Since NASA releases Star Maps, I downloaded them and created my own Planetarium Animations.
Some very good music titles which I really like has been animated and visualized with these maps.
Screenshot Planetarium Animation
Screenshot Music Animation (Planetarium Style)
2020 NASA released a new set of maps in 64K, but unfortunately they didn't create one with the names of the constellations and one with the main stars of the constellations only.
But especially such maps are very important to visualize, especially the constellations. So in 2015 I made a set of maps and masked the main stars only for my animations, which was a lot of work.
Recently, Gaia has finished a very accurate interpretation of our Milky Way. Now I had the time to update my full set of star maps based upon the released NASA 2020 Deep Sky Maps.
I painted based upon their latest images a new map, which has only the main stars masked. It also took a while, because I carefully masked them in the original 64K resolution.
Then I used this mask to create some other maps. Especially one in which the stars are brightened up and color exaggerated to make pretty clear the constellation main stars.
I also created two new maps with the constellation names only. One in German, the other with their Latin names.
Here is a Screenshot made in Photoshop with a small final version of my planetarium styled images.
Screenshot Adobe CS 5.5 Photoshop
NASA Deep Sky Map with constellation outlines and names.
Screenshot Adobe CS 5.5 Photoshop / The mapping process
Left original, middle boosted constellation main stars, right constellation names
I made a nice overlay, showing the same process in a Terragen landscape rendering.
It was originally designed to have a good landscape for planetarium animations a la Stellarium.
Star Maps Overlay in Terragen
Terragen Planetarium Skydome
Full view with constellation names in German
So as you can see, it is a new, beautiful and exciting way to have your images presented planetarium styled.
A fresh way to spice up especially your panoramic landscape renderings or animations.
STORMLORD
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For everyone who is interested, here is my link collection to download the NASA maps.
NASA STAR MAP LINKS
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Deep Sky Star Maps 2020
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4851/Randomized Star Map 2020 - An Elsewhere Starfield
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4856/Randomized Star Map 2017 - Alternative Night Sky
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4451/
