posted
Using data from Winchell Chung's website I've been working on some 3-D and 2-D maps of the Star Trek universe. The first step was to map out all the real stars in 2-D and assign them colors according to their distance above or below Earth. The second step was to make a 3-D map by raising or lowering the stars the indicated distance. This map includes images of all the stars projected onto Earth's plane (I might change these to grey) with ascenders or descenders connecting to the 3-D stars. The stars with white borders are believed to be capable of supporting habitable planets.
Most of the stars' name are their true names. I've put in a few Federation founding members at their traditional fandom locations. The interstellar lines indicate standard routes, generally shorter than 3 parsecs and available to fusion-powered ships. These maps are only the core areas around Earth, but I'm working on other maps with diameter of 100-ly around Earth.
Comments welcomed! (These are WIPs, so please ignore the screwed up crossing of lines and stuff)
-------------------- When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Bernd: Hey cool. You made that without any support from a 3D plotting software?
Yup, I did it the old fashioned way with technology from the 14th century! Winchell Chung has maps showing stars in galactic coordinates. I used the 3-D rotation tool to make the flat image recede to a single vanishing point. Raising or lowering the map above or below the earth plane involved just shrinking it vertically. Simple in theory but a bit labor-intensive.
posted
Nice that Andoria and Vulcan are roughly on the same plane - fits with Enterprise and them having ?I think? a shared border. 18 Epsilon Eridani = P'Jem?
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
Very cool, Masao! Although I haven't tried anything like this myself, it might be interesting to take the data and create the Star Trek universe within Celestia, complete with all the planets. (I downloaded that a couple of weeks ago and I haven't stopped playing with it yet!)
posted
Aban: I am not a geek. I'm just a socially maladjusted obsessive.
Andrew: Fandom has placed Andor (Epsilon Indi) and Vulcan (40 Eri) on opposite sides of Earth but at a difference in depth of only 2 parsec or so. ST: Enterprise (and Geoffrey Mandell's Star Charts) put Andor (Procyon) and Vulcan (still 40 Eri) apparently right next to each other on a 2-D map. On a 3-D map, however, they differ in depth by 4 parsecs (13 light years). Star Charts also locates P'Jem someplace between Procyon and 40 Eri, but I'm not sure it's a real star. I dont' have the book with me right now to check.
BJ: I've considered buying a star mapping program like Celestia, but that's one more thing I'd have to learn.
-------------------- When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
You beat me to this. I've been wanting to do something like this for ages, as part of an effort to try to figure out what the Federation really looks like. I was going to start with the Enterprise time period and work my way out from there.
That said, I'm quite certain your maps look better than anything I would've come up with. Nonetheless, is there anything that can be done about the lines between stars? It could just be me, but I find the below:
posted
MNW: So far these are only real stars (with a few trek names attached). Other than that I haven't started trying to match up trek locations yet. I think the Delphic Expanse is shown in Mandell's Star Charts.
Guardian2000: I'm still fiddling with the lines. They're of different widths because they were imported from a rotated 2-D image. I'll probably have to redraw most of them.
I coudn't get that anzwer.org page to load.
-------------------- When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Celestia is, incidentally, free.
Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Mars Needs Women: Say do you think you could pinpoint the location of the delphic expanse
well, first he'll have to get her a bit drunk and then...
Amazing work (as usual) Masao. Now us this to tell my Star Trek Horoscope.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
Okay! I got Anzwer to load. That's a nice map, but it mostly for location rather than for interstellar routes, which my maps are for. The concentric circles also look nice, but maybe they're too Earth-centric for the Federation.
-------------------- When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
