Starship Asterisk*

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:46 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:28 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:06 pm

I'm not Victor, but I thought they might just be unicode characters. His "square" is really two chars side-by-side. I thought they might be one of the "geometric shapes" shown here - https://www.unicodepedia.com/groups/geometric-shapes/ - but none exactly match what Victor used. Though the "black vertical rectagle" comes close: ▮, but it's not big enough! Can it be colorized with the "font color" tool in the post editor? Let's see: ▮▮▮. Yup! But there is also space between successive chars, which Victor's double black box chars don't have. I still suspect it's a unicode char however.

Sure. You can just look at it in the quoted text. It's Unicode U+2588, Full Block. In Windows you type it using ALT-219 (█) or a pair of those (██). As an ordinary character, you can apply whatever styling BBCODE offers: █.

Thanks. That's it alright. More here - http://www.unicode-symbol.com/block/Block_Elements.html

But how did you determine that is was U+2588? How did you "just look at in in the quoted text"? In my browser reply window it still shows up as a black block.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:59 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:46 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:28 pm

Sure. You can just look at it in the quoted text. It's Unicode U+2588, Full Block. In Windows you type it using ALT-219 (█) or a pair of those (██). As an ordinary character, you can apply whatever styling BBCODE offers: █.

Thanks. That's it alright. More here - http://www.unicode-symbol.com/block/Block_Elements.html

But how did you determine that is was U+2588? How did you "just look at in in the quoted text"? In my browser reply window it still shows up as a black block.

I pasted it into a text editor and looked at the coding. There are also a ton of online Unicode decoders, like this one that you can paste a character or a string into and get the decoded version.

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:14 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:59 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:46 pm

Thanks. That's it alright. More here - http://www.unicode-symbol.com/block/Block_Elements.html

But how did you determine that is was U+2588? How did you "just look at in in the quoted text"? In my browser reply window it still shows up as a black block.

I pasted it into a text editor and looked at the coding. There are also a ton of online Unicode decoders, like this one that you can paste a character or a string into and get the decoded version.

What text editor? I had tried pasting the block into a .txt file on Windows and then using the Elvis editor (a unix Vi clone) to look at the hex codes, but ended up with the three-char 0xE29688. I guess this is some unicode encoding conversion thing going on that I don't understand.

Also, nice decoding tool!

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:30 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:14 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:59 pm

I pasted it into a text editor and looked at the coding. There are also a ton of online Unicode decoders, like this one that you can paste a character or a string into and get the decoded version.

What text editor? I had tried pasting the block into a .txt file on Windows and then using the Elvis editor (a unix Vi clone) to look at the hex codes, but ended up with the three-char 0xE29688. I guess this is some unicode encoding conversion thing going on that I don't understand.

Also, nice decoding tool!

Those three bytes are the UTF-8 encoding for the Full Block character. Almost all webpages use UTF-8. My text editor, Notepad++, can show characters in most formats.

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:43 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:30 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:14 pm

What text editor? I had tried pasting the block into a .txt file on Windows and then using the Elvis editor (a unix Vi clone) to look at the hex codes, but ended up with the three-char 0xE29688. I guess this is some unicode encoding conversion thing going on that I don't understand.

Also, nice decoding tool!

Those three bytes are the UTF-8 encoding for the Full Block character. Almost all webpages use UTF-8. My text editor, Notepad++, can show characters in most formats.

I had used Notepad++ as well, but can't find a way to display hex codes there either. Even tried installing/enabling its hex editor plug-in but that failed due to some obscure 32-bit issue that I tired of battling. Have to reinstall Notepad++ now.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:47 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:43 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:30 pm
Those three bytes are the UTF-8 encoding for the Full Block character. Almost all webpages use UTF-8. My text editor, Notepad++, can show characters in most formats.

I had used Notepad++ as well, but can't find a way to display hex codes there either. Even tried installing/enabling its hex editor plug-in but that failed due to some obscure 32-bit issue that I tired of battling. Have to reinstall Notepad++ now.

