Astrography
Astrography is the science of mapping interstellar space.
- Sometimes Astrography is mistaken for the related science of Astrogation.
Overview:
- Astrography
- Astrography is the art and science of mapping out interstellar space. An astrographer is someone who maps out interstellar space.
- Astrogation
- Astrogation is the actual planning of the navigation of spacecraft. Or the planning of a route through space, either in interplanetary or interstellar travel. An astrogator is someone who navigates a spacecraft, or starship, through interstellar space.
Please see the following AAB articles for related information:
- Astrography
- Applied Astrography
- Physical Astrography
- Social Astrography
- Cosmology
- Black Hole
- Jumpspace
- Light Speed
- Nebula
- N-space
- Universe
Description (Specifications)
Basic to any science of mapping is a coordinate system. The scientific system used by the Imperium is based on rings of longitude, rays of latitude, and parsecs. By convention, rays of latitude and rings of longitude are measured from a starting point at Reference (Core 0140), the world where the data from the First and Second Imperial Grand Surveys are stored.
The concentric ring passing through Reference/Capital is labeled the 10,000th ring, and is used as a baseline. Similarly, the ray of latitude extending from the center of the Galaxy through Reference/Capital is designated as the first ray. Measurement is in parsecs, counting in the trailing direction. Computation reveals that the circumference of the 10,000th ring (r=10,000) is 62,832 parsecs. Counting spinward uses a subtraction from 62,833, which is the equivalent of the zero baseline.
For example, Regina, of the Regina Subsector, in the Spinward Marches, is 9930 ring/ray 62723.
- The format for expression of location is xxxx ring/ray yyyyy, where xxxx is the ring of longitude (distance from the galactic core in parsecs), and yyyyy is the distance of the ray of latitude (in parsecs) from the first ray of latitude, measured along the ring of longitude in the trailing direction.
Four Prime Directions
The four prime Astrographic directions are:
- Spinward (In the direction of the orbital spin of the galaxy)
- Coreward (Towards the center of the Known Galaxy)
- Rimward (Away from the center of the Known Galaxy)
- Trailing (The opposite direction of orbital spin of the galaxy)
Please see Galactic Directions for more information.
Units of Measure
Please see to learn more about general astrographic organization:
- Charted Space, or Known Space (all charted sectors)
- Domain (4 sectors)
- Quadrant (1/4 of a sector or 4 subsectors)
- Sector (1 sector) (Called a province by the Zhodani)
- Subsector (1/16 sector) (Also called districts)
- County (Less than 1/16 of a sector) (Usually a multi-world planet grouping)
- World (Less than 1/16 of a sector) (A single planet)
Astrographic Measurement Data Table
Term Sector
EquivalentSubSector
EquivalentNotes Charted Space All known
sectorsAll known
subsectorsAll of charted space is still but a fraction of the known galaxy. - Sometimes informally referred to as "known space".
Domain 4 64 Domains often include attached nearby territories in their realm of control. - Many domains don't include complete (100%) control of the entire domain.
- Occasionally known as "demesnes".
Sector 1 16 Also known as "marches", "matrixes", "provinces", "reaches", and "regions" among other titles. Quadrant 1/4 4 Sometimes confusingly used to refer to a whole Sector rather than several (four) subsectors. - In some antiquated pre-Imperial measurement systems, four sectors formed a super-sector composed of four sectors each called quadrants.
Subsector 1/16 1 Sometimes referred to as "Districts". - A County is a political measurement that may be smaller or larger than a subsector.
World Fraction Fraction A single world, overseen in the Third Imperium by an Imperial noble of the rank Marquis or above. - Groupings of nearby worlds are called clusters.
Please see the following articles for related information:
History & Background (Dossier)
No information yet available.
Imperial Science
This mapping system is highly Imperio-centric, and other systems are used by other peoples and races outside the Imperium. This system has gained wide acceptance, however, among Imperium dominated client-states, human and otherwise. This mapping system breaks down and is prone to error beyond certain limits. It does serve admirably for a band approximately 400 parsecs wide at a longitude of 10,000 parsecs, which is a region precisely centered on the Imperium.
