Astrogator's Handbook
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SCI FI - ARIZONA ASTROGATOR’S HANDBOOK DELUXE EDITION Practical Astrogation For Science Fiction Writers by Michael McCollum And Jordan Hartnett SCI FI – ARIZONA A Virtual Science Fiction Bookstore And Writer’s Workshop, on the Internet http://www.scifi-az.com 1 ISBN 1-929381-42-5 262 pages 1999 by Michael McCollum All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States of America by Sci Fi - Arizona, a virtual science fiction bookstore, and writer’s workshop located on the INTERNET at www.scifi- az.com. Michael McCollum Proprietor Sci Fi - Arizona 1931 East Libra Drive Suite 101 Tempe, AZ 85283 [email protected] 2 Table of Contents Section 1 ...................................................................................... 1-4 Instructions For Using The Star Maps And Tables. .................... 1-4 Introduction .............................................................................. 1-5 Navigating Between Star Maps in Appendix 1 ...................... 1-12 Reading Star Tables in Appendix 2 ........................................ 1-13 Using the Star Tables and Maps in Science Fiction Writing .. 1-15 Section 2 ..................................... 2-Error! Bookmark not defined. Astronomy For Science Fiction Writers Stars ................. 2-Error! Bookmark not defined. Stars ......................................... 2-Error! Bookmark not defined. Practical Astrogation ................ 2-Error! Bookmark not defined. Terminology ............................ 2-Error! Bookmark not defined. Section 3 ..................................... 3-Error! Bookmark not defined. Supporting Data ......................... 3-Error! Bookmark not defined. Authors’ Biographies .............. 3-Error! Bookmark not defined. Star Maps ....................................................................... Appendix 1 Star Tables ...................................................................... Appendix 2 3 SCI FI - ARIZONA ASTROGATOR’S HANDBOOK DELUXE EDITION Section 1 Instructions for Using the Star Maps And Tables. 4 INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING THE ASTROGATOR’S HANDBOOK, DELUXE EDITION Introduction If you go to any library in the world and check out a book on astronomy, you will find it filled with beautiful star maps that plot the angular positions of the stars in Earth’s sky to within a few tenths of a degree. These maps will have the lines of celestial latitude and longitude plotted on them, and will have the outlines of the constellations superimposed for easy recognition of the patterns of light we see in the night sky. Unfortunately, these star maps are of only limited use to a science fiction writer. Interstellar space is the natural habitat for the science fiction writer, and we care little about where the stars appear in the night sky of Earth. What we really want to know is where the stars are located with respect to one another. After all, when plotting an interstellar adventure, we may wish to send our hero’s ship from Procyon to Aldebaran. Knowing where those two particular points are in the night sky of Earth is much less useful to us than knowing where they are relative to one another in three- dimensional space! The motto of the science fiction writer is, “Never mind telling me about the mythical beasts in the sky. Tell me how to get there!” The Sci Fi - Arizona Astrogator’s Handbook, DELUXE Edition was designed to plug this obvious hole in humanity’s knowledge of the stars. Rather than showing you maps of the stars as they appear to us here on Earth, we have taken an external view of local space. We have plotted the positions of the nearest 3500 stars surrounding the sun (Sol) as they would appear to an observer in the vicinity of Polaris, the North Star, looking down on our local space from above. One of the problems with displaying the absolute positions of stars in three-dimensional space is that current technology requires us to draw star maps using two-dimensional methods. Over the years, various approaches to this problem have been attempted with limited success. Most mapping procedures rely on isometric projection. That is, they display the stars as they would appear to an observer viewing them obliquely from outside local space, much as we can simulate the three-dimensional nature of a house by drawing an isometric view of it on a sheet of paper. Unfortunately, most of us are not good at looking at an isometric projection of a complex three- dimensional object and visualizing that object in our heads. This is especially true if the view contains numerous separate object. It takes only a few dozen stars plotted on an isometric star map to make the pattern too complex for the average person