NavList:

Rafael Caruso, you wrote:
"The most peculiar feature of the lower image is that it is almost bilaterally symmetrical. Many (but not all) of the stars on the left side of the image are also present with the same configuration on the right side of the image.  This “star field” may have been generated  with considerable assistance from a photo editing software."

Yes. That mirror symmetry was infamous in some circles. I know several amateur astronomers who, like myself, were briefly pulled out of the movie by that symmetry. The sky was clearly "fake" or "generated" as you say. James Cameron when he made "Titanic" poured vast resources into technical and historical accuracy of tiny details. But he couldn't get the stars right? That should have been easy... And not only that, the stars were blatantly wrong in a way that would never be seen in the real sky under any circumstances. Mirror symmetry really jumps out once your spot it. It was a bit of a paradox! My personal rationalization is that this was a temporary bit of "sky" artwork that should have been replaced in normal post-production, but it was overlooked for the same reason that most people were entirely unaware of it in the theaters: it's the climax of the action and the romance in the film. There were bigger things to worry about. Maybe James C. Perfectionist was already settling in for a rest on his laurels and accepting accolades...

What was the actual view for survivors of the Titanic half an hour after the ship sank? In the context of the film, our observer, Rose (Kate Winslett's character) was lying on her back on a piece of floating debris, weak and nearly motionless, looking more or less at the zenith, perhaps thirty minutes after the sinking. Of course it was an ordinary early Spring sky a couple of hours after midnight in a latitude about the same as central Rhode Island (the same latitude but 21.5° west would have landed the ship on the tarmac --back then marsh and farmland-- at TF Green Airport near Providence). The sky was therefore rather ordinary: Arcturus and the Big Dipper high overhead, Vega in the east near the bright star clouds of the Milky Way in Cygnus and Aquila. See below.

A bit of the world has just come to an end with the cries of a thousand people freezing and dying in the dark ocean nearby... Life will never be the same. But oh, look, I can "Follow the Arc to Arcturus". Maybe I should get out my sextant and show off my celestial navigation skills to all these first class ladies... What? Too soon?

Frank Reed

File: