I'm waiting for someone to create a project to develop macros for the
sun, moon, stars and just about everything else involving the solar
system as seen from earth.  Throw in day and night cycles too.

It would be kinda' cool if someone could create an outline for a macro
that calculates the positions of various stars in the sky in such a way
that it would be easy for others to add to it.  I figure the sky could
be divided up into zones and then someone could get that section of sky
and using star charts add all the visible stars up to about magnitude 6
or 7. I figure with a few dozen people working on it we could have them
all covered in a few months, though I really don't know how many stars
this would actually cover.  Anyone know?

Sound like fun?

If I had the time I would start it now.  Otherwise I'll get to it in
about a month if no one runs with the idea.

-Mike

Ken wrote:
> 
> Opinion time !
> 
>   I have seen many a night sky renderd with Pov. Of these many
> star ladden skies there is often a tendency to add gas clouds,
> lens flares, and star bursts. I know that these added touches
> are fun to add in but how real are they really. Here in the US
> where I live in a large metropolitan area we are lucky if we
> can see some of the brighter planets let alone stars. But even
> when I get the chance to get out into the country and look up
> there a lot of stars up there but with the unaided eye there
> are no gas clouds, star bursts, or fancy lens flares visible in the
> night sky.
>   Is this trend for special effects a side effect of astro photography ?
> I know the hubble telescope has advanced nebular and galactic
> photography to a new level but it's just not the stuff you see localy
> in our solar system.
> 
> What do you think about this generaly ?
> 
> Do you as an artist go for the effect and damn the realism ?
> 
> Should these special effects be used only when viewing from
> space and go for more of a realistic impression when looked
> at through the atmosphere of the earth ?
> 
> Can you get away with excessive effects in a twin star system ?
> 
> Is it worth it to spend 3 weeks to model a perfect house with
> landscaping, streets, and street lights and then throw in the best
> special effect that galaxy.inc will give you when it's likely that
> the night sky is as boring to look at there as it is here where I
> live?
> 
> --
> Ken Tyler
> 
> tyl### [at] pacbellnet

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