Why is LS distance to secondary star not shown

[Skip Rockbounder]

Hi guys,
It may have been asked already and/or be common knowledge to all but me so forgive me if I'm a bit late here.

Why is the distance to a secondary and any other star in a system not shown on the 'System map'? all of the planets have distances from the primary star shown why is a secondary star any different?

I know it's shown in the data panel (#1 button in my bindings) but that is from my location not the Primary star so it doesn't really count.


A secondary point

Why does the system map only give the basics of the star type where the Galactic map gives a 'fuller' designation concerning star type?

e.g. Galactic map shows M2 VA star designation on the left side data panel and the system map data panel (with all the important scanned data) refers to it only as an M type star

 

[varonica]

Hi guys,
It may have been asked already and/or be common knowledge to all but me so forgive me if I'm a bit late here.

Why is the distance to a secondary and any other star in a system not shown on the 'System map'? all of the planets have distances from the primary star shown why is a secondary star any different?

I know it's shown in the data panel (#1 button in my bindings) but that is from my location not the Primary star so it doesn't really count.


A secondary point

Why does the system map only give the basics of the star type where the Galactic map gives a 'fuller' designation concerning star type?

e.g. Galactic map shows M2 VA star designation on the left side data panel and the system map data panel (with all the important scanned data) refers to it only as an M type star

Yes there are a few things in the system map I find a bit annoying. For instance I like to check out bodies in the habitable zone of stars, and I can get habitable zone data from both the primary and secondary star, but the ls reading on bodies is from primary star, not the secondary star. So while I can get the habitable zone data of each star, I can't actually work out if a particular body is in the habitable zone for the secondary star.

For the other thing, I think that's context sensitivity doing its thing. The galactic map will give you information on the system, how many stars what type, brightness etc, but the system map will only give you information about the particular star you hover over. The VA is a brightness designation which can be used from the galactic map, but once you've scanned the star that information is contained in the detailed description so it's unnecessary to use it as part of the star description. At least I think that's what is happening, I could be wrong, it's happened before, shocking I know, but that's life!

 

[Skip Rockbounder]

Thanks for the reply Varonica

I understand that all of the info is in the panel on the left but what I would like to see is that 'Easy to identify tag' that tells me immediately the the selected stars designation... say if I was on the phone and I wanted to tell my mate what I'd found, *or I want the details to list and chart, it's awkward having to look at the data and work it out or go back to the Galactic map and find out from the panel there whether the star is a M2 or an M1

The thing about the habitable zones I guess could be awkward too... there is 'talk' and perhaps it's just talk about an Orrery map might be introduced by ED which could perhaps include such features.

 

[Dan Bender]

…So while I can get the habitable zone data of each star, I can't actually work out if a particular body is in the habitable zone for the secondary star…

Wait, there are hab zone estimates in the system map? Or are you using EDD to get that?

One thing you can do is look at the semi-major axis of the body (which is shown on detection; you don’t need to close-scan it). That’s measured in astronomical units (AU), and to convert to light-seconds you multiply by about 500. This doesn’t work for binary/ternary/etc. planet groups because it shows the SMA to the local barycenter, not the star, but it’s good enough most of the time.

I will, however, agree that the star distances need to be in the sysmap.

 

[ITZC0ATL]

Yep, all of the above.

It would be great if extra stars had the distance to main star listed, and bodies orbiting these extra stars has distances to them listed instead of the main star.

 

[Jackie Silver]

Sure and that would be the sensible thing to do...

 

[Sapyx]

Yes there are a few things in the system map I find a bit annoying. For instance I like to check out bodies in the habitable zone of stars, and I can get habitable zone data from both the primary and secondary star, but the ls reading on bodies is from primary star, not the secondary star. So while I can get the habitable zone data of each star, I can't actually work out if a particular body is in the habitable zone for the secondary star.

Well, you usually can, but it takes a bit of math. The game gives the "semi-major axis", which is in effect the distance from the planet to the thing it's orbiting. Unless the target planet is a moon or co-orbital, that thing will be the star. This distance is given in AU. There are (quick rule of thumb) 500 Ls to an AU, so multiply the AU distance by 500 to get the distance from the star to the planet in Ls.

The real question is, therefore, why the game uses two different units of measurement for measuring distance, when using the same units would avoid confusion. The two earlier Elite games used AU rather than Ls for measuring in-system distances so I assume the use of AU is a legacy they've just never bothered fixing.

 

[iain666]

I can get habitable zone data from both the primary and secondary star, but the ls reading on bodies is from primary star, not the secondary star. So while I can get the habitable zone data of each star, I can't actually work out if a particular body is in the habitable zone for the secondary star.

I use the SMA for that - which is in the sysmap and is why I added the AU conversion into the scan details in EDD.

 

[Mengy]

I wish it was shown. Oh so many times how I've wished that....

If only we had an Orrery Map!!!