Is there a (free) database of all stars/DSOs and their locations?

[Jayla]

Say, hypothetically speaking, I was to create an application that shows star locations in 3D, relative to each other, so you could "set focus" on the sun, or mizor, or alcor, and then see stars around those. like a 3d map sort of...

.. Is there anywhere I can get my data from? ie a database of star locations with 3 dimensional co-ordinates?

[nitram100]

Not sure! But it would be very cool

[yesyes]

Celestia has that kind of data. Not sure if you could use that or where they got it from.

[yesyes]

A link wouldn't go amiss, I guess... ;-)

Celestia: Home

[m.tweedy]

Is this what you want

http://server6.sky-map.org/?locale=EN

[Mikea]

OO that's flippin' interesting! Thanks Michael.

[Toadeh]

What about taking a look at Universe Sandbox? is that the sort of thing you want?

[Jove]

Hi,

I have been looking for something similar (and for similar reasons!). A good database of stars is here. Still looking for a good database of DSOs so if you come accross one please share!

[Jayla]

Cheers guys

Working with a lot of Android lately so trying to come up with some good idea for a mobile app for astro-related purposes

Suggestions welcome

[LukeSkywatcher]

What would be the purpose of an application that shows stars in "3D"?

Besides being cool.

[yesyes]

you could take a tour of our galaxy

[LukeSkywatcher]

you could take a tour of our galaxy

Been there,done that with the help of my astro related DVDs.

[yesyes]

on an Android phone?

[LukeSkywatcher]

on an Android phone?

No a Sony DVD player.

[rwg]

Cheers guys

Working with a lot of Android lately so trying to come up with some good idea for a mobile app for astro-related purposes

Suggestions welcome

Well, there's certainly some holes in the astro app lineup for Android...

* Something that shows the planets rise/set times for your location. Nice to have things like transit time and altitude too.

* a better planetarium than google sky maps - sky maps has limited star count and no pinch-to-zoom. There are a couple of other apps, but they don't rate highly

* A simple what's up application - tell me what is visible now (or at a given time). Planets, Messier, Caldwell catalogues. Set a limit altitude to exclude things below that (local horizon).

Must admit to having not got any further than 'hello, world' in android so far...

Robin

[dph1nm]

you could take a tour of our galaxy

Please note that accurate 3D locations for most stars in the galaxy simply do not exist! The Hipparcos distance measurements only go out to 1000ly or so. That leaves an awful lot of unmeasured galaxy. You will have to wait for the GAIA satellite for anything better.

If you have a play with Celestia: Home it will give you some idea of what is available.

NigelM

[stevecoe]

My astronomy club created a DSO listing that is available for free. It is the Saguaro Astronomy Club database. Our URL is www dot saguaroastro dot org

Once there, look for "Things to view". There are databases for dso, multiple stars, asterisms and red stars.

Hope that helps;

Steve Coe