01.20
Sometimes, if you stare out in to the dark void of space, it begins to stare back. And sometimes, if you stare even longer, it will start to sing to you. Or, maybe you are just watching the Wheel of Stars. A music box made of the stars them self with a song that takes 24 hours to complete. As the stars cross the 0 and 180 degree points, the stars will play a note. It’s a haunting song that really gives you the feel of floating through the void.
You are watching, and listening to, a musical clock made of stars.
To make this, I downloaded public data from Hipparcos, a satellite launched by the European Space Agency in 1989 that accurately measured over a hundred thousand stars. The data I downloaded contains position, parallax, magnitude, and color information, among other things.
There is a 10 minute mp3 available for download, but really, it’s probably best just to bring up the page and let it play all day. Thanks to Pegritz for the tip.