3d space video craze

[mjimih]

Hi
'gentle travelers" -Isaac Asimov

Lately I can enjoy flying in and around Nebula's and Galaxies and such, without much imagination anymore. But while I am enjoying flying around, I can't help wonder how it's done? I bet it's as simple as entering the distance of each object into a super computer to create a flyby of the Crab Nebula for instance. Billions of them? How many objects are there programed into a typical movie on you tube to make a short movie anyways? Any general help or direction is welcome. I also can't see or imagine how a little bit of air rushing over a couple of feet of wing can hold an airplane up, it boggles my mind!
like at the 4:15 point we fly thru the center, then out and around a star cluster;
A Space Journey (HD)

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[Chris Peterson]

Lately I can enjoy flying in and around Nebula's and Galaxies and such, without much imagination anymore. But while I am enjoying flying around, I can't help wonder how it's done?

Mostly, these are more art than science. We lack accurate knowledge of the 3D structure of most nebulas. Galaxies are a little easier. But much of this is just educated guesswork.

[mjimih]

hey Chris!
So some animations are using actual star coordinates to draw them so we can fly around in their space if-u-will? Mostly confined to our own nearby galactic group.
Are http://universesandbox.com/ & http://spaceengine.org/ doing this rather easily?
I'll assume it's still takes a large organization like NASA to make 'real' galactic flyby animations. And that areas deeper than our parallax measuring stick, will be out of reach for these real animations to ever be produced.
In conclusion so far; the farther away it is, the less likely the objects in it are represented by known locations.
bonus q?; what where is the deepest most accurate ''real 3d star field'' animation so far? I want to watch it!

Mark

[mjimih]

"So some animations are using actual star coordinates to draw them with, so we can fly around in their space if-u-will?"

Could some kind soul direct me then to the best representation of an actual star field to fly through while sitting in my Captain's chair? Who makes 'real 3d star field' movies? My guess is the games linked to in my prev post do, to some extent, obviously, aka partly realistic (catalogued objects) and partly art (filler). I cannot play these 'games' bc my pc is too slow.

Mark