Stories of the Stars: Lyran. Artwork by Frank Paul

Windows Macintosh Unix/Linux Java, Excel, or other

Windows Applications

Late breaking note: I have had a chance to experiment with a pre-production version. You must get this program. It does it all: automatic route creation, filtering by galactic empires, spheres of influence, it even generates *.AVI movies walking through the map. It also allows importing your own star databases. If you are serious about starmapping in general and interstellar empires in particular, you owe it to yourself to get this program.

Even later breaking note: Version 2.0 is out, and it adds tons of "must-have" features. This version can handle about a hundred times as many stars, and includes various star searching functions. It imports/exports XML files. It has sophisticated orbital mapping for solar systems, and transit time calculation. It has movable markers for starships, fleets, and other objects. It handles sub-sectors. Planets icons can be replaced by national flags. And it will accept third party plug-ins written in VBScript for solar system generation. Recommended!

 {Late breaking news: It's Full Of Stars is now in version 2.0.1!}
 {Later breaking news: It's Full Of Stars is now in version 2.1!}
 {Even later breaking news: It's version 2.2!}

 (For those trusting souls out there who [a] are not afraid of computer viruses and [b] do not have C compilers; here is the IBM executable version of the program {about 82K} and the Macintosh executable { about 64K, in BinHex 4 format }. Each time you run it, a file called "NEW.SYS" is produced. This is a text file containing all the info about the newly created solar system. There seem to be a bug, as no file is created if "Collision between two planetesimals!" happens.)

And here is a sample solar system generated by Accrete. In this output file, the heading "Smallest molecular weight retained" refers to the planet's atmosphere. Look at this list of atmospheric gasses. The only gases one could find on a given planet will have molecular weights greater than the "smallest weight retained". For instance, if the smallest is 45, one could only find Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone, Sulfur dioxide, Sulfur trioxide, Krypton, and Xenon. As for which of these actually occur in the planet's atmosphere, that is for you to decide (translation: there is no conceivable way to calculate that). If the smallest is greater than 130, the planet is airless. Also note that Accrete generates the star's characteristics, like mass and luminosity. You will have to match the star to an existing star, if you are really nit-picky about these matters.

And here is a link to the Accrete Home Page, with a couple of version, including a java applet (with source code!)

 Mark Smithhas used the Gliese data to make a remarkable program. Jump here to check it out!  Now it includes a downloadable demo for IBM windows!

 Max Lambertini has created a marvelous program for mapping and managing the stars within 100 light years! Warp Now can print out starmaps, chart routes between stars with user settable maximum distances, and generate solar systems using a system similar to the 2300AD RPG. This web site also has other goodies for system builders, check it out!

Flash! Now available at the same site is the Free Virtual World program. This allows users to create voxel like landscapes in 2.5D.

Flash! 3-D Stars is now in version 1.1!  Now the unregistered version has 2,500 stars, and the registered version has the Gliese catalogue added to that. New options include lens flare and configuration files.

Flash again! 3-D Stars is now in version 1.2! (It's free, too). It has two star catalogs with 30,000 stars, and a pulsar catalog that demonstrates the galactic disk. It also has a 2-d chart maker.

Macintosh Applications

Unix/Linux Applications

Java, Online, VRML, Excel, or other

Old Starmap

Here is a new sample starmap, in honor of this web page's 5000th hit. It is all the Gliese 2.0 stars within 7 parsecs, in galactic co-ordinates, with lines draw between all pairs of stars closer than one parsec. The map was generated by the data in the file nearmap.doc, mentioned below.

Here is a anaglyphic starmap, of all the Gliese 3.0 stars within 5 parsecs, in equitoral co-ordinates, with lines draw between all pairs of stars closer than 2 parsecs. You will need red-blue anaglyphic glasses, which are available here. If you are interested in how this map was made, check this website's section See A Show In Ster-ee-oh. 

