Star maps

[Droflet]

Thanks for that, JG.

 

[Piousflea84]

I'm sure this must have been covered somewhere on Chrons but my extensive investigation has gleaned no tangible results. I have star maps but they're sh, ah I mean, not very good. I'd like to translate them into something a little more professional. These are not galactic or solar system maps but something that does not, as yet, exist.
Any thoughts from my fellow Chronites would be very much appreciated.

IMO:

In order to imagine how a star map should look, you first have to think about the rules of interstellar travel in your universe. If your starships are able to travel freely in 3D, then a plausible star map will have to be somewhat 3-dimensional. This is rather difficult to display in an easy to read fashion. It may require you to make a series of different maps in different cross-sections.

On the other hand, in sci-fi universes where starships follow well-defined "star lanes", "jump paths" etc, it is easier to imagine interstellar navigation as a series of interlocking train-station diagrams. These are considerably easier to draw.

Alternatively, you can simply project the galaxy into a 2 dimensional disk, and draw flat maps like the navigation computer in most space videogames (and almost all pen-and-paper space RPGs). This is not the most realistic but it makes for a cool looking map that does not confuse anyone's eyes. It is most plausible if you are talking about galactic-scale travel, as the galaxy as a whole is much wider than it is tall. If you are limited to a small portion of the galaxy, the nearby stars are just as likely to be above/below the galactic plane as on the galactic plane.

 

[Droflet]

Thanks for that, ah, Mr Flea. And welcome to Chrons.

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

would you eg include ionized gas clouds,souces of X-ray bursts?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Above on a flat screen with colour and size as option to show direction and distance (rather than real size and colour which isn't important till closer to a star for navigation). Then the sort of movement of viewpoint and zoom of an existing star chart program (as listed earlier). Rather than X Y Z, likely R, theta, Z is better:
R = Distance on plane of rotation from centre of rotation
theta = angle from core
Z = + "above" plane and - "below" such that above is always clockwise rotation of the galaxy.

Red = Receding from spacecraft
Blue = toward spacecraft
green = No change. But lateral movement could be different.
The spacecraft icon can be coloured to show relative velocity to the rotation of current location and destination (esp if there is "Jump" drive or such)

Navigation Pulsars shown as + instead of *

Most galaxies are disk like, or spiral. Some are globe shaped.

 

[Mirannan]

To reconcile 3D space with 2D maps, one way I've seen used is to make the size of the star symbols vary according to "depth". Big circle if "higher" and smaller if "lower" - presumably with some sort of legend to explain this, and a note that the size of the circle has nothing to do with the size of the star.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Big circle if "higher" and smaller if "lower"

or bigger if closer and smaller if further away?