plotting points. Here is an excellent video that will help. Note only for advanced ED players in the black. It might help if a player is taking an astronomy course in college.
 
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I'm not aware of any software in the context of ED that could help with that. Anyway, as there's no complete list of systems it'd be useless at finding systems not reported to EDDN/EDSM by players.

Can you give some more info on what you're trying to achieve? As far as I've understood you've got two systems, and are looking for a third system somewhere inbetween - correct? How far apart are the first two? Where abouts in the galaxy are they? How far off that line can the third system be? Any additional info on that third system?

Not quite. It's more like the original clue for the Formidine Rift mystery. I have two points that define a line. And I have a distance. The point I am looking for will be further along that line (I hope).

I have started to make something with a site called GeoGebra that will hopefully do the trick. I have my two existing systems plotted correctly and the distance accurate. That has given me my line. My next step will be to plot on candidate systems. Hopefully I will find a system at the right distance that sits on the line.

At which point I will get to prove or disprove an idea... and maybe find something.
 
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Given the two points and a distance you can (hopefully) work out the coords of the third point, then just put them into something like https://www.spansh.co.uk/nearest to find the nearest systems.

Super helpful. I tried to define a point on my line by distance to Point A, but could not work out how to do it (it's software for clever people), so dropped a point on the line where I thought it should be, added a label that showed the distance to point A (my distance in Light Years) and moved it incrementally. I got it to within 0.2Ly of my target distance. That gave my some coordinates which I popped into the site you linked. And that has given me a system. Pleasingly it is very close to two other bookmarks I added by just eyeballing it on the GalMap.

Defo going to need some jumponium for the last four or five jumps...
 
Could you describe the problem a bit more detailed. You don't need to say the system names if you don't want to.
But if you have a line in space defined by two points and a distance, you have all the information to pinpoint the exact location (coordinates) of what you are looking for. You don't need to estimate anything or search for candidates. Just go on the galmaps to the calculated coordinates and look if you can find a system there.

Thus, where is the the distance relative to? Is it relative to Sol? Or the galactic center? Or is it relativ to one of the two points that define your line?
I can help you with the general math if you want to (if the problem is defined enough) and than you can put in the numbers yourself. This way you don't need to reveal any information you don't want to share.
 
It's nothing super secret. And given the area is actually easy to get to (no jumponium) and seemingly well explored, I suspect I am about the 312th person to be trying this.

There are four well known named stars below the bubble, in the Blanco 1 open cluster: Ziggy (short for Sigmund), Gilthaven, McBurney's Point and Odin's Wisdom. I have never seen any explanation as to why these systems are so named.

McBurney's point is a medical term for a place on the body 2/3 from the navel to the hip, and is something to do with where to start when removing an appendix.

So I assume it is a system 2/3 from somewhere to somewhere else. I have assumed the start point is Sol (although you can pick many places in the bubble and it does not make too much difference as shown below). McB's Point is 872.03Ly from Sol. So the other end would be 1308.04Ly along that line. It can't be the 1/3 point or the end would be off the bottom of the galaxy.

Using the plotting software I got general coordinates of -68.39, -1285.66, 230.86. The nearest system to that point being SWOIWNS PA-A D4. It is a single star system with nothing out of the ordinary. Exploring the systems there about turned up nothing special. I have then gone back and also plotted lines through McBurney's Point to Lave, Alioth, Achenar and Shinrata Dezhra. The results all pointing at the same area. I still have a good few systems to investigate, but have turned up nothing yet.

zrOkejU.jpg


gTorbR7.jpg


My next step will be to return to McB's Point and get distances to the other major systems listed above, to then work out end points for them all, through McB's Point.
 
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I need to find a point in space. I know the rough area of where that point is but not the exact point (system). However I can find this via two other known points. But I need to be able to plot those two points somehow and draw a line through them. Then start plotting in candidate systems as I visit until I find the one I am looking for.

So, looking for Raxxla then?
 
So, looking for Raxxla then?

If McBurney's Point is so named as it is an indicator of something hidden (a very big if), it is more likely to be the speculated hidden Dark Wheel station than Raxxla. I am very much keeping my eyes out for gas giants with seven moons in dwarf star systems.
 
