Galactic Navigation
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Donald10
Posted:
Sun Dec 17, 2006 7:07 am
Joined: 17 Dec 2006
Posts: 1
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Gentlemen; Ladies:
I am a novelist. I am writing a science fiction novel. I am not an astronomer, amateur or professional. I was before I took up writing and fairly decent engineer.
What I want to know is what coordinate system a ship of space would use if it had the ability to cover very large distances within the galaxy. Would all navigation be local; local referencing galactic center, etc.? What are the cardinal directions? Where is up?  Would directions be related to the plane of the ecliptic? A lot of questions indeed. If you know of a book which would save anyone having to explain all of this, that would also be appreciated: provided one understands I barely have a rudimentary knowledge of astronomy.
Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Donald
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Uranut
Posted:
Wed Dec 20, 2006 1:08 am
Joined: 22 Jul 2006
Posts: 9
Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA
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Just want you to know that I've been thinking about your question for a few days now but haven't come up with a definitive answer. Here are my preliminary thoughts:
'UP' would most likely be a point above the galactic center from which the galaxy would appear to rotate counter-clockwise (this is the situation on Earth).
'The ECLIPTIC' would probably not be a reference plane unless the spaceship was using a very localized coordinate system. The ecliptic is only relevant to Earth based (actually, Solar System based) observation.
One coordinate would likely be the distance from the center of the Galaxy.
A second would be the angular distance from a standard line of radius, most likely the line from the center through the Earth, at least in the early stages of exploration.
The third coordinate (the UP/DOWN) would have to be the distance above or below some standard plane, presumeably the plane perpendicular to the pole of the Galaxy and intersecting the center.
I hope others will join this thread to critique my thoughts and provide alternative ideas.
BTW, I'm looking forward to reading your novel!!!
_________________
Michael
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Lydia
Site Admin
Posted:
Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:18 am
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Posts: 597
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Remembering Star Trek... The universe was divided into sectors.
????
LL
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Marc
Site Admin
Posted:
Thu Jan 04, 2007 11:55 am
Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 108
Location: Ireland
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Actually I think it was alpha, beta, gamma and delta quadrants that the star trek universe was categorised into.
Although I'd steer clear of any similarities between your work and what has been used in previous science fiction if I were you Donald.
Personally I'd imagine that while all co-ordinates wouldn't be local they'd likely be relative to some object. Look at the way we use astronomical units within our solar system. As soon as we branch out further perhaps maybe the midpoint between our Sun and the Sun of the next closest solar system will be the reference point. Only when we're capable of traversing the galaxy would it make sense to use the centre of the galaxy.
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