You've got the wrong sky! How James Cameron altered night sky in reworked Titanic 3D after TEN years of complaints from outspoken astronomer

Harvard-trained astrophysicist Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson said Rose looks up at wrong night sky in famous scene

After several attempts, Cameron said he'd change it if Tyson provided correct configuration

Director James Cameron, a self-proclaimed perfectionist, has made only one change in the re-release of his 1997 blockbuster, Titanic – and it’s all thanks to one man.

American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was on Cameron’s case for more than a decade trying to have a historically accurate night sky - spoiler alert - in the scenes after the Titanic sank.

After several encounters, Dr Tyson got his wish, but first, Cameron challenged Dr Tyson to send him the exact constellation map for the sky around 4:20am on April 15, 1912.

The sky's the limit: Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, right, convinced Titanic director James Cameron, left, to make the night sky historically accurate in the film's 3D release



That sinking feeling: Dr Tyson said the sky seen during the night of April 15, 1912, was mirrored and incorrect

Dr Tyson, who directs the Rose Centre for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, was happy to oblige; he sent Cameron a detailed map of the stars that night, saying astronomy is an easy thing to track.

He knew something was erroneous when he first watched the film.

He told MailOnline: ‘Normally, I don’t concern myself with director’s errors. But the film was marketed how historically accurate the film was – they observed the state rooms and the china patterns. He put the effort into making the period piece.’

Dr Tyson added: ‘Clearly, you wouldn’t put Leonardo DiCaprio in striped bell bottoms – and you shouldn’t do that with the night sky.’

He said the star placement in the sky was the wrong sky, and used a mirror reflection to fill in the other half.

Historically, he said, the sky ‘was cloudless and moonless – we have software you can run that just unwinds the star patterns – you get the right time and the right date, the sky is a very predictable thing, and what birthed our understanding of physics.’

Up she goes: Kate Winslet's character Rose looked up into a historically inaccurate sky in the scene after the Titanic sinks and she and Jack are huddled in the wreckage - the most inaccurate scene, according to Dr Tyson

What Rose saw: Though difficult to see, the left-hand portion of the original sky was a mirror image of the right, and furthermore, was not accurate to begin with; Dr Tyson added that it was cloudless the night of April 15

What Rose should see: Dr Tyson said Rose should have seen the Big Dipper, bottom and centre, as well as The Milky Way, which crosses the upper half, based on the coordinates where the Titanic sank

The Harvard-educated astrophysicist sent Cameron a letter, and heard no response.



He then had two personal encounters with the Avatar director, in which he voiced his complaint – one at a NASA committee dinner and another at magazine awards dinner.

Cameron first told Dr Tyson that the night sky was completed in post-production.

SCIENCE OF STARS: HOW DR TYSON KNEW THE SKY OF APRIL 15, 1912

Dr Tyson told MailOnline that composing the night sky the way it appeared in the 1997 film was 'not only wrong but lazy.' He calculated what the sky would have looked like around 4:20am on April 15, 1912 by using the approximate latitude and longitude where the ship went down in the North Atlantic.

Using that data, he was able to render what the night sky would have actually looked like. On that night, the sky was cloudless and moonless.

He said: 'We have software you can run that just unwinds the star patterns - if you get the right time and the right date, the sky is a very predictable thing, and what birthed our understanding of physics.'

‘I really wanted him to grovel and ask forgiveness,’ Dr Tyson joked,’ but the mature side of me nodded and I didn’t say anything else.’

Dr Tyson composed Cameron a letter requesting the mistake be rectified, but got no response.

It was only years later that the two of them happened to be at a dinner together at the Hayden Planetarium in New York.

As the night progressed, Dr Tyson mustered the courage to talk to Cameron, saying: ‘Jim, my issue here is not that the sky was wrong, it was that you got everything else right.’

He said Cameron then told him: ‘Last I checked, Titanic has grossed $1.3billion. Imagine how much more money the film would have grossed if I would have gotten the sky correct.’

In response to the comment, Cameron told UK magazine Culture that he did, in fact, make the one change.

He said: ‘Neil deGrasse Tyson sent me quite a snarky email saying that, at that time of year, in that position in the Atlantic in 1912, when Rose is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is not the star field she would have seen.

‘And with my reputation as a perfectionist, I should have known that and I should have put the right star field in.’

Dr Tyson said his tenacity finally paid off, saying that he was ‘nipping at his heels’ for ten years.

The new 3D version of Titanic – complete with the astronomically correct night sky – will be out later this week.