So where are these stars?

[fiat_knox]

It just dawned on me, that the star systems of Deneb and Antares have been named, as has Vega (home of the Vegans), but is there a list of the more well - known stars in Terra's sky, along with their coordinates in Traveller terms? I mean a star catalogue, sort of thing.

Examples:

Proxima Centauri
Lyra
Tau Ceti
Sirius
Wolf - 359
Vega, of course
Canopus

It'd be handy to list the sectors and subsectors they're in, so I could log onto the Interactive Traveller Atlas and go and look them up myself some time.

 

[BlackBat242]

Supplement 10; The Solomani Rim [sector]
(Traveller names in parenthesis)

Proxima Centauri (Prometheus): 2027 [K, Sol]
Lyra: ?
Tau Ceti (Lilike): 1429 [J, Dingir]
Sirius: 1629 [J, Dingir]
Wolf - 359 (Junction): 1929 [K, Sol]
Vega, of course: 1720 Vega [G, Vega]
Canopus: ?

And more...
Terra/Sol: 1824 [K, Sol]
Aldebaran: 0938 [N, Capella]
Altair: 1522 [J, Dingir]
Arcturus: 2921 [L, Arcturus]
Barnard's Star (Barnard): 1926 [K, Sol]
Capella: 1440 [N, Capella]
Castor: 2339 [O, Gemini]
Fomalhaut: 1024 [J, Dingir]
Pollux: 2236 [O, Gemini]
Procyon: 1830 [K, Sol]

cross-referenced with Alien module 6 Solomani

 

[Mithras]

Why is Aldebaran in Capella Sector? Should it not be in Aldebaran sector, the distance of Aldebaran Sector from ol seems to match the real distance ...
EDIT:In fct it should also be in Aldebaran subsector/Aldebaran sector.

Supplement 10; The Solomani Rim [sector]
(Traveller names in parenthesis)
Aldebaran: 0938 [N, Capella]

 

[BlackBat242]

Edited my above to reference the second source.

Why is Aldebaran in Capella Sector?

Alien Module 6, by GDW, has a list on pages 28/29 of all the major worlds/stars/systems in the Solomani Rim sector, including alternate names.

This list gives Aldebaran (star) as being at 0938 on the Solomani rim map (pages 26/27)... this system's major "world" is also named Cicero, and is a planetoid belt.


If something later changed this, I don't have it, as all I have is "classic" Traveller material.

Where did you get your info from?

 

[Mithras]

I never noticed that. Very strange, look on the inside cover at the map of the entire Confederation. The Aldebaran sector is to rimward of the Solomani Rim sector. Which seems to contradict the placing of Aldebaran at Cicero in the Solomani Rim.

Edited my above to reference the second source.
Alien Module 6, by GDW, has a list on pages 28/29 of all the major worlds/stars/systems in the Solomani Rim sector, including alternate names.
This list gives Aldebaran (star) as being at 0938 on the Solomani rim map (pages 26/27)... this system's major "world" is also named Cicero, and is a planetoid belt.
If something later changed this, I don't have it, as all I have is "classic" Traveller material.
Where did you get your info from?

 

[BlackBat242]

>shrugs< I dunno. Someone goofed I guess.

 

[Rev Round]

When I look up at the sky at night I dont see hexagons. Has someone made a huge mistake with the Trav maps?

 

[Easterner9504]

Whne I look up at the sky at night I dont see hexagons. Has someone made a huge mistake with the Trav maps?

Grim look at saying no hexes.

"Wrong thinking is punishable, right thinking is as quickly rewarded."

 

[OIT]

I never noticed that. Very strange, look on the inside cover at the map of the entire Confederation. The Aldebaran sector is to rimward of the Solomani Rim sector. Which seems to contradict the placing of Aldebaran at Cicero in the Solomani Rim.

It's not the only one. Canopus is not located in the Canopus sector, being too far away from Sol to fit there, but should rather be in the Hanstone sector.

 

[Mithras]

I'm experimenting at the moment for my summer game with no hex maps. I'm taking a leaf out of Thousand Suns where maps are simply dots joined by travel lines. Only I can spice that up, using an actual constellation chart (Hyades & Aldebaran) and simply joining up my stars with jump lines. These go through jump space, and bear no relation to physical distance. Each has a set length, 1, 2, 3 or4 weeks transit time. My jump drives are rated according to the duration they can sustain a jump, 1,2 3 or 4 weeks or more.