Visual Studio Code (which you can install separately from Visual Studio) is also an extremely nice text editor, and one which can show hex values and common encodings.

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:46 pm But how did you determine that is was U+2588?

VictorBorun wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 3:43 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:46 pm But how did you determine that is was U+2588?

copy-paste the █ character from the text you see to the search window and get the page about full block (U+2588) character

VictorBorun wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 3:43 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:46 pm But how did you determine that is was U+2588?

copy-paste the █ character from the text you see to the search window and get the page about full block (U+2588) character

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:28 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:06 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 4:36 am
Victor, I was impressed by your colored squares. I can see that you used black squares and placed color hex markings around them.

But where did you find the black squares? I would love to use them, too!

Ann

I'm not Victor, but I thought they might just be unicode characters. His "square" is really two chars side-by-side. I thought they might be one of the "geometric shapes" shown here - https://www.unicodepedia.com/groups/geometric-shapes/ - but none exactly match what Victor used. Though the "black vertical rectagle" comes close: ▮, but it's not big enough! Can it be colorized with the "font color" tool in the post editor? Let's see: ▮▮▮. Yup! But there is also space between successive chars, which Victor's double black box chars don't have. I still suspect it's a unicode char however.

Sure. You can just look at it in the quoted text. It's Unicode U+2588, Full Block. In Windows you type it using ALT-219 (█) or a pair of those (██). As an ordinary character, you can apply whatever styling BBCODE offers: █.

Ann wrote: ↑Sat Sep 04, 2021 4:43 pm

neufer wrote: ↑Sat Sep 04, 2021 3:57 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Sat Sep 04, 2021 6:11 am
Okay, I promised you: That's star cluster NGC 7023 (top) in the Iris Nebula!
The cluster is responsible for the "top hat cavity" at top.

I can see that the arrows I drew make it look as if some force is pushing the dust inwards, toward the middle. Of course, the opposite is true. It is the wind and ultraviolet light from the hot bright star that pushes the dust outwards, creating both the cavity around the star and and the edges of gas and dust that get ionized. But the triangular cavity at top was made by the cluster.

• Are you sure https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180801.html

Pretty sure...

• https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180801.html

neufer wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 5:39 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Sat Sep 04, 2021 4:43 pm

neufer wrote: ↑Sat Sep 04, 2021 3:57 pm

• Are you sure https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180801.html

Pretty sure...

To my eyes your "star cluster" looks indistinguishable from the background Milky Way:

• https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180801.html

The "top hat cavity" is just one of numerous holes in the dust curtain, IMO.

Ann wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 5:16 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:28 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:06 pm

I'm not Victor, but I thought they might just be unicode characters. His "square" is really two chars side-by-side. I thought they might be one of the "geometric shapes" shown here - https://www.unicodepedia.com/groups/geometric-shapes/ - but none exactly match what Victor used. Though the "black vertical rectagle" comes close: ▮, but it's not big enough! Can it be colorized with the "font color" tool in the post editor? Let's see: ▮▮▮. Yup! But there is also space between successive chars, which Victor's double black box chars don't have. I still suspect it's a unicode char however.

Sure. You can just look at it in the quoted text. It's Unicode U+2588, Full Block. In Windows you type it using ALT-219 (█) or a pair of those (██). As an ordinary character, you can apply whatever styling BBCODE offers: █.

Thanks, Chris, ALT-219 works: █

And I can make it colorful: █ █ ██ █ █ ██ █ █ █

Thanks, it works!

Ann

bystander wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 9:38 pm Windows has an accessory called Character Map (in the Start Menu under Window Accessories). You can find all of the Unicode characters there.

Ann wrote: ↑Mon Sep 06, 2021 4:36 am

bystander wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 9:38 pm Windows has an accessory called Character Map (in the Start Menu under Window Accessories). You can find all of the Unicode characters there.

The word Unicode is Greek to me. Sorry.

Ann

bystander wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 9:38 pm Windows has an accessory called Character Map (in the Start Menu under Window Accessories). You can find all of the Unicode characters there.