I remember hearing that Rigel or Beta Orionis is approximately 900 LY from Earth. Is that located towards the galactic core or away from the galatic core?
Rigel / Beta Orionis
- Thread starter CuttingEdge100
- Start date
Away from the core. When looking at the galactic disc from "above", Rigel would be located at about 5 o'clock from Sol.
'Rigel' comes from the Arabic for 'heel' - an apt name given it's position in the constellation of Orion.
900 ly wouldn't prevent a TOS ship from making an afternoon visit. TNG ships would struggle for weeks, though...
However, there are worse inconsistencies within TOS, such as Rigel XII being out in the sticks in "Mudd's Women" but several other Rigel planets being regular ports of call for Starfleet, or even homeworlds to UFP member species. This already almost absolutely requires the existence of several different star systems named Rigel.
And, of course, the real world readily caters for this. After all, the word "rigil" is a pretty generic and common one, as mentioned above. Any constellation that portrays an animal or a person is bound to have a "heel" or a "foot"... No doubt there are dozens of star systems within the Starfleet theater of operations that have this word in their names, such as Rigil Kentaurus, Rigil al Awwa, etc.
Also, the Star Trek universe is full of very dense and colorful nebulae. These are just bound to hide most of the galaxy from Earthling view, until probes or ships start to travel to a distance of dozens of lightyears to have a peek around the obstacles. New stars will thus necessarily be named in the Trek future, yet quite possibly according to old traditions. There could be a new Rigel born every decade, then.
Timo Saloniemi
However, there are worse inconsistencies within TOS, such as Rigel XII being out in the sticks in "Mudd's Women" but several other Rigel planets being regular ports of call for Starfleet, or even homeworlds to UFP member species. This already almost absolutely requires the existence of several different star systems named Rigel.
And, of course, the real world readily caters for this. After all, the word "rigil" is a pretty generic and common one, as mentioned above. Any constellation that portrays an animal or a person is bound to have a "heel" or a "foot"... No doubt there are dozens of star systems within the Starfleet theater of operations that have this word in their names, such as Rigil Kentaurus, Rigil al Awwa, etc.
Also, the Star Trek universe is full of very dense and colorful nebulae. These are just bound to hide most of the galaxy from Earthling view, until probes or ships start to travel to a distance of dozens of lightyears to have a peek around the obstacles. New stars will thus necessarily be named in the Trek future, yet quite possibly according to old traditions. There could be a new Rigel born every decade, then.
Timo Saloniemi
Antares is 600 ly away and they have ability to build ships there too, so apparently they can cover those distances fairly quickly.
^ And I just looked up Deneb, it's 1400 ly away! I guess it would make sense that SF would find the Farpoint Station useful, but still, they must have made it there pretty quickly.
"Deneb" (tail) is another generic word that appears in the names of several real-world stars, such as the nearby Deneb Kaitos.
As for the Antares Yards, they could be located in downtown Cleveland for all we know... It's not as if the Saturn Corporation today would be headquartered outside Earth, either!
Timo Saloniemi
As for the Antares Yards, they could be located in downtown Cleveland for all we know... It's not as if the Saturn Corporation today would be headquartered outside Earth, either!
Timo Saloniemi
...To be fair, the dedication plaque that claims the Defiant was built by the Antares Fleet Yards also goes on to claim that these are located at Beta Antares.
Similarly, there have been references to Beta Rigel in later works that try to acknowledge the existence of a Rigel close to Earth. However, neither "Antares" nor "Rigel" are constellation names - they are names of stars. Thus, the usual nomenclature where "beta" means the second-brightest star in the constellation cannot hold in these cases. One is thus tempted to read the names as some sort of special "proper names" rather than systematic stellar/constellation ones.
Which brings us to Dytallix B, a planet of TNG fame that was obviously named after the Dytallix mining corporation and not after the star it circles (Mira, or Omicron Ceti, the same star that caused trouble to Elias Sandoval's colonists in "This Side of Paradise"). Following that lead, perhaps the Antares Shipyards are also in the habit of naming planets after themselves? Alpha Antares (in, say, the Tau Ceti system) might have been their first planetary purchase, Beta Antares (in, say, the Alpha Tauri system) the second.
Timo Saloniemi
Similarly, there have been references to Beta Rigel in later works that try to acknowledge the existence of a Rigel close to Earth. However, neither "Antares" nor "Rigel" are constellation names - they are names of stars. Thus, the usual nomenclature where "beta" means the second-brightest star in the constellation cannot hold in these cases. One is thus tempted to read the names as some sort of special "proper names" rather than systematic stellar/constellation ones.
Which brings us to Dytallix B, a planet of TNG fame that was obviously named after the Dytallix mining corporation and not after the star it circles (Mira, or Omicron Ceti, the same star that caused trouble to Elias Sandoval's colonists in "This Side of Paradise"). Following that lead, perhaps the Antares Shipyards are also in the habit of naming planets after themselves? Alpha Antares (in, say, the Tau Ceti system) might have been their first planetary purchase, Beta Antares (in, say, the Alpha Tauri system) the second.
Timo Saloniemi
According to one of the displays shown in the episode, the star is properly called Mira Antliae, though... whatever that means.
Another translation means, "foot of the giant." Orion was also identified as Osiris by the Egyptians. -- RR
The funny thing about "Encounter at Farpoint" was that Picard's accent makes it sound like he's saying "Daneb" instead of "Deneb," which would have made it a fictitious star. I remember the TV guide listing for the episode even spelled it Daneb.
Star system names were always hard for me to follow, because they seemed to like to switch between star chart and local names. On one hand you have a planet, named by the inhabitants of that planet, Vulcan. On the other hand, IIRC, its 40 Eridani A ii. That is... the 2nd planet of the 40 Eridani A system.
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