placing a black hole question

Polchey · Post #1by **Polchey** » 29.12.2003, 22:14

I would like to place a black hole in the middle of the milky way galaxy. It is theorized by astonomers the center of galaxies holds a black hole. I tried to place one there but it seems celestia won't allow it. Is it possible to place a black hole model in the middle of the galaxy?

Post #2by **selden** » 29.12.2003, 22:33

Did you create a DSC catalog file and a standalone 3DS model for it?
That method should work OK.

The Addon black hole models that I've seen all are fake planets defined in SSC files. That method can't work beyond a distance of about 16K LightYears. The galactic center is 28KLY away in Celestia.

For details about the 16KLY limit, see the Preliminary User's FAQ, Question/Answer # 12

Does this help?

ElPelado · Post #3by **ElPelado** » 30.12.2003, 10:35

Why the limit is in 16KLY? Will this limit be larger in the future versions?

maxim · Post #4by **maxim** » 30.12.2003, 10:46

selden wrote:The galactic center is 28KLY away in Celestia.

How far is it in reality? Should be the same hopefully. :wink:

greetings,

maxim

Post #5by **selden** » 30.12.2003, 11:59

Unfortunately, it's distant enough that parallax measurements have not been possible. Hopefully that'll change when the GAIA astrometric satellite is launched in 2010.

The most recent estimate that I've found suggests a distance of 7.9 +/- .03 kpc which would be about 26 +/- 1 kly.

See http://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/gcnews/gcnews/Vol.11/PASP@io.byu.edu_gcdist.abs.shtml

Guest · Post #6by **Guest** » 30.12.2003, 19:01

I think in future versions Celestia shouldn't try to draw stars seen beyond the 16KLY limit, rather as we move around the galaxy stars can be drawn as we approach them from a distance of 16KLY for each star. The whole galaxy can have random stars in a database, but they should only appear as we get near them. A simple solution.