Star Types for 2 or more stars

martianmr

martianmr
The "INFO" tab on the Galactic map shows "Star Types" which is very handy for exploring once you get to know what they mean (e.g. see http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Stars). However with multiple stars there is frequently an "A" or "AB" suffix to the main classification for the stars after the first, I thought this may be to do with the way the stars orbit each other but I can't seem to amke sense of it in game. Can anyone enlighten me?
E.g....

View attachment 6668 Screenshot_0206.jpg
 

Feldspar

Feldspar
Someone could probably correct me on this, but I think the current naming system for stars is that the 'A' star is the brightest (and thus most visible from Earth) and then the order follows the order of brightness. Although in the game this may follow distance from the 'A' star.
 

Helvellyn

Helvellyn
Letters after the luminosity class (V in all your examples) indicate unusual spectral features (not sure what though). They're usually in lower case but I put that down to the whole display being upper case. It might be something else in the game.
 
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martianmr

martianmr
Daggermark said:
All explained in the pitstop booklet.

http://www.alisonlauragoodman.co.uk/pitstop.html
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks, that's just what I was looking for. I did a quick survey around Alioth to see if I could test this and almost validated what's in the article. I took the data and sorted it by stellar mass (there's also a load of other data I collected in case it was relevant), note that I haven't found any K stars with sub-class of B (yet). The article seems to be based on some pretty solid astronomy knowledge (mine is pretty minimal) so my findings might show a slight error in the classifications in the game (if I have this right).

My results below:
View attachment 6695

If we assume that 'whereas “ab” is somewhere in the middle' suggests that FD may have sometimes used AB for a middling sub-class and sometime used no sub-class to mean the same this appears to show the mass is back to front. Note that the sub-class "A" is associated with the least massive stars but according to Professor G this should be the most massive stars.

I've yet to see a B in K class but I found an MIV which could help if I can find another MIV to compare it to. I'll post an update if I find out more.

For now, this pretty small test appears to show that when dealing with an unexplored system in ED - an "A" suffix denotes an untypically small star for its Class, a "B" suffix presumably denotes an untypically large star and "AB" only tells you that it is neither "A" nor "B" and is more or less the same as having no suffix.

I'd welcome any more comments or insight.

For anyone wanting to go straight to the original article - this looks to be the boy http://www.firstgreatexpedition.org/mybb/showthread.php?tid=1455
 
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Wishblend

Wishblend
martianmr said:
Wow, thanks, that's just what I was looking for. I did a quick survey around Alioth to see if I could test this and almost validated what's in the article. I took the data and sorted it by stellar mass (there's also a load of other data I collected in case it was relevant), note that I haven't found any K stars with sub-class of B (yet). The article seems to be based on some pretty solid astronomy knowledge (mine is pretty minimal) so my findings might show a slight error in the classifications in the game (if I have this right).

My results below:
View attachment 6695

If we assume that 'whereas “ab” is somewhere in the middle' suggests that FD may have sometimes used AB for a middling sub-class and sometime used no sub-class to mean the same this appears to show the mass is back to front. Note that the sub-class "A" is associated with the least massive stars but according to Professor G this should be the most massive stars.

I've yet to see a B in K class but I found an MIV which could help if I can find another MIV to compare it to. I'll post an update if I find out more.

For now, this pretty small test appears to show that when dealing with an unexplored system in ED - an "A" suffix denotes an untypically small star for its Class, a "B" suffix presumably denotes an untypically large star and "AB" only tells you that it is neither "A" nor "B" and is more or less the same as having no suffix.

I'd welcome any more comments or insight.

For anyone wanting to go straight to the original article - this looks to be the boy http://www.firstgreatexpedition.org/mybb/showthread.php?tid=1455
Click to expand...

Yes you are correct that is Professor G.
 

martianmr

martianmr
Sadly this doesn't seem to hold up in game - just came across Col 285 Sector GV-X C1-25 A, a K2 VA with a mass of 0.8046 solar masses, one of the largest Seems the A, B (and AB) are either not being applied quite as expected, or they are being used to indicate something different. I did go back and check the earlier data and it hadn't changed so I guess it's possible A and B were reversed for the hand-coded stars but not for the generated ones? I'll keep looking in case anyone else is curious ;).
 
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