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Thread: Star System Test

  1. #1
    Administrator Facebook Connected Diamond's Avatar
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    Default Star System Test

    Just messin' around, trying to come up with something halfway cool looking.
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    Administrator Facebook Connected Diamond's Avatar
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    More messing around. I think I like this look better. And still plenty of room left for loads and loads of text.
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  3. #3

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    That's a great map. Love the asteroid belt/dust cloud. One this is that it doesn't seem to be to scale? It doesn't have to be, of course, it's up to you. The sun just feels a bit off and I'm visualizing the planets knocking into each other a bit during orbit. Looking forward to some labels on there once you've finalized something you like ^.^

    - Alizarine
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    Administrator Facebook Connected Diamond's Avatar
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    Oh, it's definitely not to scale. I had the same thought about the planets knocking into each other - billiards!

    I worked hard to get an asteroid belt that I liked, so thanks.

    What I'll probably end up doing is just a line diagram type of thing for the planetary orbits, with very small colored spheres to represent the planets, then have boxes on the sidebars showing the pictures of the individual planets, moons, artificial stuff, etc.

  5. #5

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    That would actually look totally brilliant. The scale thing isn't a problem - just my second thought, right after "wow" ^.^ Just out of curiosity, the first map shows more elliptical orbits (most probably due to the angle) while the second shows very circular orbits. Are the orbits really circular? I know Earth has a somewhat elliptical orbit which, I think, gives us seasons? I might be off - my brain's not totally awake right now. Anyways, good luck with this!

    - Alizarine
    "If they get too nosy, you know, just shoot them."
    "Shoot them?"
    "Politely!"
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    "Sir, I think there's a problem with your brain being missing ... at last, we can all retire to a life of luxury!"

  6. #6
    Guild Apprentice plamadude30k's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by alizarine View Post
    That would actually look totally brilliant. The scale thing isn't a problem - just my second thought, right after "wow" ^.^ Just out of curiosity, the first map shows more elliptical orbits (most probably due to the angle) while the second shows very circular orbits. Are the orbits really circular? I know Earth has a somewhat elliptical orbit which, I think, gives us seasons? I might be off - my brain's not totally awake right now. Anyways, good luck with this!

    - Alizarine
    The ellipticity of earth's orbit is almost zero (but not quite). Seasons come from the fact that earth's axis of rotation is tilted relative to to the sun's by about 23 degrees, not (as most people think) from the ellipticity. The orbital eccentricity has a very small effect on seasons, making northern seasons milder and southern seasons harsher, but this is a tiny effect.

    Oh, and before I get carried away with my astrophysics, nicely done Diamond. Have you given thought to how the asteroid belt would arise in the system? In our solar system, the asteroid belt exists because it is in an orbital resonance with Jupiter, which prevents planet formation in that range.

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    Administrator Facebook Connected Diamond's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by alizarine View Post
    That would actually look totally brilliant. The scale thing isn't a problem - just my second thought, right after "wow" ^.^ Just out of curiosity, the first map shows more elliptical orbits (most probably due to the angle) while the second shows very circular orbits. Are the orbits really circular? I know Earth has a somewhat elliptical orbit which, I think, gives us seasons? I might be off - my brain's not totally awake right now. Anyways, good luck with this!

    - Alizarine
    That's why I originally started with kind of a three-quarters view, so you could see the orbital tilt/etc. When I actually sit down and start working on this in earnest, I'll come up with some way to accurately show the orbits.
    Quote Originally Posted by plamadude30k View Post
    The ellipticity of earth's orbit is almost zero (but not quite). Seasons come from the fact that earth's axis of rotation is tilted relative to to the sun's by about 23 degrees, not (as most people think) from the ellipticity. The orbital eccentricity has a very small effect on seasons, making northern seasons milder and southern seasons harsher, but this is a tiny effect.

    Oh, and before I get carried away with my astrophysics, nicely done Diamond. Have you given thought to how the asteroid belt would arise in the system? In our solar system, the asteroid belt exists because it is in an orbital resonance with Jupiter, which prevents planet formation in that range.
    Didn't really give much thought as to why anything was where it was. This is just to test styles and ideas. I'm no astrophysicist or astronomer though, so expect all kinds of errors in the eventual actual map/diagram.

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    Guild Apprentice plamadude30k's Avatar
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    Fair enough! As a purely artistic endeavor, I think it looks awesome. If you want any sciencey pointers, I'd be more than happy to advise (it is more or less what I do), but be forewarned-my inner geek is rarely more nit-picky than when it comes to this subject. Actually, you're probably better off without that kind of input. Let your creativity go wild, it's more fun that way.

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    Guild Adept Facebook Connected Daelin's Avatar
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    Gah, you've somehow managed to get a better-looking asteroid field than me, with probably half the effort. Now I'll have to go back and redo it.
    Excellent work, by the way.

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    looks really good, and I think the circles work just fine, one sees it as a representation of the system and will instantly understand that it is not to scale. The colored planets could need some more play/movement in the colors, they are too uniform. If you work in photoshop, you could use the "cloud"-filter to achieve that
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