'Filter stars' and big star lists

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

The 'filter stars' option, which appears to limit the visible stars to those within whatever the distance from the viewer is set at (in ly), doesn't appear to work properly with the big hipparcos star.dat list. I found I could still see stars that were well outside the sphere that should have been visible.

[chris]

It definitely works . . . I've tried it. And, there's pretty much no way for it *not* to work. Straightforward code . . .

--Chris

[selden]

Dr. Ganymede,

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." (pop quiz: who said that? No computers aay be used to answer this question )

You'll have to provide the setting you used and the name of a distant star that was still visible. And the viewpoint location.

When I use the largest star database and select a random distint star, it disappears when I set the filter to a value less than its distance.

[julesstoop]

ehm, just a guess: Albert Einstein (cliche guess, I admit)

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

Okay. Load up the big Hipparcos star list (the one that's 50,608 MB). Shrink down the 'filter stars' number to '11'. Increase the magnitude limit to maximum. Look toward Rigel Kentaurus A.

There's a little dot next to it that turns out to be a star called TYC 9010-2675-1, which is an F4 V star at a distance of 2568.245 ly (er, how the hell did they see that from so far away?!)

There's also another one called TYC-6391-888-1, which is a K7 III Giant at 3197.778 ly.

And another one called TYC-6859-773-1, an F9 V at 1019.340 ly.

And so on...

EDIT: Although after a bit of experimentation, the thought occurs to me that what might be happening here is that I'm clicking about a pixel away from the actual visible star and getting a star that's actually much farther away that has been filtered out. That visible dot I described next to Alpha Centauri is actually Proxima, it seems.

I suspect this feature would be more useful if the program didn't still think the filtered out stars were there, otherwise one would have to be very very accurate about where one clicks to select a visible star that hasn't been filtered out... or this could just be what happens when one uses the big star list?

[Sum0]

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." (pop quiz: who said that? No computers aay be used to answer this question )

Was it James Randi, aka the Amazing Randi? Or did he just quote someone else...?

[granthutchison]

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

The late, lamented Carl Sagan.

Grant

[selden]

Grant is correct.

Unfortunately, one of the developers will have to comment on the object pick code for filtered stars. I suspect it's an oversight.