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Subject: 
Local space -- here's a real map!
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.space
Date: 
Sat, 20 Nov 1999 10:14:08 GMT
Viewed: 
749 times
  
I wrote:

Tim Courtney wrote:

Yeah.  I'd just need maps of the Sol system, Alpha Centauri, and Barnard's
Star and how they relate to each other as far as distances go for
Zacktron.  Most other stuff is unexplored space to the Z universe.  But a
useful tool.

Anything else in Zacktron is unexplored space?  Well, the next three (known) stars
out from Earth are two more dim red dwarf stars, known as Wolf 359 and Lalande
21185; and then, the brightest star in our sky, Sirius.

Hey, look what I happened to find in my archive of downloads -- a 3D map of exactly
these stars!

http://cmgm.stanford.edu/~jladasky/nearest_stars.jpg

There is actually one double star system, UV Ceti, that MIGHT be closer than Sirius,
which is not pictured on this map.  Various studies disagree.  RECONS places it a
hair more distant from Sol than Sirius, and other sources places it modestly closer.
The stars of the UV Ceti system were too dim to be measured by Hipparcos.

Every road atlas needs a mileage chart, right?  8^)  I converted the right
ascensions, declinations, and parallaxes into XYZ coordinates, and computed the
following distance table...

http://cmgm.stanford.edu/~jladasky/distance_table.txt

Multiply all the figures by 3.26 to obtain distances in light-years.

Keep in mind that all of these stars are moving relative to each other -- so these
positions and distances are accurate for the year 2000 only.  Over the next 20,000
years or so, positions may change by up to a full parsec.  Please drive carefully.
8^)

--
John J. Ladasky Jr., Ph.D.
Department of Structural Biology
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford, CA 94305



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Local space ACK! Error in distance table!
 
(...) discovered that they DIDN'T MATCH THE IMAGE that I posted! So I reviewed my math, and found an error in the formulae I used to convert polar to rectilinear coordinates. The URL listed above now has a corrected distance table! SORRY! As a (...) (25 years ago, 27-Nov-99, to lugnet.space)
  Re: Local space ACK! Error in distance table!
 
(...) Not a big problem. Thanks for correcting it though. Sometime I've gotta get to my Zacktron planets section and also do something with a space map of their territory. That image helps TREMENDOUSLY. Thanks for everything, John! -Tim (URL) (...) (25 years ago, 27-Nov-99, to lugnet.space)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: The "geography" of local space
 
Hi, Tim, (...) Maps? You mean, with planets? Wouldn't we all like to have that! I can provide brief summaries of what we know about these three star systems -- though you probably already know all you need to know about Sol. ----- Alpha Centauri, (...) (25 years ago, 17-Nov-99, to lugnet.space)

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