[vsnet-chat 4272] Re: [AAVSO-DIS] star mapping software

[Bill Zeilstra <zeilstra@kdsi.net>]

Title: Re: [AAVSO-DIS] star mapping software

At 6:17 AM -0400 4/20/01, Mike Simonsen wrote:

> As president of my astronomy club, I find
> a lot of questions in my mailbox
> from people who have visited our website. Most of them are easily
> answered
> basic questions. Once in a while someone tries to "stump the
> prez". Here is
> a good one:
>
>   >>>I have a starmap program already that I am very
> satisfied with. It is
> SkyMap Pro 6, freeware version. It maps our (earth's) sky. I am
> looking, and
> I am not even sure it exists, for a program that pinpoints the
> relative
> position of any particular star against the overall Milky Way. Perhaps
> you
> have seen the t-shirt that has the picture of the milky way with an
> arrow
> pointing to a dot on the rim and words saying "You are here"
> on it. I am
> looking for something that does that, but 3D and whatever star you
> choose.
> <<<
>
> Any suggestions?
> M. Simonsen

Sounds difficult.

Here a comment off the Starry Night FAQ page that seems relevant

"When I zoom far away from the earth, the stars all appear to group together in a ball around the sun. Is this the Miky Way?

"No, this is a limitation of our star catalog. Starry Night has distances to about 100 000 stars from the Hipparcos Catalog. Most of the stars in this catalog are within a few hundred light years of the sun, so as you zoom out farther than this, they appear to cluster around the sun. "

Not enough data, sounds like.

Bill Zeilstra

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