Re: Star Maps

Kyle wrote:
> I bought a copy of the computer game Frontier: Elite II because the
> star maps impressed me.  There was a grid level plane with circles
> for stars when you looked at the map from above.  But when you
> rotated it using the mouse, you would see that each star had a line
> going to the grid show whether it was "up" or "down" from it and the
> distance from it.  The rotation worked very smoothly.  At the time
> it seemed impressive.  That and the fact it had over 2000 star
> systems mapped out (not sure if all of the stars were real).	

There were several problems with the Frontier star map. First it was 
very shallow, all the stars were at most 10 (or was it 20?) parsecs 
above or below the plain of the map.

Secondly, a lot of the stars were in the wrong place! Look at 
Alpha/Proxima Centauri: it isn't even the closest star to Sol on that 
map.

Thirdly, a lot of real stars got missed out and a lot of made up ones 
included even in the regions near to Sol.

	Steve

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|			Stephen Richard Pugh			     |
|		     steve.pugh@dial.pipex.com			     |
|	    http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/estate/ax16/	     |
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