Since were talking about eyes, Im studying to become an Ichthyologist(The study of fish). Some may call me an Aquaholic cause i have about 20 fish tanks. Anyhow, here's a fun fact. The Mantis shrimp has the most advanced eyes in world. Its eyes are so advanced it can tell which way light photons are spinning.

The more you know!

Cornflakes_91 wrote:Blackbody radiation never leaves the visible spectrum again.

Even tough the majority of the radiation might moves to UV there will always be enough energy in the visible area that you cant overlook it

^--- more or less this. Dark stars aren't really possible.

I got ninja'd twice, what?

And mantis shrimp are basically marine superheroes. They seem totally otherworldly.

reedit: Also, black holes aren't invisible. Some have visible jets of radiation along the axis, but all visibly warp space around them - basically, stuff nearby looks upside-down, and warps with a bubble effect as you move around it. (theoretically, all of this.)

Gazz wrote:Hmm, so if there were green and purple stars in game, they would look white ingame?
Having green and purple stars seems to be a questionable addition to the content. =P

They would only look that way across a great distance. If you were in a system with those stars, I think you'd be able to see the color from your ship.

But you shouldn't be staring directly at stars either.

Cornflakes_91 wrote:Blackbody radiation never leaves the visible spectrum again.

Even tough the majority of the radiation might moves to UV there will always be enough energy in the visible area that you cant overlook it

While this may be true, I still like the idea of having 'hidden' dangers where the only way to detect it is via sensors and scanners. Something completely invisible to the naked eye.

Almost like when you're flying through a dense nebula.

Coolest thing ever (as far as stars go) would be systems with variable stars, in my opinion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_star - for the uninformed.

Changes realistically include size and luminosity... I don't think stars can change color.

Talvieno wrote:I don't think stars can change color.

Many stars become red giants toward the end of their lifetime.

Talvieno wrote:Coolest thing ever (as far as stars go) would be systems with variable stars, in my opinion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_star - for the uninformed.

Changes realistically include size and luminosity... I don't think stars can change color.

"Oh that lush green planet you bought your summer cottage on? Under ice for the next five years, sorry about that. Variable star and all."

Grumblesaur wrote:

Talvieno wrote:I don't think stars can change color.

Many stars become red giants toward the end of their lifetime.

I mean fluctuations, such as yellow > orange > yellow > orange.

Mistycica wrote:

Talvieno wrote:Coolest thing ever (as far as stars go) would be systems with variable stars, in my opinion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_star - for the uninformed.

Changes realistically include size and luminosity... I don't think stars can change color.

"Oh that lush green planet you bought your summer cottage on? Under ice for the next five years, sorry about that. Variable star and all."

Heh heh heh. Love it.

Grumblesaur wrote:

Talvieno wrote:I don't think stars can change color.

Many stars become red giants toward the end of their lifetime.

aye and after that they become white dwarves (and planetary nebula formation) and eventually black dwarves.
Or they go into a supernova (nebula formation) and leave a neutron star or a black hole.

I'm kinda surprised no one pointed out that light is often filtered by various mediums that it may be passing through, like water, gas, air etc. A star in the distance could have its color altered by passing through a huge cloud of hydrogen or other gaseous element.

You prob don't want to live near a blue giant though, they burn hot and fast and then go boom.

Poet1960 wrote:I'm kinda surprised no one pointed out that light is often filtered by various mediums that it may be passing through, like water, gas, air etc. A star in the distance could have its color altered by passing through a huge cloud of hydrogen or other gaseous element.

You prob don't want to live near a blue giant though, they burn hot and fast and then go boom.

^--- this is very true. I'm surprised nobody mentioned it either.

There's your fantasy-colored stars, Mistycica! Just find a pink nebula. Or purple. I don't know about green, though - I don't think nebulae are naturally green... but knowing Mr. Parnell, there could be an exception.

Also interesting would be strange color combinations... A green neubla and an orange star, for instance.

This whole conversation made me think of John Cavil from Battlestar (the old man cylon), speaking to his creators about witnessing the supernova with his human senses, and regretting that they are so limited. I loved that scene

Talvieno wrote: There's your fantasy-colored stars, Mistycica! Just find a pink nebula.
Also interesting would be strange color combinations... A green neubla and an orange star, for instance.

