Coal Sack, New Caldonia, Murcheson's Eye and Mote

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From Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s classic novel of first contact, ”The Mote in God’s Eye.” Coal Sack/Hooded-Man figure is a composite of my own air-brush painting in Photoshop enhanced with selected crops of Hubble, Spitzer, and *SDO images.

“The Coal Sack was a nebular mass of gas and dust, small as such things go-eight to ten parsecs thick-but dense, and close enough to New Caledonia to block a quarter of the sky. Earth lay somewhere on the other side of it, and so did the Imperial Capital, Sparta, both forever invisible. The Coal Sack hid most of the Empire, but it made a fine velvet backdrop for two close, brilliant stars …

The Coal Sack resembled the silhouette of a hooded man, head and shoulders; and the off-centered red supergiant became a watchful, malevolent eye. The University itself had begun as an observatory funded to study the supergiant.

This eye had a mote: a yellow dwarf companion, smaller and dimmer, and uninteresting.

The Universe held plenty of yellow dwarfs … “

                                                                                          – Motelight …From ”Building The Mote in God’s Eye”
                                                                                                                                          By Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Photocredits

M42 Post-Coolant, Courtesy NASA/JPL
Messier 78, Courtesy NASA/JPL
The Sun via Solar Dynamic’s Observatory, Courtesy NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Stock Resources:

Lights-Ibitiura

High res Planet Stock IV by The-Prototype92

Related Images:

Motelight

I.N.S.S. MacArthur

MacArthur:New Caldonia Orbit

Starship Fixture Design

Expedition

The Langston Field Effect: Descent to Fire 


*Solar Dynamic’s Observatory