I slapped this together and then realized that the bonds look too long. But the hydrogen atom angle is 109 degrees, which I believe is right.
The shadows are for 1:30 PM on June 21, which is utterly gratuitous information but looks kind of neat. And frankly, it’s not Science until it looks pretty.
Or pretty messy, as the case may be:
I want to make a bunch of molecular models in Sketchup, and it occured to me that I need a generic ‘tool kit’ of atoms and bonds in various angular arrangements. So far, I have the kit done for single bonds in a hex ring, now I have to do the same for a pentagonal ring, and then both for double bonds.
When I get this done, I’ll make a slide show of how to assemble molecules from it, and yes, I’ll upload the finished toolkit to Warehouse.
I hope I can also make three-dimensional molecular models at some point.
I wish the star labels were larger. I wish the resolution was better. Oh well, now I have a Youtube channel and it’s life in the fast lane . . . .
I scaled the stars to three sizes, smaller, same, or bigger than Sol. I also decided to go with the 2D text. I think I’m about ready with this, or too bored to continue, same thing.
Note the absence of stars on the far side of Alpha Centauri. Is there a void here? I’ll check my work.
The caption should probably be changed to the Twenty Nearest Star Systems, as many of the stars have smaller companions not shown here.
This is nice, but still a ways to go. Still, I didn’t expect to get this far in a day.
I’ve got all the stars in now. I’m going to check the angles and distances and then color them. That should be ready tomorrow.
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.
While working with Sketchup, I’ve noticed that making spheres and positioning them properly is somewhat of a chore. So I made these sphere components with coordinate grids to help in positioning them. I think it will make things a little easier, and you may see more spheres and domes in my future illustrations as a result.
with exhaust tail:
using wood to make a more ‘interesting’ exhaust tail:
All right, Enough! I swear, this is the last one I’m going to do on this (today at least):
Engineer Zero 