Extended stars.dat addons

[duds26]

I use the 2.1C I like have 2 million stars

Me too, there will be an extended database in the motherload also, hopefully?
(with all the problematic stars in the database)

EDIT: didn't saw that this is about the stars that are part of the official Celestia distribution.

[t00fri]

I use the 2.1C I like have 2 million stars

Me too there will be an extended database in the motherload also hopefully?
(with all the problematic stars in the database)

Why that? The modifications discussed here will be part of the official Celestia distribution, eventually. But at our usual level of scientific rigor, the number of admitted stars (with good distances!) will range around 100 000 NOT 2 million!

The 2 million star data base is only good for people who mainly care about some "glittering" background on their canvas

Fridger

[ajtribick]

It might be wise to split out the discussion about the "official" database from this thread and move it to somewhere like the Development forum.

(Sorry Selden)

[t00fri]

It might be wise to split out the discussion about the "official" database from this thread and move it to somewhere like the Development forum.

(Sorry Selden)

Yes, Andrew, I agree. We kind of "snatched" this thread

Fridger

[Reiko]

I use the 2.1C I like have 2 million stars

The 2 million star data base is only good for people who mainly care about some "glittering" background on their canvas

Fridger

This is true. I love the background but I also like to have that many stars to play in. Not that I'll ever use or even come close to visiting them all. It's still fun knowing they are there. I have run into a few errors though. A few times now I've come across stars placed right next to each other that probably shouldn't be. They were not binaries but simply placed adjacent to each other. I have to make an STC file to move them.

[t00fri]

The 2 million star data base is only good for people who mainly care about some "glittering" background on their canvas

Fridger

This is true. I love the background but I also like to have that many stars to play in. Not that I'll ever use or even come close to visiting them all. It's still fun knowing they are there. I have run into a few errors though. A few times now I've come across stars placed right next to each other that probably shouldn't be. They were not binaries but simply placed adjacent to each other. I have to make an STC file to move them.

Reiko,

no doubt, we ALL dream about 2 million stars instead of just 1/20 of this number!

On the other hand, it's a matter of personal preference, whether the wrong distances of most of the available 2 million stars are considered disturbing.

Certainly wrong distances dont fit into Celestia's design philosophy... too bad, really. But there seems to be no way out.

Fridger

[chris]

Once ESA's Gaia mission is done, we'll have up to a billion stars to explore:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_mission

Too bad we'll have to wait until 2011 for launch and 2020 for the final catalog (though preliminary data sets should be available before then.)

--Chris

[t00fri]

Once ESA's Gaia mission is done, we'll have up to a billion stars to explore:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_mission

Too bad we'll have to wait until 2011 for launch and 2020 for the final catalog (though preliminary data sets should be available before then.)

--Chris

Yeah...in 2020 my interests will be different

Fridger

[ajtribick]

So any ideas on what would be a reasonable cutoff for position errors... presumably it's best to work in terms of [tex]\sigma = \sqrt{\left( \sigma_\alpha \cos \delta \right)^2 + \left( \sigma_\delta \right)^2}[/tex] where alpha and delta represent RA and Declination respectively.

[BobHegwood]

On the other hand, it's a matter of personal preference, whether the wrong distances of most of the available 2 million stars are considered disturbing.

Certainly wrong distances dont fit into Celestia's design philosophy... too bad, really. But there seems to be no way out.

Well, this discussion was especially illuminating for this Brain-Dead user.
I'm afraid that I will have to change my vote now... After following the
discussion concerning the errors involved with the 2-million star database, I
have dumped it, and gone instead with the original Celestia database.

Many thanks for explaining this here Good Doctor. I honestly had no idea
that the larger databases contained such errors, so I appreciate the further
education you have provided here.

As you know, I do strive for accuracy within my personal Celestia installation.
Thanks again, Brain-Dead Bob

EDIT: I have placed a small note to the effect that the larger databases may
contain some location errors on the appropriate ML page.