"Maetes" <nomail@nomail> wrote:

I did 655,000 minor planets as part of my solar system model:

https://news.povray.org/web.592d5e424e850994c437ac910%40news.povray.org

- BE

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On 02/02/2026 17:14, Maetes wrote:
> Maybe.
> What are you looking for exactly?
> Position-Data?
> Pictures of the objects?

Pictures of good quality with complete objects info, including
coordinates. This will be a gallery with a pointer to the object's
location on the sky sphere. Now I rely mostly on NASA/Hubble materials,
but other sources also can help. This will be a long-term project ...

> Your Planetarium crashed my browser!

Possible, as it's in a very early state of development.
What browser do you have (including a platform) and could you
please send me console content (F12) ?
-- 
YB

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On 02/02/2026 20:19, Bald Eagle wrote:
> "Maetes" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> 
> I did 655,000 minor planets as part of my solar system model:
> 
> https://news.povray.org/web.592d5e424e850994c437ac910%40news.povray.org
>

Thanks, Bill, very interesting source, I've saved it to bookmarks.
Maybe I will use it later, after filling the database with larger
objects :).
--
YB

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yesbird wrote:
> On 08/12/2025 02:45, Maetes wrote:
> > If anyone wants to try their hand at creating a real starry sky with simulated
> > stars, I've trimmed the HYG star catalogue (120,000 entries) a bit and turned it
> > into a Povray array. ...
>
> Hi, Maetes.
>
> Thank you for sharing this data. Really, I am looking for good
> data source for my present Virtual planetary project:
> https://yesbird.online/planetarium/
>
> I am expected that it should be informative and compact enough,
> also includes deep sky objects like nebulas and galaxies, but
> assume that it will be not for professional use, but mostly addressed
> to schoolchildren and students just for fun.
>
> Could you suggest such a data source ?
> --
> YB

This works insanely great on my phone :-) ! (as usual I had to open it there
because your site is blocked from my corporate proxy :-/ )

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"Maetes" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> If anyone wants to try their hand at creating a real starry sky with simulated
> stars, I've trimmed the HYG star catalogue (120,000 entries) a bit and turned it
> into a Povray array.
>
> Documented more thoroughly than I would like, took way too long, as always.
>
> A macro collection that makes use of it is in the works.
>
> See:
> https://www.maetes.com/en/download/hyg-lite-star-catalogue
>
> That's the damn reason why I don't have time to build damn spaceships.
>
> :)
>
> Ma

I think such a thing would be awesome delivered with POV-Ray out of the box!

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yesbird wrote:

> Pictures of good quality with complete objects info, including
> coordinates. This will be a gallery with a pointer to the object's
> location on the sky sphere. Now I rely mostly on NASA/Hubble materials,
> but other sources also can help. This will be a long-term project ...

The keyword for coordinates and data is:
NGC Catalogue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_General_Catalogue

As I said, I haven't looked for it yet, but if I find something, I'll let you
know. I also made a PHP script with which I can create Povray arrays from
databases, if helpful. But it takes time, sorry.


Images could be a problem, as I am not aware of any valid source that provides
such data in a uniform format. Maybe it comes down to the fact that you have to
search for them manually.
But I can also be wrong, maybe there is something like that in the meantime. If
I find something, I'll tell you.


> Possible, as it's in a very early state of development.
> What browser do you have (including a platform) and could you
> please send me console content (F12) ?
> --
> YB

Chromium on a Raspberry Pi.
I clicked somewhere and a Box opened with the text "Object" few million times,
so my Pi was busy to show all text.
And in dont want to risk it again, don't like crashes.

ma

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"Mr" <m******r******at_hotmail_dot_fr> wrote:
> I think such a thing would be awesome delivered with POV-Ray out of the box!

If Povray could execute SQL queries - even if only simple selects - that would
be really really nice.

It's on my (unpublished) wish list.


Ma

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yesbird wrote:
> Pictures of good quality with complete objects info, including
> coordinates. This will be a gallery with a pointer to the object's
> location on the sky sphere. Now I rely mostly on NASA/Hubble materials,
> but other sources also can help. This will be a long-term project ...

The keyword for coordinates and data is:
NGC Catalogue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_General_Catalogue

As I said, I haven't looked for it yet, but if I find something, I'll let you
know. I also made a PHP script with which I can create Povray arrays from
databases, if helpful. But it takes time, sorry.

ma

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Please ignore the last answer, I thought the forum had deleted the first block.
-----------


Now I was curious myself and went on a short search.

Maybe this is the original one:
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/ngc2000.html

The data can be found here (ngc2000.dat):
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/VII/118/


A newer version maybe is this here, but I havent found a download-file:
http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/ngcic/rev2000/Explan.htm

This one could be a competitor of yours:
https://cosmos-book.github.io/catalogue/NGC/index.html


ma

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hi,

"Maetes" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> ...
> If Povray could execute SQL queries - even if only simple selects - that would
> be really really nice.

one should be able to do this using an ini file, ie have a script executing a
scene or frame specific query and write the result(s) to a POV-Ray-style CSV
file, which would be available in the scene/frame for reading.

<wiki.povray.org/content/Reference:Shell_Command_Options>


regards, jr.

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