[Ryan]

I was going over one of my school books, and noticed a star marked "Sirius." I knew this was a system in freespace, so i went into my star chart book and found the systems Deneb and Capella. Capella should be visible to the northern hemisphere in january.

Anybody else notice these things? is there anything "odd" about the gravity about these systems?

Really, I just got a reason to pay closer attention in school.

[Polpolion]

IIRC some of the names are fooled around with, though. IRL, Epsilon pegasai is Epsilon Erandi or something, IIRC.

[Mad Bomber]

I pity you, foo! Epsilon Pegasi (orange supergiant about to die off) is a completely different star from Epsilon Eridani (nearby young orange main sequence).

The only stars on the FS map that aren't known by current astronomy at all are Ribos, Ikeya, Vasuda, and Laramis (though Laramis was mentioned as having been only recently discovered in 2335).

It's probable that Vasuda was a previously-known star that was renamed, and the same may be true with Ribos and Ikeya. Lots of stars don't have names at the moment, and are just known as HD 40491 or something equally hard to memorize.

[Agent_Koopa]

But the stars themselves have no correlation with their FreeSpace counterparts.

[Dark Hunter]

My guess is that just found a list of star names and ran with it, not really bothering to check if they were being at all accurate.

Example: Capella.

FS Capella: A yellow star appearing similar to Sol with at least one habitable world around it.

Real-life Capella: Multi-system of about six stars of varying sizes and colors that would make habitable planets all kinds of impossible.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Example: Capella.

FS Capella: A yellow star appearing similar to Sol with at least one habitable world around it.

Real-life Capella: Multi-system of about six stars of varying sizes and colors that would make habitable planets all kinds of impossible.

Would it not be possible for Capella to have had 6 stars at a point in the FS2 universe?  How many light years away is it?  Seems Shivan's like blowing up stars so if it's far enough away we would still see 6 stars where the rest have already been forced into nova.

[azile0]

Assuming shivans exist. 

[TrashMan]

Example: Capella.

FS Capella: A yellow star appearing similar to Sol with at least one habitable world around it.

Real-life Capella: Multi-system of about six stars of varying sizes and colors that would make habitable planets all kinds of impossible.

Would it not be possible for Capella to have had 6 stars at a point in the FS2 universe?  How many light years away is it?  Seems Shivan's like blowing up stars so if it's far enough away we would still see 6 stars where the rest have already been forced into nova.

We only see one satar.

And in a system with 6 stars, having a habitable planet is night impossible.

[terran_emperor]

Well for one thing Capella is only 42 ly away, so there is no chance of it to have had 6...As for why we see only one, it could just be that every time you are in the system, they are alignned so you only see one.

Although the real reason is sloppy work on  's part. As several of the systems are multi-star

Sirius - Binary star
Alpha Centauri - Trinary star (See the Opperation Templar missions from Multi player)

[Snail]

Maybe Capella was originally some other system but was renamed Capella II for some reason. Then people started calling it just Capella instead of Capella II because it sounds more catchy.

[TrashMan]

Meh....aside from the naming convention, real life star systems have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on FS2 systems..and voice-versa.

[DarkBasilisk]

And darn, I was looking at star systems for my campaign to try and make things accurate, but apparently that's overkill. Too late though, I already went through the work for picking things. So my system will be somewhat accurate: star will be matching to reality, and while we haven't found much in that solar system other than one planet that gets way too close to the sun in that system for life to exist, wiki Gods say that there's a better chance of terrestrial planets existing in that system then there is in Sol. So I get to have some justification for having people living on habitable planets in that system ^_^ Star is SAO 4737 / HD 17156 btw.

[Mobius]

I was going over one of my school books, and noticed a star marked "Sirius." I knew this was a system in freespace, so i went into my star chart book and found the systems Deneb and Capella. Capella should be visible to the northern hemisphere in january.

Wait, you said that you didn't know of Sirius, Deneb and Capella until that moment?!?

Back on topic, didn't pay a lot of attention when representing existing stars though I recall a cutscene with Bosch. There were two stars, one of which was much smaller than her sister. I though it was Polaris since the third star of that system has only recently been discovered. It could be Sirius, anyway...

As far as I know campaign creators pay attention on existing stars. Backgrounds created with LS' nebulae(available with the package itself) are based on real parameters of luminosity and mass. In Warzone SCP we have used new star bitmaps to match realistic parameters, etc. etc.

Maybe Capella was originally some other system but was renamed Capella II for some reason. Then people started calling it just Capella instead of Capella II because it sounds more catchy.

Good point. That system could have been named after a person since Capella is a surname...but I wonder why Wolf 359 and Ross 128 kept their old names. No reference to "nicknames" of any sort.

We only see one satar.

And in a system with 6 stars, having a habitable planet is night impossible.

You can't be sure of it. Mass and luminosity are various. The distance is also various. You can have most stars close to the biggest one. In that kind of environment there could be habitable planets.

[Snail]

Maybe Capella was originally some other system but was renamed Capella II for some reason. Then people started calling it just Capella instead of Capella II because it sounds more catchy.

The most simple solution IMO.

[TrashMan]

You can't be sure of it. Mass and luminosity are various. The distance is also various. You can have most stars close to the biggest one. In that kind of environment there could be habitable planets.

Maby. alltough the chances for that are really, REALLY small.

The most simple solution IMO.

Either the stars have been re-named or they have no bearing to real starts.

[Mobius]

You can't be sure of it. Mass and luminosity are various. The distance is also various. You can have most stars close to the biggest one. In that kind of environment there could be habitable planets.

Maby. alltough the chances for that are really, REALLY small.

Well, I have never seen a system composed by multiple stars of considerable dimensions. It doesn't mean it couldn't exist, but...I think that systems with one big stars and one or more little sisters are more common than "super clusters of stars".

[karajorma]

Good point. That system could have been named after a person since Capella is a surname...but I wonder why Wolf 359 and Ross 128 kept their old names. No reference to "nicknames" of any sort.

Wolf 359 at least is quite heavily used in fiction under that name. Changing the name would simply result in it having a less identifiable name.

[Mobius]

Good point. That system could have been named after a person since Capella is a surname...but I wonder why Wolf 359 and Ross 128 kept their old names. No reference to "nicknames" of any sort.

Wolf 359 at least is quite heavily used in fiction under that name. Changing the name would simply result in it having a less identifiable name.

That's why "nicknames" and "official" names are needed to make everything more realistic. Wolf 359 might have an alternate name its citizens gave it.

Enif is called "Epsilon Pegasi", only the GTVA outpost in that system uses the "original" name. There's a complete lack of dialogues about systems' names in FreeSpace. Whoever lives in Wolf 359 must not like that name...

[terran_emperor]

Well, Wolf 359 is apparently the worst assignment a Terran can recieve...Sorta the Boondocks of Freespace

[TrashMan]

Well, I have never seen a system composed by multiple stars of considerable dimensions. It doesn't mean it couldn't exist, but...I think that systems with one big stars and one or more little sisters are more common than "super clusters of stars".

I was more refering to the problem with a stable orbit any planet in such system might have. The gravity fluctuation in such a system would be huge indeed...and a planet with a unstable orbit would have extreeme atmospheric conditions (or no atmosphere).. . chances are, a planet around several suns is either getting drawn towards the sun(s) or has already become a part of the sun.