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Accurate constellations in films/movies


RichardJBartlett

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Greetings

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place because my British side wants to use the word "film" but my American conditioning makes me want to use the word "movie"...

Anyway, when you're watching a film/movie and there's a night-time scene, do you ever look to see if they've bothered to put in accurate constellations?

It's a bad habit of mine... maybe even borderline OCD LOL

So, I noticed, for example, that Pixar got the constellations in the sky in Wall-E - I saw Orion for sure, plus Delphinus and Aquila. The former was in space about Earth and the latter were at the spaceship that Wall-E took the plant too. Unfortunately, that ship was light years from Earth so you wouldn't actually see those constellations as such... but I'll take what I can get...

I've also seen a couple of TV ads over here in the US with the correct constellations...

On the flip side there are some real duds too LOL Like Deep Impact... okay, let's not get into the merits of the film itself, but at the beginning, when they discover the comet itself, they're arguing over whether they're looking at Mizar or Megrez (at least they got the names right) but the Plough/Dipper is nowhere in sight...

*oh well*

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Richard, "that's a nasty habit you got there boy":D

Best just forget the astro stuff when watching a FILM, otherwise last night I would have been outside looking for a dastardly asteroid heading for Earth, well at least according to Bruce Willis! (sorry its my girls fav film), thought i'd get some brownie points, although I haven't seen it for a while how I was really impressed with how sharp the picture was on SD. I have got her the Blu Ray for Christmas so wonder how much better it will look. Sorry went a bit off topic there!

Alan

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Yes I do, and also in videogames. I've just been playing Fallout 3 and Red Dead Redemption, both of which feature the night sky in abundance but neither of which have anything approaching the real night sky.

You'd think after spending years programming the games that they'd pop in at least a couple of the more well known constellations.

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Yes I do, and also in videogames. I've just been playing Fallout 3 and Red Dead Redemption, both of which feature the night sky in abundance but neither of which have anything approaching the real night sky.

You'd think after spending years programming the games that they'd pop in at least a couple of the more well known constellations.

Hey cool idea for gaming. In such games as C.O.D. etc.......instead of displaying a map during night campaigns...why not let the player navigate by the stars.

Educational and fun.

P.S.~~~dont just stick one star in the sky and label it Polaris.

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I have to say i do that with films on the Red Faction game they had

Orion on it which was cool being on mars stargazing also on fallout 3

its good when it gets dark and stars come out but then you get

attacked by a Yao Guai Bear

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Nexus, that's funny. Morgan Freeman's been in some dodgy films but he's never been dodgy himself. A friend and I always said that if the world was coming to an end, we would want Morgan Freeman to tell us LOL

Guys, can't say I game, so I can't speak to that :D

Tddun, I noticed that ET screwed up the moon phase badly - at the beginning of the film, when ET is hiding in the shed, it's supposed to be evening but the moon phase is a waning crescent and therefore very early morning.

I've noticed that many TV shows and movies screw up the moon phase a lot... it irks me to be honest, because it's just laziness LOL There's inaccuracies in shows like the Universe too, and you'd think they'd know better!

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There was an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" where the 4 guys were on a train heading north along the California coastline. The ocean was seen out of the left hand side window on the train, but in another shot a couple of seconds later on the same train headed in the same direction, the Sun was seen setting out the right hand side window...........meaning that the Sun was setting in the East.

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Yes I do, and also in videogames. I've just been playing Fallout 3 and Red Dead Redemption, both of which feature the night sky in abundance but neither of which have anything approaching the real night sky.

You'd think after spending years programming the games that they'd pop in at least a couple of the more well known constellations.

Apparently a pal told me that LOTR online has correct constellations.

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What season are you watching?

Not totally sure ... it is being shown on Channel One, but I have only recently been able to access anything digital, so have "come in late" so to speak. Think it's probably season 5 based on some of the dialogue comments about how long they have been in the delta quadrant.

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Can't remember the film but the 'hero' was wooing a woman using a 80mm refractor to show her the Crab nebula. It was an very colourful and detailed image. Even my non astro interested husband recognised it was a Hubble image and not something you can see in a smallish refractor!

I wonder how many people went out and bought a refractor after seeing the film only to be disappointed at the less colourful sights?

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the one thing that really gets my goat (or any other farm animal) is when the sun or moon either rises or sets going in the wrong direction, i.e. show is in northern hemisphere yet the sun sets going from north to west. of course it would explain why the polar icecap is melting if the sun passes over it each day.

BBC really wind me up by doing it on some science shows.

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Nothing surprises me any more since seeing a passenger jet flying past in the background of a cowboys 'n' indians film, and a gladiator wearing a rolex watch lol. :)

They probably use the green screen projections from the original star trek for the night sky in films nowadays.

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The U.S. television show, "The Big Bang Theory," is guilty of faulty sky portrayal. During one episode, the guys are on a camping trip to watch the Perseid meteor shower. The backdrop displays a lovely star-filled sky. The story-line proceeds, and by the end of the show one is meant to believe that the guys have been out there for hours. The only problem is, the stars haven't moved. It's the same backdrop!

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