# Amazing 3D Star Map **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 15, 2012, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075 "2012-11-15T11:39:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/1 "2012-11-15T11:39:55Z")
Came across this impressive [3D starmap](http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/) this morning. It accurately shows the nearest 100,000 stars, embedded in a rough map of the entire Milky Way. The play button at the top left gives a guided tour, or you can move the view manually. Well worth a play. ---
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/2 "2012-11-16T06:49:14Z")
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.” ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/3 "2012-11-16T06:54:05Z")
It’s a bit like playing that old game Frontier: Elite 2. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/4 "2012-11-16T07:52:29Z")
Without checking out your link (I can’t wait to try it out tomorrow!), it seems rather like “Celestia,” a wonderful and free software which has for several years allowed you to wander through the universe (well, through the Milky Way, anyway), “visiting” stars at their actual locations relative to each other. Wanna know what Orion looks like from Casseiopia? Easy! When I last played with Celestia a couple years ago, I was amazed at how quickly I got lost. You start on Earth, pick a star, zoom to it, look around, pick another star, zoom to that, and just like that, you are IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. It’s quite a scary feeling, actually. You look around, and you have no idea how to get back “home.” You soon realize just how freakin’ huge our galaxy is. And that’s just one galaxy of millions! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/5 "2012-11-16T07:59:01Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > And that’s just one galaxy of millions! More like [over 170 billion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy) in the observable universe. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/6 "2012-11-16T08:03:24Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > More like [over 170 billion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy) in the observable universe. Wowza. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/7 "2012-11-16T09:10:19Z")
Nifty site. [Here’s another fun site](http://scaleofuniverse.com/), allowing one to scroll from the very small to the very big. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/8 "2012-11-16T12:45:03Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Nifty site. > > [Here’s another fun site](http://scaleofuniverse.com/), allowing one to scroll from the very small to the very big. Neato. Wouldn’t it be cool if “quantum foam” had the same structure as the universe…I mean, down to every “Great Wall” and void? Now THAT would be freaky! Okay, I’ll put away the lava lamp and get back to work… ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/9 "2012-11-16T20:33:56Z")
It’s fun, but it looks like half the stars are missing. I can’t find several nearby, high-apparent-magnitude stars like Alpha Centauri, Vega, Sirius, and Procyon. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/10 "2012-11-16T20:46:04Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > It’s fun, but it looks like half the stars are missing. I can’t find several nearby, high-apparent-magnitude stars like Alpha Centauri, Vega, Sirius, and Procyon. Not sure why, they are all there when I open it. ---
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/11 "2012-11-16T21:15:06Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > It’s fun, but it looks like half the stars are missing. I can’t find several nearby, high-apparent-magnitude stars like Alpha Centauri, Vega, Sirius, and Procyon. I found all of those stars. [Here’s a screenshot.](https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8QwFN1XB2safuZfRfUSJcNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink) I’m guessing you’re looking from too far away. Those stars are all very nearby (astronomically speaking). ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/12 "2012-11-16T21:16:13Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > Not sure why, they are all there when I open it. It wouldn’t depend on the time of day and your lattitude, would it? In the latter case I’d never see Alpha Centauri anyway. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/13 "2012-11-16T22:45:36Z")
Help please. Recently there was another thread about, I think, the latest Hubble xdf, or extreme deep field image. The resolution is, well, extreme. The original downloadable image is many GBs in size, but someone linked to another site that offered the image in a zoomable format. It was very cool zooming in deeper and deeper and deeper. I can’t find it now. Anyone remember it? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/14 "2012-11-17T00:05:32Z")
Nevermind. I found it. It’s an ESA Vista telescope 9 gigapixel image. Looked all over using google and couldn’t find it. Then I used DuckDuckGo and it came right up. The link to the full screen zoomable image is near the bottom of the page. > **[9 gigapixels, 84 million stars: Peer into the world's most detailed photo of...](https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/139329-9-gigapixels-84-million-stars-peer-into-the-worlds-most-detailed-photo-of-the-milky-way?print)** > > What you see here is the core of the Milky Way, as seen by the European Space Agency's VISTA telescope. If you looked up at the center of the Milky Way with your naked eye, all of these stars, galaxies and nebulae would occupy a patch of space that's... ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/15 "2012-11-17T11:00:00Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > It wouldn’t depend on the time of day and your lattitude, would it? In the latter case I’d never see Alpha Centauri anyway. This map gives a view from from outside the solar system, not from the surface of the Earth, so that wouldn’t be an issue here. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-3d-star-map/641075/16 "2012-12-12T21:56:22Z")
Just bumped the thread to say the missing stars are now visible for me.