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Forum » SpaceEngine » General Discussions » Timescale Realism - Earth's Pole star (How to watch Vega - Polaris pole star cycle)
Timescale Realism - Earth's Pole star
ZangDate: Saturday, 01.03.2014, 21:25 | Message # 1
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How to watch the Vega - Polaris pole star cycle.

Have SE on current local time.
Locate Polaris and go to it.
Now locate Earth and land on it.
This puts you at Earth's north pole. Now look up and find Polaris (It should be straight up since we flew from it.)
Center Polaris on your screen.
Now locate and select Vega, but don't center it, but leave it selected for the rest of the exercise.

Now simply fast-forward in time with L and watch Vega spiral in to become the Pole star around ce.13000-15000 or so.
(Not quite as good as Polaris is currently.)

Wiki gives a date of ce.13,727 and I thought this would be a fun test to see if SE got it right.
Not bad!

You can also see seasons spin up in the atmosphere around 1e+008x on the timescale

Go faster to see it cycle again ever ~30k years or so again.
(ctrl \ to set the time back to local.)
 
DeathStarDate: Saturday, 01.03.2014, 21:36 | Message # 2
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Space Engine doesn't simulate star motion within the galaxy, so this isn't possible.
 
ZangDate: Saturday, 01.03.2014, 21:47 | Message # 3
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It's a good thing it isn't based on star motion then, because it's really neat to watch.



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HarbingerDawnDate: Saturday, 01.03.2014, 22:53 | Message # 4
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Quote DeathStar ()
Space Engine doesn't simulate star motion within the galaxy, so this isn't possible.

Quote Zang ()
It's a good thing it isn't based on star motion then, because it's really neat to watch.

Yes, it is caused by precession of Earth's rotation axis.

Just checked it out myself; turns out that Vega never gets very close to the pole so it wouldn't make a great pole star. The only bright stars to get very close to the pole are Polaris and Thuban.



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Edited by HarbingerDawn - Sunday, 02.03.2014, 03:14
 
ZangDate: Sunday, 02.03.2014, 03:29 | Message # 5
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Yes, 3000 years ago it was Thuban and quite visible, but not these days. (light pollution)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_star

And for each cycle, Polaris gets a bit farther away each time due to its stellar motion.



Previously: Physics Math Astronomy Library - University of Texas
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kairunotabiDate: Sunday, 02.03.2014, 04:50 | Message # 6
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Well, will timescale realism be implemented in future versions? It will be useful to be able to look back at the sky from the past and the future



 
HarbingerDawnDate: Sunday, 02.03.2014, 05:25 | Message # 7
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Quote kairunotabi ()
will timescale realism be implemented in future versions?

What do you mean by that? Time is already implemented.

Quote kairunotabi ()
It will be useful to be able to look back at the sky from the past and the future

This will require stellar motion, which will not be implemented in any way for a long time.



All forum users, please read this!
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kairunotabiDate: Sunday, 02.03.2014, 05:34 | Message # 8
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I mean, is it possible to see what the night sky looks like from Earth during the dark ages using SE? Can we see future eclipses or the come back of comets using SE?



 
HarbingerDawnDate: Sunday, 02.03.2014, 07:22 | Message # 9
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Quote kairunotabi ()
I mean, is it possible to see what the night sky looks like from Earth during the dark ages using SE?

It looked the same as it does today.

Quote kairunotabi ()
future eclipses

Not yet, SE doesn't use precise orbit models for solar system planets yet.

Quote kairunotabi ()
or the come back of comets using SE

If the comet is in the catalog and has an elliptical orbit then of course.



All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
 
Fireinthehole-Date: Sunday, 02.03.2014, 11:34 | Message # 10
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It's great SE simulates that, but it would sure be better if we could simulate proper motion aswell. But the problem then is that it would be hard to simulate the sky in a couple of million years and a couple of million years ago. In 200,000 years almost no constellation is familiar, imagine how it would look in 50 million years, or how it looked when the dinosaurs ran the world. It would be easier to simulate in other galaxies where the stars' locations are unknown to man.



Love Space Engine!
 
Forum » SpaceEngine » General Discussions » Timescale Realism - Earth's Pole star (How to watch Vega - Polaris pole star cycle)
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