Explore Hipparcos Catalogue of 119,617 stars with Threejs VR.
Stereoscopic view. The yellow sphere is the Solar system. Lower left is Alpha Centauri, closest star system ~4 light years.
Oculus Quest recommended (required 6DOF headset/controllers).
Oculus Browser (tested Quest Update >17.0 and three.js r115).
https://physicslibrary.github.io/Threejs-VR-Hipparcos/
No installation.
In Oculus Quest, open Oculus Browser and go to link (let browser finished loading before "Enter VR"):
https://physicslibrary.github.io/Threejs-VR-Hipparcos/examples/threejs_vr_hipparcos_color_index.html
Solar system is the yellow sphere.
Use Oculus Touch controllers to move around stars. It implements a simple way to move around 3D by making a "velocity vector" from left to right controllers.
The distance between controllers is the speed (controller next to the other is the lowest speed).
Press one front trigger to move (two triggers to double speed).
Hold the left controller fixed and point the right controller in the direction to move.
Other buttons on controllers do not work, yet.
hygxyz.csv (1989 data):
https://github.com/astronexus/HYG-Database
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/hipparcos/home
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/hipparcos/common-star-names
http://sci.esa.int/star_mapper/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipparcos
This project is a port of https://github.com/Physicslibrary/ARKit-Stereoscope-Hipparcos which started with a book "3D Scientific Visualization with Blender". In the book, there is a tutorial on how to plot a stellar catalog.
Brian R. Kent, 3D Scientific Visualization with Blender, Morgan & Claypool Publishers (2015).
https://www.cv.nrao.edu/~bkent/blender/thebook.html
https://www.cv.nrao.edu/~bkent/blender/tutorials.html
Three.js on how to convert WebGL examples to WebVR:
https://threejs.org/docs/index.html#manual/en/introduction/How-to-create-VR-content
Three.js on how to load a file (eg. read hygxyz.csv):
https://threejs.org/docs/index.html#api/en/loaders/FileLoader
Three.js on how to draw a star field:
https://threejs.org/docs/#api/en/materials/PointsMaterial
Three.js examples is the best place to learn and experiment:
https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/tree/dev/examples
https://github.com/Physicslibrary/Threejs-WebXR-67P
https://stars.chromeexperiments.com/
https://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/casestudies/100000stars/
http://exploratoria.github.io/exhibits/astronomy/star-spotter/index.html
The next two links are no longer updated. The first uses the headset 6DOF tracking and no controllers. The second is a scale down slice view of Hipparcos Catalog.
https://physicslibrary.github.io/Threejs-VR-Hipparcos/examples/webxr_vr_hipparcos.html
https://physicslibrary.github.io/Threejs-VR-Hipparcos/examples/webxr_vr_hipparcos2.html
Camera frustum far plane default is 1000. Check how many stars appears when far plane is varied.
https://threejs.org/docs/#api/en/cameras/PerspectiveCamera
Use 6th column ProperName in hygxyz.csv to display common star names.
Copyright (c) 2020 Hartwell Fong