Our Solar System in Traveller, and Traveller Star Map

[LiamKerrington]

Hi there,

I possess "Atlas of the Imperium", which is quite a nice supplement. I searched the various maps, and I am not sure, if and where our solar system is located within the 35 Sectors of the Imperium. In two Sectors I found 'something' - Solomani Rim 1827 "Terra" and Magyar 0503 "New Sol". Now, naturally, my question would be: Is one of those the solar system we live in at the moment? Or where is it located, if it exists at all in the Traveller-verse?

Another question would be: The maps within the Atlas of the Imperium seem to depict a fictitious set-up of star-systems in our Milkyway. But did anyone ever translate parts of the real Orion Arm of our Milkyway into the Traveller-game and thus recreate the maps of the Imperium (or any other fictitious Traveller-based SF-background)?

All the best!
Liam

 

[Cryton]

The system in the Atlas that corresponds to the world we live on, is the you found in the Solomani Rim. Solomani Rim 1827 "Terra".

 

[LiamKerrington]

Hi there,

thynk you for confirmation. Accidently I happened to find the (official?) Traveller-wikipedia. And there I even learned that the Sol-Subsector is the one holding "Terra" as the main system ...

All the best!
Liam

 

[Cryton]

Liam you should give The Traveller Map website a lookover.

http://travellermap.com/

 

[LiamKerrington]

Liam you should give The Traveller Map website a lookover.

http://travellermap.com/

Sweet. Really sweet. And I guess, the OTU-starmap is implemented into the Milkywy, right? Or is this "travellermap" a translation of the Traveller-verse into the known space as we know it?

All the best!
Liam

 

[Cryton]

Its the former not the later.

 

[LiamKerrington]

Still awesome. Actually: incredible work.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I don't think you can morph the OTU into the "real world" starmap. It would be a monstrous job. Writing code to automate it would probably take as long as doing it by hand.

 

[saundby]

The fact is that we don't actually have the data to do it. The comfortable distance values for various stars aren't all that accurate for most stars. They're educated guesses. There are circumstances that allow us to improve the values for particular situations and types of stars. But most are still pretty inaccurate.

Even what is within 10 parsecs of us is something we're still trying to suss out. That's part of what the RECONS project does.

Every year, before the weather turns nice for star parties, I go through and update handouts with information about the astro objects we observe through the year. Distances get changed to new and updated values every year. Some of the changes are quite dramatic. And that's on bright, prominent objects and stars which are visible to the eye or with minimal optical assistance, not dim things in remote galaxy clusters.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

The comfortable distance values for various stars aren't all that accurate for most stars. They're educated guesses.

There are certainly times you wouldn't get that impression, based on the stuff that hits the newsies. :nonono: But, definitely easier to simply live with it as is. (Though that will never satisfy some. )

 

[LiamKerrington]

The fact is that we don't actually have the data to do it. The comfortable distance values for various stars aren't all that accurate for most stars. They're educated guesses. There are circumstances that allow us to improve the values for particular situations and types of stars. But most are still pretty inaccurate.

Even what is within 10 parsecs of us is something we're still trying to suss out. That's part of what the RECONS project does.

Every year, before the weather turns nice for star parties, I go through and update handouts with information about the astro objects we observe through the year. Distances get changed to new and updated values every year. Some of the changes are quite dramatic. And that's on bright, prominent objects and stars which are visible to the eye or with minimal optical assistance, not dim things in remote galaxy clusters.

Thank you for sharing the information about RECONS. I didn't know that the accuracy in pinpointing even our closest neighbours lacks ... (pun intended) ... accuracy a lot. o: :rofl:

 

[Merxiless]

The 2300 ad near star map (GDW's version, not the new Mongoose, which I have not seen, if it even exists) is close, but there are some systems that do not exist in reality (to easily detect copyright infringement, I am guessing).

The classic traveller star map is way way off in many many respects from reality, but it was not meant to be anything like reality.

Long ago, The guy that updated scouts was working I think on a conversion for TNE, and I did my own, but it's pretty much hopeless to convert the classic flat maps to anything resembling reality.

When I am doing a 3D near space map, I use the near star map from 2300, and an ancient piece of software called Cherryview.

 

[tim_manley]

I ran a campaign years back where I did take the X, Y, Z coords of local space and created a map. It was just 4 sub-sector's large with a "rift" of space that required multiple jumps (at the TL9/10 game I ran) to cross it.

Its there, you can do it.

Travellermap is awesome, but SOL local space is not accurately represented.

 

[robject]

I don't think you can morph the OTU into the "real world" starmap. It would be a monstrous job. Writing code to automate it would probably take as long as doing it by hand.

I tried to create a 3D version of Charted Space, where the 3D representation was functionally equivalent with the 2D map, programmatically with Perl. Perl is perfect for this kind of work. To get Z-axis offsets, I followed rules of thumb:

1. One hex in distance may range from 1.5 light years to 4.5 light years.

2. Relatively isolated systems may have a greater Z-offset, within reason.

3. Sectors are not flat, but may be wavy, folded, or curved, within reason.

4. Local distance (within 6 parsecs) is the most important thing to preserve. If folding, spindling, and mutilating space resulted in Terra being only 40 parsecs across empty space to Sylea, maybe that's okay. Maybe.

This resulted in a large, sparsely connected network, which sought to minimize energy stored in a hex-distance tension with the local (jump-6 and lower) neighborhood. I got some interesting results, but didn't get it where I wanted it. I probably needed a better-thought-out algorithm.

I still think such a thing can be done.

Hmm, I bet Mickazoid can do it.

 

[inexorabletash]

Travellermap is awesome, but SOL local space is not accurately represented.

Perhaps you're looking for something like this:

http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/

(You'll need Chrome; Firefox may also work.)

 

[SpaceBadger]

I don't believe that GDW even attempted any real-world accuracy in the canon Traveller OTU maps (even aside from the 2-D versus 3-D issue). The first sector mapped was the Spinward Marches, which I believe was a combination of random generation and customized placement. When they did the Solomani Rim sector, they did include a few real stars in the neighborhood around Sol system (marked on the map as Terra since that is the main world of the system in Traveller terms), but again most of the systems are a combination of random generation and custom placement for story purposes.

The Traveller 2300 (later 2300AD) Near Star Map is supposed to be an accurate rendition from the Gliese Near Star List (copy was included with the game), but as someone up above noted, I have also heard that some "extra" systems were made up to catch copyright violators.

When Mongoose made its version of 2300AD, there was discussion of updating the Near Star Map to match current, more accurate placement data, but this would have ruined the canon system of "Arms" of colonization, so the decision was made to stick w the same map as previous editions. (This is stated in the book itself, and I have also heard it from the author, Colin Dunn, in the 2300AD subforum here at CotI and elsewhere.)

 

[LiamKerrington]

Perhaps you're looking for something like this:

http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/

(You'll need Chrome; Firefox may also work.)

Sweet!

 

[saundby]

There are certainly times you wouldn't get that impression, based on the stuff that hits the newsies. :nonono: But, definitely easier to simply live with it as is. (Though that will never satisfy some. )

Newsies just love "authorities" that they can use to provide questionable information that can be passed on as "Gospel Truth" since it came from an Authority (letters carved in granite.) Some in the science community play to this, others are horrified when it happens to them.

I think my little netbook needs a "10,000 stars" version of the above link. I'll have a look on a 'real computer' tomorrow.