As promised, the general equation. If you are interested just in the result, it's at the end ;)

The coordinates of the star in the bubble are:
151792

The coordinates of the other star are:
151793

The coordinates we are interested in are:
151794


To make it shorter are the next two equations in vector form. But the final equation will be given in a way that you can punch it into a spreadsheet :)

The direction-vector from the bubble star to the other star is given by:
151805


Thus, the line equation is:
151796


Hence, we just have to figure out < t >. For this I visualize what you've told me:
151798


< C > is here the target. I apologize for mixing that.

Since A -> B equals 2/3 of A -> C we get:
151799


Now we use all of this in the line equation and we get the final result:
151806


Yes, it is as easy as that, just take the x / y / z coordinates of the two stars that define your line and you can directly calculate the coordinates where a star should be … and I'm pretty sure some punctuation is missing in the sentence.
ATTENTION: The sign of the coordinates is important.

I hope that helps :)
 
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Edit: If you read what I put here, ignore me. Those equations work perfectly. I had a number wrong.

After a few weeks off, I am back on the case...
 
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Edit: If you read what I put here, ignore me. Those equations work perfectly. I had a number wrong.

After a few weeks off, I am back on the case...
Now I'm curious what you had written.
Because originally I did make a mistake in the final equation. It is correct in the version above. So I myself am a very likely source of errors.
Also, If it works but you thought at first it isn't, I maybe could have done a better job at explaining somewhere.
So I see some possible potential for me to learn :)
 
It was just me copying the wrong set of number into the simple Excel model I made with your equations. This is where I am:

MBP_Data.PNG

Those five sets of target co-ordinates and their in game nearest systems were then plotted into GeoGebra after finding those nearest systems with the site @Factabulous linked. That gave me this:

MBP_Targets.PNG


The systems in red above are ones I have visited and found nothing. SWOIWNS AA-A C0 is proving a bit of a problem however. Either someone's data is wrong, or it has moved. As it is no-where near where it is plotted to be. I have double checked my data for Alioth in EDSM and it looks fine. I have run the numbers a few times and they all check out. The nearest known system returns that system and co-ordinates. But it just does not match the Gal Map. At all.

I am currently checking a few systems down there that look around the same spot (HIP 331), and will head out to the actual AA-A C0, but it is not even close to the Alioth > McBurney's Point (MBP) line. Which makes me wonder if I get the real co-ordinates for that system and work out what is at the top end of a line from there to MBP, where that will be.


EDIT: or it could just be that that system is SWOILZ AA-A C0 not SWOIWNS AA-A C0... Two stars. Nothing else.
 
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MBP_Results.PNG

Nothing of note in any of those systems.

Despite the stars thinning out down here, there are still dozens and dozens in the area. The question I now have is: do I keep looking through the area, or consider this an itch scratched and move on? In all likelihood, McBurney's point and the other named systems in the Blanco 1 Cluster are nothing more than an interesting systems names and nothing more. But what if...
 
I suppose I should finish off this small exploration story. If only to help the next Commander who ponders the mysteries of the Blanco 1 Cluster.

I did explore more systems down in and around the SWOIWNS Sector but found nothing of note. But I then wondered if I was over thinking things, and if McBurney's Point was 1/3 or 2/3 the distance between one of the other named systems and an unknown point of interest?

I jumped back into excel, the Galactic Mapping Project site, the Nearest System site and GeoGebra and plotted all the nearest systems, on lines from the other named systems in the Blanco 1 Cluster, through McBurney's Point, and where McBurney's point was both 1/3 of the overall distance and 2/3 the overall distance. This was my data:

MBP_3.PNG


This was the new data then plotted in GeoGebra:

G1, G2, O1, O2, Z1 and Z2 were where the maths said the ideal system would be. You can then see the actual closest systems to those points.

MBP_4.PNG


But again, after exploring those systems, and a good few others in this part of the cluster, I found nothing noteworthy.

So now that itch is scratched. I don't know why those systems are so named, but I am happy I have tried to explore McBurney's point being a clue to finding something. Even if I came away empty handed.
 
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