P3D 3-d astrometry: Hipparchos data

[boris@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Boris Starosta)]

This should be of interest to any astronomers on the list.

http://astro.estec.esa.nl/SA-general/Projects/Hipparcos/stereo_1.html

A client of mine just brought to my attention an interesting set of
anaglyphs, presenting astrometric data from Hipparchos in 3-D.  These are
red/green anaglyphs of well know star fields.  They are fairly well done,
with probably a bit more depth than is recommended - just the way I like
them!  (You will want to click on the "gif" buttons).

It's interesting to see how some of the star fields have very different
three dimensional characters.  Comparing for example Ursa Major with the
Lyra/Cygnus views: in the former, the constellation is easy to view, and
there is a definite logical distance/brightness relationship (i.e. nearer
stars are brighter); in the latter, Lyra is almost impossible to make out,
because of the extreme parallax of Vega, and the distance/brightness
relation among the stars is much more ambiguous.

These anaglyphs represent an excellent learning tool, and a good use of
stereo to present a three dimensional dataset.




Boris Starosta            boris@xxxxxxxxxxxx
                          http://www.starosta.com
usa 804 979 3930          http://www.starosta.com/3dshowcase



------------------------------