Adventures in Obsessive-Compulsive Tendencies... by NefariousDrO
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Description
Several people have commented on my oblique references to events leading to the moments captured in my science fiction posts, and I thought it was only fair at this point to give some additional information that I use as background material for my work.
This image represents the extent of Human-explored space after 150 years in the overall time-line I have been using for pretty most of my space scenes. The red lines indicate the first wave of expansing, the white circles have a number that shows the distance of that path of travel. This wave ended with the war I've referred to as "Humanity's First Interstellar War". Following that war, the second wave reached further out, and new outposts, and stations were established to continue the expansion. I've even planned beyond this, but not done a proper graphic representation for that stage, yet.
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This was created in Adobe Illustrator, the information comes from the Gliese Near-Star list (a list that covers hundreds of stars out to a couple-hundred light-years) which is being updated almost continuously these days. I charted the stars relative positions and then their distances based off the data in there, broke it down to a 2-d representation and then have referred to is whenever I needed inspiration for my ships.
As you can see, sometimes I can get a bit too obsessive over these kinds of details, I suppose it's my BA in history that drives this kind of thing. Still, while it was a pain to do, it's very useful now!
Thanks for taking a look, I imagine it would only appeal to the really hard-core SciFi nut like me, but I like looking at it, anyway...
Comments (14)
Ancel_Alexandre
I find it really interesting! Now, I understand a little better how you can create such good stories for your pictures! Thanks for sharing this!
annie5
Fantastic imagination..Interesting work! :)
gchuck
Well done! Now, lets see if we can prod that OCD a little bit? Hey! That would look really cool as 3D animation!!! My work here is done. Muah ha ha!
lwperkins
Oh, this is extremely handy, thank you! I've never gotten around to marking the relative distances, even though I have done illustrations of some of the star systems 0_o
geirla
Hey that's a fantastic map! I really, really like that representation. I understand the obsession, believe you me (history degree, too)!
pakled
There's actually a 3d representation of the stars out to 250 light-years if'n I remember correctly. Where Alpha Centauri, and other stars. Only problem is the scale, when you get out far enough, it looks more like a molecule...;) Great idea, keep 'em coming.
claude19
A very good information that this graph that can be understood with the zoom. I am impressed by the quality of your editorial organization. I understand your desire to explain. I myself wrote a diary, shown for each day of exploration, and whose overall title is "Journey through the Universe in September 80 days, and I published here on Renderosity (French / English ) With my thanks
preeder
Nice work and a great idea.
faroutsider
Obsession with detail is essential to good, believable story telling. Once again, I urge you to send your work to NASA, or VirginSpace, or whoever...
kjer_99
Yes, but in science fiction, the details are often what makes everything so believable. In short, it contributes to various plot-lines and "wrinkles." Never apologize for such thoroughness! Besides, I'm not sure that anyone who is not somewhat compulsive-obessive can write good science-fiction or fantasy. My own way of creating such a story was to world build a particular planet in great detail. Then the planet "told" me what story to write about it.
Chipka
Oh wow! I thought I was the only one who did this! Well...no...Gregory Benford, who is a LOT more famous than me does the same thing. I like what kjer says too...such realism dictates the course of stories. The thing with science fiction is that it has science in it, and since we don't have Roddenberry Class starships that can go from one star system to another between commercials we do have to rely on real stuff like the relative positions of stars and things like that. Oh, and just so you'll know (not that it's important) but Wolf 359 is one of the "stopping off" points on the way to the Nemaean Territories which are...well...off the map in the general direction of AD Leonis...okay, you didn't ask, but there's a bit of almost useful information for you
DMWVCS
YOU are a genius, sir!!! David
Faemike55
Fantastic work! Larry Niven dis something like this as well as EE (Doc) Smith! Looks great! BTW as one who is trying to write a Faerie Tale (novel and collection of short stories) I agree with Kier_99 you cannot have too many details
Gaiadriel
Hahahahaha.... a)Starstruck b)Awed c)Speechless d)All of the above