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

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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

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yesbird wrote:
> Thank you for sharing this data. Really, I am looking for good
> data source for my present Virtual planetary project:
> https://yesbird.online/planetarium/
>
> Could you suggest such a data source ?
> --
> YB

Maybe.
What are you looking for exactly?
Position-Data?
Pictures of the objects?

However, I haven't cared about deep sky objects so far, rather stars, exoplanets
and stuff like that. Describe in more detail what you would like to have, then I
can take a look for you during my search for my own data sources. I found so
much crap and didn't find it what I need, I'm slowly developing some practice.


Your Planetarium crashed my browser!

:)

Ma

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"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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