- 3,741
- 1,918
Blender just recently dropped a new version, 4.5(with 5.0 on the horizon), and within it was a new feature for which I immediately thought of a use for. The new feature was a .csv importer for Geometry nodes. Geometry nodes are a method of modelling that uses a node tree to create 3D models which offers more flexibility than straight modeling does. The .csv importer node allows you to bring in a .csv file and use the data in it to control aspects of your model. So for example, if you had a list of Right Ascensions, Declinations, and distances of celestial objects, you can use this to create a 3D map of them. Each value can be pulled out as an attribute node and used to define your model.
As luck would have it, there is a site called VisizeR that has a ton of catalogues of such objects, which can be searched and shown in table form. These tables can then be copy and pasted into a spreadsheet program and saved as a .csv file.
These VizieR tables can also be modified to show only the data you are interested in, and constrained by limits. For example, you could have a table list only G class stars out to 100 lys.
Such a map for all stars out to 100 ly is shown here:
This is an overlay of separate models. One for each spectral class of star, with each class given its correct Black body temperature color. This is useful if, for instance, you wanted to only show a particular class of star, which can be done by simple hiding the models for the other classes. If this particular file also had the visual magnitudes, you can create an attribute node for this, and then use it to control whether a star appears in the model, or possibly the visual appearance of the star( like the size representing visual magnitude).
The above image, being a still one, doesn't quite do the model justice, as the three dimensionality of it isn't apparent. For that, an animation is more appropriate.
This YouTube video of three different models gives a better showing. The 1st model is of all stars out to 175 parsecs (About the distance to Polaris), the 2nd is of DCEP Cepheid stars using the z red-shift for distances, and the 3rd is galaxy clusters detected by X-rays.
So far, I've only scraped the surface of what can be done with this new tool, and it's going to be fun to figure out other uses for it.
As luck would have it, there is a site called VisizeR that has a ton of catalogues of such objects, which can be searched and shown in table form. These tables can then be copy and pasted into a spreadsheet program and saved as a .csv file.
These VizieR tables can also be modified to show only the data you are interested in, and constrained by limits. For example, you could have a table list only G class stars out to 100 lys.
Such a map for all stars out to 100 ly is shown here:
This is an overlay of separate models. One for each spectral class of star, with each class given its correct Black body temperature color. This is useful if, for instance, you wanted to only show a particular class of star, which can be done by simple hiding the models for the other classes. If this particular file also had the visual magnitudes, you can create an attribute node for this, and then use it to control whether a star appears in the model, or possibly the visual appearance of the star( like the size representing visual magnitude).
The above image, being a still one, doesn't quite do the model justice, as the three dimensionality of it isn't apparent. For that, an animation is more appropriate.
This YouTube video of three different models gives a better showing. The 1st model is of all stars out to 175 parsecs (About the distance to Polaris), the 2nd is of DCEP Cepheid stars using the z red-shift for distances, and the 3rd is galaxy clusters detected by X-rays.
So far, I've only scraped the surface of what can be done with this new tool, and it's going to be fun to figure out other uses for it.