Though perhaps trivial under the pressure of immenent release and other serious flightsim related issues, the Milky Way is significantly misalign with repect to the constellations. The screenshots below illustrate the degree of misalignment. It's currently in between Delphinus and Pegasus and should be way over in Sagittarius. It's great to have it in the sim to be sure...but the galactic center is at least 45 degrees from it's actual position and rotated counter-clockwise by at least as much. The celestially impaired probably don't care much one way or the other, but for accuracy's sake, it's definately in the wrong place.For those users who don't care for the look of the FSX Milky Way there are a few options:Download Gerrit Kranenbarg,s dimmed down version mentioned in this post: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...15383&mode=full at: at:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/154163.zip and try it...OR remove "MilkyWay.dds" and "MilkyWay_lm.dds" from your "C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesMicrosoft Flight Simulator X DemoSceneryGlobaltexture" folder and it will remove the Milky Way altogether.Also of interest is Chris Wright's post about an FSX version of his AutoStar program at http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...ing_type=search It greatly increase the accuracy of the stars' magnitude and color in FS9The current FSX Milky Way position:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/154553.jpgThe actual Milky Way position for comparison:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/154554.jpgAn Astro-photo for galctic core reference: http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/154555.jpg

LOL, are we nerds or what?! ;)I would have noticed that too though...

hmmmmm :-lol

Lets get Earth sorted first, does the FMC handle warp drive?:)No offence my friend, stunning images.John

>Lets get Earth sorted first, does the FMC handle warp>drive?:)Some would argue that for fliers the sky is more important than the ground .. and I am afraid the Earth will never get sort out (maybe in 'FSL') ;) Michael J.

Understood, and I somewhat agree with you, major sim performance and flight functions come first. But unless there is an inherent FS design problem in getting the "MilkyWay_lm.dds" texture to align properly, a simple change to the RA/Declinational coordinates of the galactic core and it's ascending and descending nodes in the .dll file resposible for it might be easily done. It could be a few entrys in a .cfg file for that matter. THEN, it could then provide an outstanding visual reference for night flyers equipped with a simple planisphere (or those who aren't "celestially challenged"). The Milky Way, even toned down as some have suggested, is easily recognized, and either of the points at which it meets the horizon could be referenced via compass shortly before an approach that required several turns. Significantly, it always meets the horizon approximatly 180 degrees from where it leaves it, regardless of it's latitudinal angle of arch. Bush flyers and GA flyers could use this extensively.

Being cellestially challenged myself... I have some questions: Does the angle/declination/position among the constellations change depending where you are lattitude wise and the time of year? Does its position change with the time of year in the sim? Will handling this issue cause a problem for the developers, as they have to transform the position depending on location and time of year? Are these sorts of tables readily available? Can the FS engine even handle this sort of change? Perhaps they chose a position/angle that matched over Seattle or some average location so it is at least close?Thanks for bringing this up.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)

The positions of the stars, and the constellations they are grouped into, are fixed in relationship to themselves and the Milky Way which lies far beyond them. Since the nearest star is 4.3 light years from the sun, (approximately 25 TRILLION MILES away) they look essentially the same from any where on earth, (or pluto for that matter). The part of sky we face at midnight changes with the seasons as we rotate around the sun. A viewers lattitudinal position on earth reveals either more of the southern sky or the northern sky, respectively.All of the physics of the stars, constellations, seasons, and latitudinal viewing location have been working already in FS for years. All that's required in this situation is alignining a 512 x 512 pixel bitmap of the Milky Way into the right position. It's already in FSX and locked in position with the stars...it's just in the wrong place.Heres opaque part of the "MilkyWay_lm.DDS texture from: C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesMicrosoft Flight Simulator X DemoSceneryGlobaltexturehttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/154575.jpgand the alpha channel (transparency mask) for the same:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/154576.jpg

Who really cares what the milky way looks like?. Just be happy that they included it in the first place.

>Who really cares what the milky way looks like?. Just be>happy that they included it in the first place.I think this was just brought up to show the ACES team that it is misplaced and evidence and advice on how to fix it.

If they fix it, fine, If they don't fix it, fine. I'm not a stargazer by any means so this doesn't really affect me but if Aces doesn't fix it for the final version then either they will fix it in the first patch or somebody else will fix it.

>so this doesn't really affect me Since it doesn't affect you - stay away from this thread. Clearly you have little of value to add. :-8Michael J.

whatever

I'm aware ACES has thier hands full with the intended release so close. My intent was simply to bring it to THIER attention in case it was simply a few bits of overlooked code. A millenia of mariners and and a century of pre-GPS aviators have navigated by the sky. It's how we got to the moon and home again a half a dozen times. With FSX now theoretically capable of orbital flight, attempting to place an ENTIRE GALAXY in the right position seems to me a worthwhile and practical endeavor.

I'm sure it will be fixed by a freeware author :)