A basic question about the Kerbalverse- Naming Stars?

[GarrisonChisholm]

I've just been playing 1.02 for about 9 days, and thoroughly enjoying myself, learning-curve mistakes and all. However, when looking at universe from orbit, I find I consider the question of the stars that make up that universe.

Has anyone given thought to "naming" all those 10,000+ stars in the sky? It sounds like an almost absurd pass-time, but someone with a web-affinity should set up a website where players could log on, pick a star in the Kerbal sky, and nominate a name for it- hopefully somewhat Kerbal-ish. This sounds rather do-able to me, and I hazard to say that a lot of poeple would love to be able to say that they named one of the stars in the Kerbal sky. The name for the star could be determined by "moderator vote" (to eliminate "Ed's Pizza" from nomination), after a certain time period.

Does anyone else think this idea has merit, but furthermore, does anyone have the know-how to set such a plan in motion? I alas do not- I'm just an idea guy.

[Johnny Wishbone]

I would think a lot of that would depend on the skybox, which can be changed by various mods and visual enhancement packs. I'm not saying your idea isn't without merit, but it may be a bit too ambitious since you'd need to keep track of star names and positions for all the various skyboxes. Unless you wanted to limit your idea to only the stock one.

[CalculusWarrior]

That is a good idea! I believe someone had drawn constellations at some point in the past, but such a community-driven naming project would be really cool! Of course, I wouldn't mind a higher-res skybox (zoom in while on EVA and look at a star, you'll see what I'm talking about), but it would definitely be cool for them to be named.

[Tex_NL]

Naming each and every dot on the skybox would be a hopeless task. There are just too many.

Sometime in the past it was suggested to create and name Kerbal constellations. Even that idea died before it got started.

[pandaman]

I do like the idea of giving the stars and constellations names it would add some nice depth to the 'Kerbal reality'. As would 'officially' naming significant geological features on the planets etc. And a player participation naming 'event' like you suggested would be a great way to do it.

Hopefully 1.1 will have a better skybox and that IMO would be the best time to start a project like that.

[Arsonik]

I have a custom skybox installed so it matters not to me.

[Mister Kerman]

Yeah I'd name a star for sure. They could graph out the skybox with an XY grid for references, then have a list of people in the thread with name, star location based on X and Y, and name of the star. One person with MS paint could do it in a half hour.

+rep. I'm down if this comes to fruition.

[Shpaget]

Now that we have a stock-ish telescope, maybe we need that high-res zoom function.

[Josson K.]

Why stop at stars ? This website could be also used to name geological formations like craters, mares, canyons etc. on the rocky planets. Maybe even asteroids (might not be possible since they are procedurally generated ?) A good name for this entity could be derived from the International Astronomical Union which handles the real-world naming of astronomical objects - Kerbal Astronomical Union. The initialism would be KAU, which means "chew" in german, making it quite Kerbal. Ultimately a map mod could use the aggregated data to integrate memorizable names in contracts. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to land in the "Chisholm Crater" or at the "Hadden Highlands"

Edited July 1, 2015 by Josson K.

[322997am]

Naming each and every dot on the skybox would be a hopeless task. There are just too many.

Sometime in the past it was suggested to create and name Kerbal constellations. Even that idea died before it got started.

well people did it so why not jeb?

[klesh]

Why stop at stars ? This website could be also used to name geological formations like craters, mares, canyons etc. on the rocky planets.

The community can't even really come to a consensus on the name of the highest mountain on Kerbin itself. This kind of "lore" should probably come from the devs, but I'm sure they have better things to do.

[Tex_NL]

well people did it so why not jeb?

Because people have a life. Jeb does not.

[GarrisonChisholm]

@ Josson K; Spot on- I love that idea. We would need some Prestigious Posters to toss their hat into the ring for this, but if welcome I would love to be on the committee that reviewed submitted names. We would need some kind of decision making body, a web-site builder, and input from Squad upon when the "most likely permanent" star-field would be in place (given it would most verily stinketh to name a ton of things and have a major upgrade toss everything in the litter). Heck, the web-site could even have an ad-banner for a charity, if a few 10's of thousands of page-views might earn say a breast cancer foundation (personal) some clicks.

&, we are not asking for 10 people to name 1000 stars each. Personal Inspiration would drive inspired souls to name 6 or a dozen, as time and inclination strike them, and I wager we would find a surprising number of inspired souls!

Edited July 1, 2015 by GarrisonChisholm

[Josson K.]

@klesh - I wouldn't start with formations that are really prominent for this very reason.

Here's how I'd do it in the beginning: Chose one to five features that are pretty minor (e.g. some small craters that could be traversed by a kerbal on foot in one or two minutes) and have a vote over the course of a week. This way there'd be a weekly event. At the same time suggestions for the next week could be turned in. For special occasions such as an update release or the anniversary of important space-related events there could be special naming events that run over a longer time - maybe combined with a theme (for example all entries have to have some relation to fiction that plays on the moon - maybe a Méliès Mountain Range ?) As you say, something like this would indeed be best run by an "official" community manager. I have no idea how much participation the community would show in something like this though.

[GarrisonChisholm]

So, I think the first order of business is to determine the permanency of the Kerbal Sky; are there any planned changes, or are the stars and nebulae as we see them going to be more-or-less "as-is"? I am uncertain how best to convey such a fact-finding request to Squad.

If we determine that the sky-field will be reciceiving a make-over in the future, then the project time-line can be anchored to that eventuality. From that fixed point we could then determine pre-cursor naming events, as well as a schedule for setting a timeline to build a web-site.

I am imagining that contributions could be as varied as a red giant being nominated as "Jebidoom" by one person, or "C41-P2" by another with a brief creative sentence stating how and why and when this past astronomer cataloged the star, i.e., "Found in the late Bronze Age by Kalliator Kerimos, upon realizing that that red spot in the sky was not spattered tomato sauce from his pizza."

- & good morning!

Edited July 2, 2015 by GarrisonChisholm