 (For those trusting souls out there who [a] are not afraid of computer viruses, and [b] do not have a C compiler; here is the IBM executable {about 55K} and the Macintosh executable version of the program {about 46K, in a BinHex4 file}. You will also need the Gliese near star catalog version 3.0{about 219K}. The catalog is in PKZip format, and needs PKUnzip or equivalent to expand it. Make sure that the catalog file is named GLIESE3.DAT and is in the same directory as the program. When you run the program, it will give you a menu allowing one to set various filter criteria. Or you can set the criteria with command line options: (IBM version only)
'-n' turns on non-interactive mode
'-ref X Y Z' sets the reference point to (X, Y, Z); default is (0, 0, 0)
'-mindist X' changes minimum distance to X; default is 0
'-maxdist X' changes maximum distance to X; default is 5
'-minlum X' changes minimum luminosity to X; default is 0
'-maxlum X' changes maximum luminosity to X; default is 200
'-nobin' turns off binaries; default is binaries on
'-long' turns on long output; default is short
'-xlong' turns on extra-long output; default is short
'-o FILE' sets the output filename to FILE; default is 'gliese3.out'
NOTE: X, Y, and Z are numbers; FILE is a filename )
FYI: human habitable planets are currently believed to occur around stars with luminiosities between 0.4 and 2.0.

 Here is the entire Gliese 3.0 catalog in "-xlong" verbose mode. {about 224K} It is in PKZip format. 

(For those trusting souls out there who [a] are not afraid of computer viruses, [b] do not have Pascal compilers, and [c] do have IBM computers; here is the IBM executable version of the program {about 17K}. You will also need the Gliese near star catalog version 2.0{about 96K}. The catalog is in PKZip format, and needs PKUnzip to expand it. After unpacking, rename GLIESE2.DAT to GLIESE.DAT. Macintosh version will be created Real Soon Now. )

 Please note that this program can only read in the Gliese 2.0 catalog, not the 3.0. I'm working on it...

 Here is a sample output file "filtered" so to only list stars that are not binaries, and with luminosities between 0.4 and 2.0. This represents a good guess at the kinds of stars that might harbor human habitable planets.

Here is a sample output file of the entire Gliese 2.0 catalog.

Here is a sample output file of all the Gliese 2.0 stars closer than 7.0 parsecs (about 22.8 light years).

 Here is a sample output file of most of the stars that have actual names (i.e., "Spica" instead of "Kappa Fornacis"). Please note that unlike the other sample output files, all the co-ordinates are in Light Years instead of Parsecs. Also note that as a general rule, "named" stars are huge, blazing hot, and short-lived suckers who are very unlikely to have human habitable planets. Most of the human habitable suns are so relatively dim that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Therefore, they were not named by poetic ancient arabs, but instead by pedantic scientists who, more often than not, just gave them boring catalog numbers. That is why you'll find so many stars in these lists with drab names like DM-24°263 and LTT 10070. (Notable exceptions: Barnard's Star and Van Maanan's Star). Please note that bright stars are useful as names for stellar "sectors". In Issac Asimov's PEBBLE IN THE SKY, Earth was in the "Sirius sector".

A Note on Star names

 The Gliese data uses standard astronomical abbreviations: "ZET TUC" means Zeta Tucanae. Here is a list of the abbreviations so that you may translate. An entry from the DM catalog, such as "DM-24 263" should have a "degree" symbol in the space between the 4 and the 2 ( i.e., DM-24°263 ).

+=======================(:)=== ^ ===(:)======================================+
|   WINCHELL CHUNG      |=|   /_\   |=| I'm nobody. Nobody at all. But the   |
|Nyrath the nearly wise |\|  <(*)>  |\| secrets of the universe don't mind.  |
| nyrath@projectrho.com |=| /_/|\_\ |=| They reveal themselves to nobodies   |
|                       |\|  //|\\  |\| that care. OUTER LIMITS: Galaxy Being|
+=======================(:)=///|\\\=(:)======================================+