Space pictures topic

A cache of more than 8,400 high-resolution photographs taken by Apollo astronauts during trips to the moon is now available for viewing and download.

Article: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2015/20151002-apollo-astronaut-photos-flickr.html

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As seen on reddit (Active volcano on Io):

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There was joke picture ‘‘with religion theme’’ then suddenly appeared Milky Way

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I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t post ‘joke’ content in this thread, especially when it has to do with religion. Stick to space pictures.

Ya that.

Why doesn’t that^ count as ten?

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Another shot from Cassini that looks a lot like the current prototype:

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In what way are you comparing them?

I thought I’d try replicating the shot in game:

From the same distance of 54,000 km on the unilluminated side of the belt at an angle of about 45°.
The resolution is about 134m per pixel - 2.5 times sharper than that Cassini photo.

The severe difference is obviously because the in-game belt is about 2km wide. Saturn’s A ring, of which that photo shows a small part, is 14,600km wide.

If we got rid of the 2D belt ‘sprite’ and upped the rocks’ draw distance to a few 100kkm, I doubt it would even be visible at 10kkm.
It’s not my intention to criticise the engine, just point out the difference.

Looking forward to a Saturn-sized planet & rings in the future!

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Scaled up sprite doesn’t count :stuck_out_tongue:

I acknowledge that sprites will always be necessary, but I hope it’ll get to the point where they’re not obvious and the transition works. Hopefully we’ll get some nice reference images from Cassini before it crashes.

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Well, you wouldn’t just want a replica of our solar system would you? Although a couple ringed worlds would be excellent :slight_smile:

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ED equivalent of those rings.

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Not a true picture, but a Space Engine 8K Mars composit (Reddit):

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I love these pics ! I use this as my icon at the SpaceEngine web site.