Its cool that this map, is my game map (without the orange lines marked on) no hexes in sight:

Of course its doubly cool that last night I took my sons out with binoculars and showed them Saturn, Venus, Orion's Nebula, the Seven Sisters cluster and the Hyades, and my younger son recognised Aldebaran and the star alignment from the game map I'd shown him. Just prepping for the game, getting them interested ...

Whne I look up at the sky at night I dont see hexagons. Has someone made a huge mistake with the Trav maps?

 

[saundby]

Some resources

Here are some places to get data on actual nearby stars:

http://www.recons.org An organization for mapping near space. Some papers and info here that's easy for non-astronomers to use.
NSTARS Database A nice lookup database of nearby stars. You can filter by distance, stellar type, etc.
Stars within 20 Light Years A friendly 3D-ish map that'll get you out to about J-6 from Earth.

Good job on using Trav to teach the stars! You're in the right area to voyage to the dangerous Crab Nebula and perhaps as far as the Great Orion Nebula for an adventure. Though I'm sure there's plenty of adventure right in the Hyades. Any place with a name like "Bullseye" (Aldebaran) has gotta be trouble.

 

[Mithras]

Thanks for the compliments! Bullseye is a great name for the world around Aldebaran, what a good idea... that world I'm sketching out as an irradiated heavily industrialised first colony world, sort of a mix between Car Wars Earth and Judge Dredd's Cursed Earth. I like the idea of a Crab Nebula expedition too - or something coming out of the Crab Nebula to threaten the other worlds in the cluster.

Great ideas!

Here are some places to get data on actual nearby stars:

http://www.recons.org An organization for mapping near space. Some papers and info here that's easy for non-astronomers to use.
NSTARS Database A nice lookup database of nearby stars. You can filter by distance, stellar type, etc.
Stars within 20 Light Years A friendly 3D-ish map that'll get you out to about J-6 from Earth.

Good job on using Trav to teach the stars! You're in the right area to voyage to the dangerous Crab Nebula and perhaps as far as the Great Orion Nebula for an adventure. Though I'm sure there's plenty of adventure right in the Hyades. Any place with a name like "Bullseye" (Aldebaran) has gotta be trouble.

 

[saundby]

Thanks for the compliments! Bullseye is a great name for the world around Aldebaran, what a good idea... that world I'm sketching out as an irradiated heavily industrialised first colony world, sort of a mix between Car Wars Earth and Judge Dredd's Cursed Earth.

That sounds great! Gritty and noir, adventures in every shadow.

 

[BlackBat242]

I like the idea of a Crab Nebula expedition too - or something coming out of the Crab Nebula to threaten the other worlds in the cluster.

IT CAME FROM THE CRAB NEBULA!!!

INVADERS FROM THE CRAB NEBULA!!!

EVIL ALIENS FROM THE CRAB NEBULA!!!


OK, I'll be good now.

 

[Rev Round]

Mithras...

That looks good. Printer and pencil friendly too.

Living in square boxes makes us see some optical illusions that people living in round houses don't see. Wonder what staring at hexmaps does to our visual sense of perception? o:

 

[Mithras]

I've upgraded - to Paint! Using some web images and inspiration from a poster on these forums I've created a jump map based on the Hyades/Taurus constellation.

The numbers indicate the jump rating to travel from one system to the next. The space habitat is an O'Neill colony called Alexandria within an asteroid belt. Aldebaran, Alexandria, Ixion and Coronis are the higher tech, higher pop and better starport worlds.

 

[saundby]

Very nice!

I may just use this "celestial sphere" method of sector generation for the B5 Traveller campaign I'm putting together (especially if what I hear about the maps in the B5 book is true...)

 

[Mithras]

To be honest, I was sorely disappointed by the Traveller maps in the core book and Spinward Marches - not very inspiring, very errm, retro. I'm no tech head, but I do like a stylish map - almost always hand drawn.

But dropping this images into paint and writing up labels for them was easy ..., too easy.