to visualize. Another approach to star mapping is to plot red-and-green dots on a piece of paper and then use the old 3-D movie glasses to provide the illusion of three dimensions. Here, too, most people have difficulty seeing the true positions of the stars in space, as the dots tend to fade in and out of focus. The method has the further problem of giving many people headaches if they wear the red-and- green filter glasses for too long. The Sci Fi - Arizona Astrogator’s Handbook, DELUXE Edition solves these problems by using a layered 3-D mapping approach that is analogous to the two-dimensional maps that we are all familiar with. The layered 3-D map is constructed by taking the 150 light-year cube of space that surrounds or star, Sol, and cutting it into seven distinct layers that are 20 to 25 light-years thick. 5 All of the stars in each layer are then displayed in a standard map format, with the X- and Y- coordinates displayed by the position of the star on the map’s two-dimensional grid. The Z- coordinate is displayed as a positive or negative number denoting the star’s distance above (or below) the position of Sol. In this way, the user is able to visualize the relative positions in 3-D space by noting where a particular star lies on a horizontal plane parallel to the plane of the Earth’s equator, and then using the Z-coordinate to visualize the relative position along a vertical axis aligned with the Earth’s axis of rotation. If this seems complicated, check out the star maps. It is much easier to do than it is to describe. Overall, the maps encompass 3500 stars that occupy a cube that reaches out 75 light-years in all directions from Sol, and covers a region of space encompassing 3,375,000 cubic light-years in volume. The plotted stars are virtually all of the stars for which we currently have precise position data. The purpose of this manual is to aid science fiction writers in the plotting of their stories, to allow students and educators to gain a true understanding of the structure of local space, and for the use of anyone who just wants to know where any particular star is really located in the sky. To aid in this quest, The Astrogator’s Handbook, DELUXE Edition is divided into five sections: Section 1: Instructions for Using the Star Maps and Tables Introduction Reading 3-D Layered Star Maps Reading Star Maps in Appendix 1 Navigating Between Star Maps in Appendix 1 Reading Star Tables in Appendix 2 Using the Star Tables and Maps in Science Fiction Writing Section 2: Astronomy for Science Fiction Writers Stars Practical Astrogation Terminology Section 3: Supporting Data Appendix 1: Star Maps Overview Maps Quadrant Maps Appendix 2: Star Tables 6 Reading Layered 3-D Star Maps Appendix 1 contains 7 overview star maps and 63 detailed quadrant star maps of the region of space surrounding Sol and Earth. Space is broken up into seven layers, and each layer is subdivided into 9 quadrant maps. Each quadrant map represents a volume of space that is 50 light- years square and 20 light-years deep (25 light-years deep for the northernmost and southernmost layers. See Figure 1: Quadrant Maps 50 50 50 50 4 3 2 25 50 5 0 1 20 50 6 7 8 20 Far North Stars (N3) 20 Middle North Stars (N2) 20 Near North Stars (N1) 20 Home Stars (0) 25 Near South Stars (S1) Star Levels Star Levels Middle South Stars (S2) Far South Stars (S3) Dimensions are in light-years Figure 1: 3-D Layered Star Map Arrangement The levels are: • Far North Stars — Level N3 shows the stars that are 50 to 75 light-years to the north of Sol, in the direction of the North Star, Polaris. Polaris itself is not shown since, at 680 light-years distance, it is far outside the boundaries of the map. The northern stars are visible in the northern hemisphere. • Middle North Stars — Level N2 shows the stars that are 30 to 50 light-years to the north of Sol. • Near North Stars — Level N1 shows the stars that are 10 to 30 light-years to the north of Sol. • Home Stars — Level 0 shows the stars that are 10 light-years north of Sol to 10 light-years south of Sol. Obviously, this includes our own sun, which has a coordinate among the Home Stars of 0,0,0. 7 • Near South Stars — Level S1 shows the stars that are 10 to 30 light-years to the south of Sol. • Middle South Stars — Level S2 shows the stars that are 30 to 50 light-years to the south of Sol. • Far South Stars — Level S3 shows the stars that are 50 to 75 light-years to the south of Sol, directly opposite the direction of the North Star, Polaris. The southern stars are visible in the southern hemisphere. Because the scale of the stars would be too small if we attempted to plot each level on a single map (150 light-year square), each level has been divided up into a 3 X 3 grid, for a total of 9 quadrant maps per level.