Question Is the Sun a sprite?

[destinos]

Hey all,

I was taking a 'tour' of the system last night, centering the camera on different things, when i noticed that the sun doesn't seem to be a three dimensional sphere like the planets are. Am I right about this? Does it change appearance if you fly close enough to it? If not, is there any movement to change this? seems like it'd be pretty easy to do.

 

[Urwumpe]

Yes, it is a flat billboard object. It is not like you could see any difference of the sun in the visible spectrum with human eyes anyway. It is too bright.

 

[Andy44]

Doesn't that make the Orbiter Sun a naked singularity?

 

[destinos]

But it also doesn't seem to be scaled properly. Well, I mean, I dont know how big it should appear from the surface of Mercury but shouldn't it look larger than it does from that distance?

 

[Urwumpe]

Doesn't that make the Orbiter Sun a naked singularity?

No, because a naked singularity is still a spherical shell. It just has no inside, and thus counts as projection of a 2D object into 3D space... the orbiter sun is also a 2D object, but inside a 2D space.

 

[destinos]

But it also doesn't seem to be scaled properly. Well, I mean, I dont know how big it should appear from the surface of Mercury but shouldn't it look larger than it does from that distance?

Did anyone see that movie Sunshine? I just really loved that effects shot where they watched mercury pass in front of the sun. The scale difference between them was really staggering, and I guess I just wish that was actually the case. maybe it isn't.

 

[Urwumpe]

The sun appears to be 1/0.387099 times bigger when you are at Mercury, compared to Earth. That is not THAT much bigger, a bit less then three times bigger.

 

[destinos]

The sun appears to be 1/0.387099 times bigger when you are at Mercury, compared to Earth. That is not THAT much bigger, a bit less then three times bigger.

damn... can't argue with math

 

[Kaito]

I flew into the sun once in orbiter...Orbiter then gave me a funky orbit. I guess it didn't like that

 

[RisingFury]

The sun appears to be 1/0.387099 times bigger when you are at Mercury, compared to Earth. That is not THAT much bigger, a bit less then three times bigger.

Yea... in diameter. 9 times in surface area.

You can notice the difference between the size of the Sun when it's noon and it's high above and when it's setting and gets "bigger" due to atmospheric lensing. Something that's 3 times bigger would be quite easy to notice.

 

[Tex]

Is it also possible he adjusted the FOV to high? Change the FOV to 10 then look at the sun from Mercury. That's pretty close to how you would see it with your own eyes for real. More practical though, I found a FOV of 30 while in LEO or Moon trips to be perfect, but when doing trips to any other planet FOV 40 seems to be nice.

 

[Beather]

Did anyone see that movie Sunshine? I just really loved that effects shot where they watched mercury pass in front of the sun. The scale difference between them was really staggering, and I guess I just wish that was actually the case. maybe it isn't.

I loved that scene. Would be awesome to see the same effect in Orbiter!

 

[Oceanic]

Did anyone see that movie Sunshine? I just really loved that effects shot where they watched mercury pass in front of the sun. The scale difference between them was really staggering, and I guess I just wish that was actually the case. maybe it isn't.

that was scene was beautiful

take a look at this picture

i found it on experiencetheplanets.com

 

[Urwumpe]

Looks more like a transit of Venus by the size of it.

 

[Oceanic]

Looks more like a transit of Venus by the size of it.

yeah, but it sure looks awesome

Experience The Planets (ETP) is an ongoing project to realize views from around our solar system as seen through the eyes of artists.

 

[destinos]

Is it also possible he adjusted the FOV to high? Change the FOV to 10 then look at the sun from Mercury. That's pretty close to how you would see it with your own eyes for real. More practical though, I found a FOV of 30 while in LEO or Moon trips to be perfect, but when doing trips to any other planet FOV 40 seems to be nice.

I dunno, from what i know about photographic lenses at least, FOV 50 is the closest thing to human vision.

---------- Post added at 04:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:47 PM ----------

that was scene was beautiful

take a look at this picture

i found it on experiencetheplanets.com

Exactly. Does anyone know if it's possible to rewrite the sun as a spherical object and then maybe lay parts of this image over it as a texture?

 

[ncc1701d]

Directory of Sunshine

I love that movie sunshine. I listened to the directors commentary and he said he was directly inspired for the scene by that famous Venus transit photo. Although even he said he got confused little weather it was Venus or Mercury that was in that transit photo.

 

[destinos]

I love that movie sunshine. I listened to the directors commentary and he said he was directly inspired for the scene by that famous Venus transit photo. Although even he said he got confused little weather it was Venus or Mercury that was in that transit photo.

That makes sense then, because the proportions seem about the same in the two images. Was the Venus shot taken from a ground-based observatory. Either way you'd be getting a pretty high field compression between the Venus and the Sun, which is probably why it looks so large.

 

[legios]

I love that movie sunshine. I listened to the directors commentary and he said he was directly inspired for the scene by that famous Venus transit photo. Although even he said he got confused little weather it was Venus or Mercury that was in that transit photo.

Really? That movie's plot was horrendous.

1. Why was a manned crew even sent? I didn't see anything that couldn't have been done by a robot.

2. On that note, how could there not be an error check for a manuever that could potentially vaporize the spacecraft? At least two people on the ship should have had to verify it. AND, the computer should have an error check as well. AND the computer should have automatically positioned the sun shield. Hell, I get an "are you sure" when I'm just trying to close my browser.

3. Why did the astronauts behave so irresponsibly and crazy? Do we stop screening the psych profiles of astronauts in the future? Do we stop putting together crews that mesh psychologically? Ugh.

4. With the fate of the entire, (I mean ENTIRE) human race on the line, why would any crew stop and try and rescue a ship of 5 guys. I mean, their loss would have been tragic...but pick them up on the way home. Seriously.

I could go on, but the movie insulted my intelligence on so many levels.

 

[Hartmann]

A sun in orbiter with a solid surface and radiation pressure, with real textures and sun spots,CME, it could make a flyby very interesting.

Sunshine... well, i like the movie, but is very difficult find a realistic space movie, only apolo XIII is very real . almost every space movie has errors or mistakes.