A Three Thousand Light Year Journey by Thomas Parker Williams

 "A Three Thousand Light Year Journey explores the concepts of time and space by constructing an accurately scaled 3D computer model of a section of the sky, created by the artist with CAD software.

"Using data obtained from www.skybeautiful.com, a very small area of the celestial sphere was defined as Right Ascension between 5 hours and 6 hours (15 degrees on the 360 degree rotation of the Earth) and about 13 degrees above and below the celestial equator. This area, about six-tenths of one percent of the observable sky, contains the constellation Orion.

"Ninety stars, down to magnitude 6, were used in the 3 D computer model which is illustrated in two ways: as a view from Earth as well as a 3D view from space. An additional 134 magnitude 6 stars were added to the 90 to make the transparent maps in the front of the books as well as the musical composition. These 224 stars are representative of what could possibly be seen in this sector of the sky without optical aid, on a very dark night away from light pollution. This computer model does not include stars and objects that are farther away than three thousand light years or dimmer than magnitude of 6.

"The star positions in the view from Earth illustration, with the familiar borders of Orion the Hunter, are transformed in the three dimensional image. Stars that appear very close together when seen from Earth can be very far apart. The magnitude or brightness of a star seen from Earth is given a numerical value and is called in astronomy the Apparent Magnitude. The actual brightness or Absolute Magnitude is determined by the Apparent Magnitude and the star's distance away from Earth, and can be many times greater in brightness than it appears to us.

"The musical journey uses pitch and the position between the left and right stereo channels to determine a star's location on the 15 degree by 26 degree grid that I have chosen for this project. A star's distance is expressed by the duration of the note representing the star. As the journey progresses, the tempo of the composition accelerates each 100 light years until we reach 3000 light years at the end of the composition. The written score describes each star in musical notation. This composition is best listened to with headphones.” - Thomas Parker Williams