Astronomical Database importing

Hi! It is possible to import and then generate a 3D star map from real astronomical database, for example like star data file from Celestia? I know there a a lot of stars, but perhaps will it be possible to import a number of stars choosed based on distance from Sun?

Comments

  • Yes. It was possible in 2.0, and from what I've read it's still completely viable in 3.0. The only question is if the databases that were used in 2.0 are still completely compatible with this new version of the program, as it seems there were some changes made in how it handles that sort of thing.
  • And having just tried it, the file here http://www.nbos.com/nox/index.php?action=1001&id=21 works for sure.

    I'd personally love a quick and easy way to get a random sample or a weighted sample (Say, take the 400ly folder, extract 500 stars from it, 85% of which are F, G, or K), but that's a database thing, not an astrosynthesis thing.

    On the plus side, the new version of the program actually handled loading that entire 400ly .csv in about ten seconds without crashing or even slowing down appreciably.
  • I found a compilation of the e2000 Hipparcos, Yale and Gleise catalogs that has about 120,000 stars with their proper motions. So, I set my campaign date, use Access to determine the XYZ coordinates and adjust those using the proper motions of each star. Then, I can export that as a .csv and it imports fine.

    The database did need some tweaking - like, setting the stellar properties of variable stars - but, it seems to have turned out pretty good.

    But, try to do a search and it takes about ten minutes. So, I scaled it down to something smaller; about 5,000 stars. That seems to work well.

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