PostScript Star Mapper

I wrote this program many years ago to produce PostScript format star maps from tabulated star data files. It produces ``flattened'' 2-dimensional plots like those in GURPS Space, plus oblique projection ``3-dimensional'' views.

The program archive includes full documentation, C source code, and a sample data file listing the real life closest 66 stars to our sun.

This program was last updated in 1993(!), and uses code so obfuscated I don't plan to try to understand it any more. There are no further updates planned for the forseeable future, but if you feel like revamping and updating the code, by all means go ahead and pass your code back to me so I can replace this with a more modern version.

Extract from Documentation

Map is a program which takes a data file, listing coordinates, names and spectral types of stars, and produces a PostScript map of the stars. It is suitable for producing star maps for role playing games such as GURPS Space, etc. The maps a fairly generic, and could probably be used with most SF RPGs.

The sample data file `sol' lists the stars in the neighbourhood of our sun. This file lists accurate, real life data, with the coordinates in parsecs. The x-y plane is the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy, the z-axis points towards Galactic north, and the x-axis points towards the Galactic core.

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