Oolite Bulletins

I'm currently messing about with modifying the look of the stars in Oolite* system by system, so every system doesn't look the same as every other. It's the sort of activity that amuses someone who downloaded all 4GB of Povray Planets, so that no two planets would have the same texture. If the results of my tinkering are pleasing, I'll share them as an OXP. At which point, people will start to whinge, "You made my favourite system look all wrong." So if anyone has any opinions about particular systems that appear in mission OXPs or oofic, or that they just like hanging around, I'd like to hear them.

Like a bad Wikipedia article, this subject requires attention from an expert. I know there are red and blue giant stars, and red and white dwarf stars. Are there such things as green stars? And so on...

* The system main stars, not the background star field.

Wildeblood wrote:

Are there such things as green stars?

Apparently not... at least, not according to this.

Although this page suggests that you can get what they refer to as "greenish-white" stars at the very top end of the range.

Wildeblood wrote:

Are there such things as green stars?

This is the Ooniverse - you can have any colour you like! (as long as it's not black)

Apologies to Henry Ford

Smivs wrote:

This is the Ooniverse - you can have any colour you like! (as long as it's not black)

You can set sun_color = "blackColor". But it comes out looking the same as "grayColor". I like red stars, it makes everything look like a sunset, and Griff's stations really "pop" into a three dimensional look.

Smivs wrote:

This is the Ooniverse - you can have any colour you like! (as long as it's not black)

Apologies to Henry Ford

All we need now are stars with a Disco Mode.

Wildeblood wrote:

[...]. Are there such things as green stars? And so on...

* The system main stars, not the background star field.

There is no green star.
The color scale of the stars doesn' follow a "rainbow" scale, but a "heat" scale.
Look at a piece of iron being slowly heated in a furnace and you have a perfect overview of the spectrum of a star's color.

The old classification of stars, from the hottest ones to the coolest ones was O,B,A,F,G,K,M,R,N,S (Sun is of G type, yellow)
(And for the record, it was easy to remember this series: Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me Right Now Sweatheart.)

In some cases, especially in old astronomy books regarding double or multiple stars, we have some pictures of multicolored groups of stars showing green stars. This is an optical effect.

Wildeblood wrote:

Smivs wrote:

This is the Ooniverse - you can have any colour you like! (as long as it's not black)

You can set sun_color = "blackColor". But it comes out looking the same as "grayColor". I like red stars, it makes everything look like a sunset, and Griff's stations really "pop" into a three dimensional look.

I guess that it's the same basic rule for the suns as for the laser colours: they have to be reasonably bright. Which means that Oolite will brighten up everything that's not bright enough. "blackColor" would clearly fall in this territory.