Java Software Engineer Java Swing JSP EJB

View of Neighboring Stars
This applet demonstrates the power provided by quaternion rendering techniques to perform remarkably fast three dimensional calculations. The applet renders 87,476* stars rotated accurately through any arbitrary three dimensions in real time. In addition, the rendering technique is free from problems notorious to three dimensional rendering and navigation such as gimble lock. An in depth discussion of the math and coding techniques as well as a study of the potential applications for polygon rendering will follow (but only in the apparently unlikely event I have time to write such a thing up)

Instructions
The simulation starts with the view some 70 light years form Sol . Stars are represented by disks whose area corresponds to their apparent brightness and in a color corresponding to their actual spectrum. The stars present in the simulation always spin about Sol but do so in a user controlled speed and direction. The user may navigate around the space in the simulation using the appropriate keys.

Up Arrow: move up
Down Arrow: move down
Left Arrow: move left
Right Arrow: move right
Page Up or "F": move forward (into the screen)
Page Down or "B": move backward (out of the screen)
drag mouse: set the simulation spinning with the speed and direction of the mouse drag.
Each key press moves the viewpoint about one third of a light year (about three trillion kilometers)

Accuracy
The data viewed by simulation is a subset of the data in three major catalogs: the Hipparcos Catalog, the Yale Bright Star Catalog (5th Edition), and the Gliese Catalog of Nearby Stars (3rd Edition). All stars that are either brighter than magnitude +9.0 or within 50 parsecs (about 160 light years) from the Sun are included for a total of 87,476 stars.
*due to download performance considerations (the database of 90,000 stars is 13megs) the current version is limited to named stars with in a certain distance and images of the planets with in the solar system have been omitted. Even so, download may be noticeable depending on connection speed.

Note
This applet is copyrighted Anthony Grahn 2005. You are free to use it on your website but may not alter it in anyway.