As a science fiction fan and space enthusiast, I’ve long been interested in having a computer simulation that would show the nearest stars in spatial relation to one another. Sketchup allows me to finally do this, in a way that I can navigate between the stars as with my own starship.

As you can see, I’ve only got a handful of stars so far, but my goal is to put in the twenty nearest stars. Right now the stars are all yellow and the same size (.2 light years, obviously not to scale!). I hope to show stellar classes by color, and distinguish between dwarves, giants, etc.

It’s been slow going so far, but it should be done by tomorrow. The goal is to upload it to the Google 3D Warehouse, though I wonder if anyone else is interested in this sort of thing. We Shall See.