Early Birthday Greetings...

summers_place  and coffeebuzz

Hoping your birthdays are kind to you!

Assorted Thoughts on Astrometry and SF&F

1. There was a time when I think we DCU fans were all convinced that Thanagar actually orbited its universe's analogue of Polaris AKA Alpha Ursae Minoris, rather than a star that *Thanagarians* called "Polaris". Given what we know now about the real Polaris, the former situation is highly unlikely.

However, we *do* know more about the real Polaris than we used to...

http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-far-away-is-polaris

2. Re: the Gamma Hydrae neighbourhood - I suspect there are data gaps that GAIA DR 2 can fill in here.

http://whitten.org/index.php?x_c=67.216&y_c=-77.0227&z_c=83.5617&xy_zoom=20&z_zoom=20&m_limit=&select_star=47425&image_type=normal&image_size=1200&max_line=7&trek_names=1

3. On the subject of Beta Cygni/Albireo - has anyone ever used that as the setting of a story? (Note to TrekMapping people: would the components of Albireo be *in* or *outside* of Breen territory?) - here's an interesting exchange:

https://twitter.com/SkyscraperJim/status/1026550645329776640

4. Good news for starmap builders in general:

https://twitter.com/mfouesneau/status/1026846200367128576

5. Seeing that at least one episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation, and an entire campaign sourcebook for the role-playing game 2300 AD were using the Pleiades star cluster as either a backdrop or a campaign goal, it seems to me that some of my friendlisters might be interested in this particular research paper on the distance to the Pleiades.

http://arxiver.moonhats.com/2018/08/10/around-the-pleiades-ima/