Hipparcos catalogue viewer
Intro:
This is an interactive visualisation of the
Hipparcos
catalogue of 100,000 nearby stars with known distances (only the 55,000 stars within 200 parsecs are plotted). It uses
stereoscopic 3D to provide some depth perception
and give an impression of what the night sky might look like if your eyes were one light year apart.
Note: you need a browser with webgl and javascript enabled, and this page won't work on touchscreen devices.
Instructions:
Drag with the left mouse button to change the view direction, and use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. In order
to see the 3D effect, cross your eyes until you see three panels then focus on the middle one. After a few seconds
the stars should 'pop' out of the screen. Drags with the right mouse button will change the distance between the 'eyes'
to adjust the perspective. It can take some trial and error to get the settings right for you.
| Pupil distance [light years]: |
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| Field of view [degrees]: |
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