Star mapping, part 3 of 4: Working with a spreadsheet program

As mentioned, I used Microsoft Excel to create our sample star maps.  If you want to do the same, you can use the Chart function to create a “scatter” chart from the X and Y (or X and Z, or Y and Z) data.  I’m not going to do a tutorial in how to use the Chart function – if you’re not familiar with it, grab a copy of “Excel for Dummies” or something similar.   Here, though, are some notes on the process:

It would be handy if, when generating your map, you could just incorporate a third column into the chart, one that listed the star name that went with each combination of numbers.  Excel could then automatically label each point with the right star name.  Yes, that would be very handy indeed – but Excel doesn’t seem to offer a way to do this.  In researching the matter on the Web, I’ve found three possible ways to rectify this problem:

• Creating a macro
• Incorporating a (non-Microsoft) piece of add-in software
• Gritting your teeth and indicating each star name by creating an individual label for it

Unless you’re a real techie, or your chart has a huge number of stars, it’s probably best to just tough it out and go for the third option – and even if you do have a few dozen to go through, it’s probably less trouble to invest an hour or two in creating individual labels than trying either of the first two choices.

If you want to get fancy, you can also change the appearance of each individual point on the chart.  You could have large white circles for F stars, medium yellow ones for G stars, small orange ones for K stars, and so on.  You could even vary the sizes within each spectral class, with a G5 larger than a G8, and so on.  Fun!  Just don’t get so wrapped up in perfecting the map that you forget it’s only supporting material for your story!