Hah, I'd love that! My Universe is a sundae, apparently.

HoratioScumdog wrote:

Spoiler:      SHOW

Brother Cavil: In all your travels, have you ever seen a star go supernova?

Ellen Tigh: No.

Brother Cavil: No? Well, I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the Universe. Other stars, other planets and eventually other life. A supernova! Creation itself! I was there. I wanted to see it and be part of the moment. And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? With these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull! With eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum. With ears designed only to hear vibrations in the air.

Ellen Tigh: The five of us designed you to be as human as possible.

Brother Cavil: I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine! And I can know much more! I can experience so much more. But I'm trapped in this absurd body!

Story of my life

Astronomy generates false-color images because various radiative frequencies are being filtered out. Photons collected at the relatively narrow bands passed are mapped to some color. Often several frequency bands are obtained for the same region of space. When their images are composited, that's when we get the awesome -- but not visually accurate -- pictures like the "Pillars of Creation" processed by the Hubble team.

So why can't our ships do that?

I see no reason why we can't hook up our ship's frequency-mode scanner to the "window" of our ship (whether a glass analogue or a projection) and tell it to apply the current filter being used by the scanner.

Normal mode would be no filtering; as the frequency scanner is set to show all spikes, your "window" shows energy sources (emissions) and objects (reflections) in the part of the spectrum visible to the Mark I Mod 0 eyeball.

If you were to apply a filter to your scanner that tells it to block light in the visible-blue range, then sync your viewscreen to your scanner, what you'd "see" in the game would be everything with the exception of anything that reflects or emits blue light. If stars were modeled realistically, you could then see purple stars.

Filters usually work the other way around, though: they block everything but let a small selected band of frequencies through. That's useful for scientific astronomy, but it could also be handy for exploration in LT.

Suppose wormhole endpoints emit radiation at a particular very high frequency. Onto your trusty ship's scanner, you slap three mods: a filter to block everything but wormhole frequencies, a shifter that divides frequencies such that they enter the visual frequency range, and an expander that maps the wormhole frequency range to the full visual spectrum. Then you flip the switch to display that information visually.

Suddenly all the world goes dark... except for any nearby wormholes, which glow in the night like a flickering, many-colored aurora.

And you could do the same thing for any emitted or reflected energy that has a characteristic frequency band.

I can't think of any other space games that do that.

Flatfingers wrote:Astronomy generates false-color images because various radiative frequencies are being filtered out. Photons collected at the relatively narrow bands passed are mapped to some color. Often several frequency bands are obtained for the same region of space. When their images are composited, that's when we get the awesome -- but not visually accurate -- pictures like the "Pillars of Creation" processed by the Hubble team.

So why can't our ships do that?

I see no reason why we can't hook up our ship's frequency-mode scanner to the "window" of our ship (whether a glass analogue or a projection) and tell it to apply the current filter being used by the scanner.

Normal mode would be no filtering; as the frequency scanner is set to show all spikes, your "window" shows energy sources (emissions) and objects (reflections) in the part of the spectrum visible to the Mark I Mod 0 eyeball.

If you were to apply a filter to your scanner that tells it to block light in the visible-blue range, then sync your viewscreen to your scanner, what you'd "see" in the game would be everything with the exception of anything that reflects or emits blue light. If stars were modeled realistically, you could then see purple stars.

Filters usually work the other way around, though: they block everything but let a small selected band of frequencies through. That's useful for scientific astronomy, but it could also be handy for exploration in LT.

Suppose wormhole endpoints emit radiation at a particular very high frequency. Onto your trusty ship's scanner, you slap three mods: a filter to block everything but wormhole frequencies, a shifter that divides frequencies such that they enter the visual frequency range, and an expander that maps the wormhole frequency range to the full visual spectrum. Then you flip the switch to display that information visually.

Suddenly all the world goes dark... except for any nearby wormholes, which glow in the night like a flickering, many-colored aurora.

And you could do the same thing for any emitted or reflected energy that has a characteristic frequency band.

I can't think of any other space games that do that.

All of my yes . Have I told you that you are my hero yet, Flatfingers?