Kerbal Star Kluster / Kerbal Dynamic Astronomy

[kerbiloid]

Imagine that the Kerbal system is a member of a star cluster, not just a lonely wolf.

In the cluster various bad things happen.
Stars appear, grow, move across the sky, fade, explode, leave spots of nebulas and white dwarves, which fade it turn.

Not actual physical stars you can reach, but just moving and evolving colored bright points and spots on the sky, available for astronomical studies.
Instead of / in addition to the static raster skybox on background.

While they are moving, they sometimes visually form temporary patterns, like your own primitive custom constellations.

Every star has its physical parameters you can/must measure by telescoping it with your hubbles for Science.
These parameters evolve with time (like the real stars do), so you can measure the same star a year later and get Science again.

Say, there are usually 20..50 stars on the sky, and their lifespan from the infrared protostar to the explosion and whitedwarfing takes 10..50 Kerbal years (depending on the star mass).
Some of them are double or triple, this is just a visual path, not a physics.

Graphically the implementation looks simple, they are just point and spots.
With a huge and far orbital telescope you can see and photograph their spotted disks and (same fake) exoplanets.
No real physics is required.

By clicking on such star, you can give it a name and a name of your custom constellation it belongs to.
You can highlight your current constellations by selecting them in list.

Supernova can be temporary light sources, lighting a little the corresponding side of Kerbal planets.
So, from time to time you have white nights for a week.

With radiation mods the supernova can produce additional radiation and affect the magnetospheres, but that's on the modder's will.

The brightest stars can be visible in daylight.

Largest nebulas can stay visible for years as large colored spots on the sky.

You can manually navigate your craft by current stars, have your current Polaris, and so.

By sending a voyager far away, you can photo the Kerbal sun between the stars.

Edited June 13, 2020 by kerbiloid