I thought that it might be more productive to show all of you "how" I got to where I am.



Betty was given the post-hypnotic suggestion that she could sketch a copy of the "star map". Although she said the map had many stars, she drew only those that stood out in her memory. Her map consisted of twelve prominent stars connected by lines and 13 lesser stars that form several distinctive groups. She said she was told the stars connected by solid lines formed "trade routes", and dashed lines were to less-traveled stars.



There are a total of 25 stars in the template with 13 identified by Marjorie Fish around 1968. Much of her efforts were undone by others who knew little about Astronomy, in any case, Ms. Fish’s work has served well to start this analysis.





Computer modeling and Datasets

To create our view of the stars, and make a search for a match possible we created several database tables to use with Microsoft’s SQL server.



DataSets

Hipparcos

The word "Hipparcos" is an acronym for High precision parallax collecting satellite. It was launched in 1989 by the European Space Agency and collected data on over 118,000 stars. There is also an auxiliary table called “Extended Hipparcos” that contains additional astrometric data. These tables are maintained by the University of Strasbourg, Fr.

These two tables were imported into an instance of Microsoft SQL Server Express, and used as the basis for all stellar data.



exoplanet.eu_catalog

A catalog of all known exoplanets. This table was also imported into SQL Server. However the table required some modification to allow it to accurately interface with the Hipparcos tables, and other software.

All of the data elements (columns) imported as text, and there was no record “identity”; so distance and age in a numerical format was added. Software methods were created to populate these new fields with their text counterparts’ conversions to a “double” data type. Additionally the Hipparcos index number was added by creating software methods the access “Simbad” (a web service of the University of Strasbourg, Fr.) to obtain a cross reference where possible.

These three data elements constitute the majority of data used in this query. Programming languages used in this data phase were C#, and TSQL.



Computer Modeling

Two categories of model were generated using a combination of C#, TSQL, and Python.



3D Models

Two major 3D models of local star were created. The first was stars within 33 parsec, the second expanded to 46 parsec.

A C# application was created to apply SQL search criteria (everything < 33 parsec) and create a sub table from which astrometrics of individual stars could be retrieved. Using specialized templates written in Python, the position (X, Y, Z), along with star class, and name were compiled into a Python script for use with “Poser” (a 3D modeling and animating application) to place “Bucky balls” of appropriate color, and name into the 3D space provided by Poser.

As I was using the Fish interpretation as a base of sorts I included additional instructions to highlight the stars in her “list”. This allowed me to position a “camera” somewhere that was logical to view the “Fish Stars”. It was incredibly easy to find such a location, knowing approximately where to look from. As I was refining my view I noticed that I had gone outside my 33 parsec radius. I increased the radius to 46 parsec so that I might know where I was viewing from. After adding the additional stars I found that I was near a star called “HIP-26737”, yet another class “G” star in the mix (actually G2V).



2D Models

Methods were also developed to provide 2D Models of individual Star Systems. These method produce a “PNG” file that expresses the star and the orbits of any planets along with a representation of the Stars Habitable Zone. These methods were written in C# and SQL for the Windows Desktop.



Discoveries

There were some discoveries found in these models:

1. Marjorie Fish was spot on with all stars but Kappa Fonacis. I haven’t built a model based on the Gliese dataset, so it is entirely possible that better “location” of the star moved it, what is actually, a considerable distance. And, based solely on the stars identified by Ms. Fish; her interpretation isn’t really a very good match, but, it did serve as a good starting point.

2. The identity of 13 stars that Ms. Fish didn’t identify were identified.

3. Among the newly identified stars were 5 that were not known in either 1961, or 1969; so neither Betty, nor Ms. Fish, could have “guessed” their existence and location.

4. The doubling and connecting of the two Zetas Reticuli is suggestive of a Graphical User Interface. It appears that if one were to “mouse over” or touch Zeta Reticuli; it splits into the two stars of the overall system. Just as doing the same to other stars has the same result. And of course doing that to a multi-star system might show individual solar systems.