In ordinary discourse, a world is referred to by its name then sector and parsec/hex in parentheses.
For example, the homeworld of Archduke Norris is Regina (Spinward Marches 1910): That is, the world Regina is in hex 1910 in Spinward Marches Sector.
- When specifying the location of sectors, a coordinate system is used with Core sector being at (0, 0).
- Thus the Spinward Marches would be at (-4, 1) and the Reavers' Deep would be at (-2, -2).
- This can be better viewed on the Charted Space map.
Named Astrographic Features & Locations
Please see to learn more about named astrographic locations:
- Abyss Rift
- Behind the Claw
- Bradley Barrier
- Calibration Point (Deep space refueling points)
- Delphi rift
- Dudin-Bolivar Rift
- Dunmag Sargasso
- Empress Wave
- Great Rift
- Helix Rift
- Horlein asteroids
- Lesser Rift
- J-4 Gn'hk'r Jump Bridge
- J-5 Trans-rift Hierate Route or Verge Connector
- JumpStart
- Main
- The Maw
- Misplaced Stars
- Outrim Void
- Pact-Remnants Mainbridge
- Pelican Nebula
- Rimward Gap
- Saris-Yenisei Bridge
- Sirius Gap
- Trojan Bight or Outrim Void
- Wilds
- Windhorn rift
General Astrographic Features
The following astrogpaphic features are known to Imperial science:
Stellar Types & Features
- Blitzar
- Boson Star
- Clusters
- Dwarf Stars
- Electroweak Star
- Flare Stars
- Frozen Star
- Iron Star
- Magnetars (Magnetic Stars)
- Mira Variable Stars
- Neutron Stars
- Novas
- Planck Star
- Preon Stars
- Pulsars
- Q Star
- Quark Star
- Quasar
- Strange Star
- Terms for Galactic Star Distribution & Composition
- Thorne–Żytkow Object
- Variable Stars
World & System Types & Features
- Basic World Classifications
- Gas Planet AKA Gas Giant
- "Gas Ball"
- "Gas Dwarf"
- "Helium Planet"
- "Ice Giant"
- "Puffy Planet "
- Terrestrial Planet (Surface of solids, liquids, or mixed) AKA "Telluric Planet"
- "Ice Ball" AKA "Snowball" (Cold)
- "Rock Ball" (Often temperate if it has a moderate atmosphere)
- "Fire Ball" (Hot)
- Gas Planet AKA Gas Giant
- Compositional World Classifications
- Chthonian Planet
- Carbon Planet
- Coreless Planet
- Desert Planet
- Gas Dwarf
- Gas Giant
- Helium Planet
- Hollow Earth
- Ice Giant
- Ice Planet "Global Cryosphere"
- Iron Planet
- Lava Planet
- Ocean Planet "Waterworld"
- Protoplanet
- Puffy Planet "Hot Saturn"
- Silicate Planet
- Mass World Classifications
- Giant Planet AKA Big World (BW)
- Mesoplanet
- Mini-Neptune
- Planemo
- Planetar
- Super-Earth
- Super-Jupiter
- Sub-Earth
- Morphological World Classifications
- Doughnut Worlds
- Ellipsoid Worlds
- Orbital World Classifications
- Circumbinary Planet
- Double planet (Binary Planet)
- Dwarf Planet
- Eccentric Jupiter
- Exoplanet
- Extragalactic Planet ]
- Goldilocks Planet
- Hot Jupiter
- Hot Neptune
- Inferior Planet
- Inner Planet
- Major Planet
- Outer Planet
- Pulsar Planet
- Rogue Planet (Interstellar Planet)
- Superior Planet
- Tidally Locked Worlds (Twilight Zones)
- Trojan Planet
- Other World Classifications
- Artificial Planet
- Desert Planet
- Ice Planet
- Forest Planet
- Jungle Planet
- Lava Planet
- Ocean Planet
- Parallel Earth
- Sapient Planet AKA Macromorph
- Hyper-macromorph
- Ultra-macromorph
