Globular clusters appear as red points from a distance

[SevenSpheres]

In Celestia 1.7 many (all?) globular clusters are visible from the Solar System as reddish points. In Celestia 1.6.1 this is not the case. I'm not sure if this is actually a problem.

View towards the galactic center from Sol in 1.6.1: and in 1.7.0: I notice the Milky Way also looks different between these two images; I have no idea why.

[LafuenteAstronomy]

Come to think of it, the typical GC model also looks too circular and feels small to the eye. Maybe there should be several variants or models of GC's based on their diameter, mass and star count.

[Anthony-B-Russo10]

Agreed.

[SevenSpheres]

Come to think of it, the typical GC model also looks too circular

They're called "globular" clusters for a reason.

and feels small to the eye. Maybe there should be several variants or models of GC's based on their diameter, mass and star count.

The CoreRadius and KingConcentration parameters change the appearance of GCs. Try looking at lots of them, they do look different. What Celestia does need is better galaxy rendering (as Celestia.sci has implemented).

[LafuenteAstronomy]

They're called "globular" clusters for a reason.

I meant that they look too circular and not spherical, since though the model is 3D, it isn't fully rendered to the point it actually looks like a sphere. Besides, a few globular clusters don't really look spherical at all, such as Mayall II and Omega Centauri, which look more ellipsoidal (Which makes sense, as both of them are remnants of the galactic cores of dwarf galaxies that were cannibalized by the Andromeda and Milky Way Galaxies respectively), and Palomar 1 and Djorgovski 1, which look too dispersed and therefore, somewhat lacks a proper spherical structure

[LafuenteAstronomy]

The CoreRadius and KingConcentration parameters change the appearance of GCs. Try looking at lots of them, they do look different.

Well, honestly, it didn't feel that way to me. I do think the models themselves can be improved, or better yet, perhaps add some stars just enough to make it have a population

What Celestia does need is better galaxy rendering (as Celestia.sci has implemented).

To that I agree. Current galaxy rendering is so dull at normal ambient, but increase the brightness, and it will become too bright. What can be done is to improve the default galaxy model to be even better than it is now, and include several features per galaxy type, like H II regions, dusts, gases, stellar population colors, etc

[SevenSpheres]

@LukeCEL can't reproduce this issue - it may be Windows-specific.

[SevenSpheres]

Another view (look closely).

Milky Way in 1.6.2: Milky Way in 1.7.0: A crop of the above image. See the little red dots?

[SevenSpheres]

With Celestia 1.7.0 + Origin, the same bug can be seen at the Andromeda Galaxy (just look at the full size image):

[LukeCEL]

Hi everyone,

After a closer look it appears that these red dots do appear on macOS as well.

They are very hard to see — much less conspicuous than the picture that @SevenSpheres posted. They also appear and disappear when you change the view, much like the twinkling galaxies bug I described in #544.

[SevenSpheres]

Same issue on Android.

[SevenSpheres]

I notice the Milky Way also looks different between these two images; I have no idea why.

Well, now I know that this is because galaxy sprites are randomly generated (see e.g. #1160).

[375gnu]

@SevenSpheres is this still valid? I remember @levinli303 made a fix for this or similar issue.

[SevenSpheres]

The issue is still present, but at least for me is less visible - more like LukeCEL's screenshot here.