Variable Stars

[xxSTARHOUNDxx]

Have FDevs included Variable stars in the mix ?? ive yet to find any star that claims to be a Variable maybe im not looking properly ,anyway if they have included them has anyone noticed a difference in the brightness of said star over a period of time ??
just about to embark on a exotic star expedition shortly looking for all the currently known exotic stars Pulsars,Quasars,Magnetars etc etc , and was thinking of looking for variable stars that have a short variable (fast) period .

 

[malenfant]

I'll spare you the wasted trip - you'll only find pulsars (neutron stars). The rest don't exist in the game (not even variable stars. Well, maybe there are some named ones but they aren't actually variable in-game).

 

[xxSTARHOUNDxx]

I'll spare you the wasted trip - you'll only find pulsars (neutron stars). The rest don't exist in the game (not even variable stars. Well, maybe there are some named ones but they aren't actually variable in-game).

well thats dissapointing they thought to include allbe it rare Ae/Be stars but not one of the most common types of stars Variable ! oh well time to replann my trip.

 

[Sapyx]

"Variable stars" exist in-game. All the stars with double-letter prefixes - such as VX Canis Majoris - derive that double-letter prefix from the standard nomenclature for cataloguing variable stars.

However, in the ED universe, these variable stars do not vary. Stellar brightness is constant.

Odd, weird and unusual stars generally do not show their oddness in ED. For example, all stars in ED are perfectly spherical, whereas some - most famously Achenar - are squashed flat by their rapid rotation. Stars in ED do not become unstable and shed matter or explode. Nor do stars interact with each other, in terms of (for example) a black hole sucking matter off a companion star. In ED, stars just... sit there and shine.

One could contemplate why FD have not implemented variability into stars. I strongly suspect it is because of a lack of "fossilized light" due to the lack of a speed-of-light frame of reference. In the real world, if Betelgeuse suddenly flared up to become 10x brighter right now, we wouldn't see it happen on Earth for hundreds of years; we'd have to wait for the light from the event to reach us. But in ED, the speed of light is infinite: if they altered Betelgeuse's brightness in-game, the entire game universe, from Sol to Beagle Point, would be able to observe the brightness change, with zero time delay.

 

[xxSTARHOUNDxx]

One could contemplate why FD have not implemented variability into stars. I strongly suspect it is because of a lack of "fossilized light" due to the lack of a speed-of-light frame of reference. In the real world, if Betelgeuse suddenly flared up to become 10x brighter right now, we wouldn't see it happen on Earth for hundreds of years; we'd have to wait for the light from the event to reach us. But in ED, the speed of light is infinite: if they altered Betelgeuse's brightness in-game, the entire game universe, from Sol to Beagle Point, would be able to observe the brightness change, with zero time delay.

That kind of makes sense ..one way round that could be to just make the Variation in Brightness only visable in the local system maybe i know it wouldnt be strickly accurate but it would be a better option in my opinion than no Variation at all.. Maybe im letting my love of Astronomy cloud my judgement after all it is a SCIFI Game and not a super accurate Galaxy simulation .. still love this game though

 

[Zieman]

For example, all stars in ED are perfectly spherical, whereas some - most famously Achenar - are squashed flat by their rapid rotation.

This is strange IMO, as so many planets are oblate - why not stars too?

 

[Orvidius]

I suspect it has something to do with the animations for CMEs and prominences. It's easier / more lazy to not have to deal with anything other than a regular sphere.