Celestia Forums

I'm releasing some large stellar distributions for three spiral galaxies : M31, M33 and NGC 300. Of course, the stars are fictious, but they follow a realistic "HR diagram", based on the AbsMagn and Spectral Classes found in Celestia's default database. Only very luminous stars are included (AbsMagn from 0 and up), so we could see them in Celestia if we're standing at some reasonable distance.

The user could easily edit the STC files to is/her taste (for SF scenarios, for example). This way, you could define some main sequence stars by changing the AbsMagn and Spectral Class values. Add you own planetary systems, spacecrafts, etc, in the Andromeda galaxy, or in its neighbor's M33, or even in a "far away galaxy" (NGC 300).

Stop polluting our Milky Way !

http://fsgregs.startlogic.com/Public_Fi ... utions.zip (2.8 MB)

You'll no longer see M31, M33 and NGC 300 the same way as before !

A few tips : Turn ON star labels, use the "Disk" rendering for stars. Visit the center of M33 (there are two STC files in this case, for alternate distributions. Don't use both at the same time).

Enjoy !

User feedback would be appreciate, for better future stellar distributions...

Take note that I made a small mistake in the numbering of the stars in M33 . There are two STC files in this case. I strongly suggest that you erase the first 10 000 stars in the second file, so there isn't any name conflict with the first file, if you want to use both at the same time.

EDIT : There are several other small spiral galaxies in the local group that may be worth populating with stars :

IC 810,
IC 3044,
NGC 404,
NGC 4396,
IC 3094 is an S0 galaxy of radius 554 LY only. Easy to add a very high density of stars ! And the absence of arms makes it ideal for a radial distribution with high density. Hmmm, temptation, temptation !

Couldn't resist. Took 1 min to do ...

5000 stars on a disk of 554 LY radius. Mean distance between adjacent stars : around 7 LY.

This is exciting!

And here's NGC 404 for breakfast :



5600 stars on a 4951 LY radius pizza. Less than 120 LY on average, between adjacent stars.
It's beautifull, with the "Scale disk" option turned ON... Visit the galactic core !

The stars default name ("S0") should be changed to something better. I'm lacking imagination here...

Cool. I'm going to download all of them.

Hey Cham, these are awesome. Thanks for creating and sharing them!

How did you make them? I'm interested in adding stars to other galaxies such as Sagittarius dSph and the Large Magellanic Cloud.

NoXion wrote:Hey Cham, these are awesome. Thanks for creating and sharing them!

How did you make them? I'm interested in adding stars to other galaxies such as Sagittarius dSph and the Large Magellanic Cloud.

The star distributions were generated using Mathematica, an heavy math software (not for the faint of heart).
Lots of maths are implied here.

Cham wrote:The star distributions were generated using Mathematica, an heavy math software (not for the faint of heart).
Lots of maths are implied here.

Ouch, I was hoping it would be something fairly simple so maybe I could use it for my own purposes.

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more stellar distributions from you!

I may do some more in the future, if I could find some time.

I may also publish my 1 million stars database for M31 (the Andromeda galaxy),
but the file is huge and is slowing down Celestia's startup.

To make some nice screen captures, the M31 Mega stars database is really cool, though.

--- edit ---

Mathmatica gave me a nose bleed trying to learn how to use it. I had to ask Fridger to teach me how to just enter an equation into it.

Cham wrote:Couldn't resist. Took 1 min to do ...

5000 stars on a disk of 554 LY radius. Mean distance between adjacent stars : around 7 LY.

So1.jpg

S02.jpg

IC3094_stars.stc.zip

Since that one is so small could you generate some main sequence stars for IC 3094? Please?

I'm publishing a distribution of 50 000 luminous stars for the spiral galaxy M81 :

http://fsgregs.startlogic.com/Public_Fi ... _stars.zip (1.8 MB zip file)

There's a small SSC solar system included, without any textures, that you may use as a template. It is associated to the first star in the distribution.

Take note that this addon may not work properly on your system, since M81 is located at 12 millions LY from Sol, so it's a bit outside the theoretical maximum distance of Celestia to draw stars. It's working perfectly on my computers, thought.

Take also note that all the stars in this distribution are very luminous stars, so we could see them in Celestia, at a reasonable distance. Their Absolute Magnitude and Spectral Class are from Celestia's default database, so they are realistic luminous stars.

I know it's been 4 years since this thread has been in use, but I'm wondering if the stars used for M33 are the same as the filler disk stars found in the Star Wars mega zip file found in the Celestia Motherlode.