- Wayward Planets (Rogue Planets)
- System Phenomena
Other Astrographic Types & Features
- Black Holes or Singularity Types (mass-based derivation)
- Massive
- Supermassive
- Hypermassive
- Galaxy
- Galactic Anatomy
- Galactic Arms
- Galactic Cluster AKA Open Cluster
- Galactic Core (Center)
- Galactic Halo
- Globular Cluster
- Magellanic Clouds
- Messier Object
- Galaxic Types
- Galactic Anatomy
- Interstellar Objects (Interstellar Medium)
General Astrographic Terminology
Please see to learn more about astrographic terminology and units of measure:
- Astronomical unit (AU)
- C (the speed of light)
- Imperial stellar density
- Light-year (ly)
- Parsec (pc)
- Stellar Density
Astrographic Distances Data Table
# Base Unit Astronomical unit
(AU)Light-scale
(Imperial Standard)Parsec
(pc)Kilometers
(km)Miles
(mi)1. Parsec (pc) 206,260 AU 3.2637 ly
170.069 lw
1190.484 ld
28,571.616 lh
1.714×106 lm
102.858×106 ls1.0 pc 30.856 trillion km 19.173 trillion miles 2. Light-year (ly) 63,200 AU 1.0000000 ly
52.143 lw
365.00 ld
8760.00 lh
525,600.00 lm
31.536×106 ls0.3064 pc 9.454 trillion km 5.875 trillion miles 3. Light-week (lw) 1,212.055 AU 0.0192 ly
1.0 lw
7.0 ld
168.0 lh
10,800 lm
604,800 ls5.876×10-3 pc 181,314 million km 112,630 million miles 4. Light-day (ld) 173.151 AU 2.738×10-3 ly
0.143 lw
1.0 ld
24.0 lh
1440 lm
86,400 ls8.395×10-4 pc 25.902 billion km 16.094 billion miles 5. Light-hour (lh) 7.215 AU 1.1408×10-4 ly
5.9524×10-3 lw
0.0417 ld
1.0 lh
60.0 lm
3600.0 ls3.498×10-5 pc 1.079 billion km 670.6 million miles 6. Astronomical unit (AU) 1.0000 AU 1.581×10-5 ly
0.0008 lw
0.0058 ld
0.1387 lh
8.3195 lm
499.1681 ls4.848×10-6 pc 150 million km 93 million miles 7. Light-minute (lm) 0.1202 AU 1.901×10-6 ly
9.941×10-5 lw
6.944×10-4 ld
0.017 lh
1.0 lm
60.0 ls5.830×10-7 pc 17.99×106 km 11.18×106 miles 8. Light-second (ls) 0.0020 AU 3.1688×10-8 ly
1.6534×10-6 lw
1.1574×10-5 ld
0.0003 lh
0.0167 lm
1.0 ls9.7159×10-9 pc 299,792.458 km 186,282.397 miles 9. Mile (mi) Fraction Fraction Fraction 1.609344 km 1.000000 mile 10. Kilometer (km) Fraction Fraction Fraction 1.000000 km 0.621371 mile
NOTES:
- A Standard Day is exactly 24.00 hrs long, by definition.
- A Standard Imperial Year is exactly 365 standard days long, by definition.
- A Terran Local (Solar) Day is exactly 24.00 hrs long, by definition (1.0000 standard days)..
- A Terran Rotational Period is 23h 56m 4s long (0.9973 standard days).
- A Terran Orbital Period (Year) is is 365.2564 standard days in length (1.0007 standard Imperial years).
- A Vlandian Local Day ("Drandir") is about 31.8 hours long.
- A Vlandian Rotational Period is 31h 48m 18s long (1.3252 standard days).
- A Vlandian Orbital Period (Year) ("Gurkula") is 478.72 standard days in length (1.3116 standard Imperial years), or 360 drandir.
- A Sylean Rotational Period is 24h 4m 1s long (1.0669 standard days).
- A Sylean Orbital Period (Year) is 364.97 standard days in length (0.9999 standard Imperial years).
References & Contributors (Sources)
- Classic Traveller Supplement 8 Library Data (A-M)
- Classic Traveller The Traveller Book
- GURPS Traveller: First In
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science