The red border on the map shows the widest extent of the Shadow War (as shown in And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place). But the farthest of these, Deneb, is still only 1600 light-years from our sun. In seasons three and four (and in the pilot), more distant stars were mentioned. The dot representing our Sun is, of course, too thick � that one dot includes all stars and planets mentioned in the first two seasons of Babylon 5. I have rotated it so that Earth's sun ('Sol') appears at the bottom left, since that is the same perspective used in the Babylon 5 'War Room Map'. The following map of our galaxy (the 'Milky Way') is taken from the 1994 Cambridge Atlas of Astronomy. Besides, the fact that B5 even attempts to attain scientific accuracy is an extremely positive (and rare) thing in itself.
I'm just trying to hold sf writers to the exacting standards of science.
Note: Nothing in this file should be taken as an attempt to condemn Babylon 5 for its occasional scientific lapses. How far does 'known space' extend? What is the 'Rim'?.Thanks to Richard Wakefield, Bret Feinblatt, Marc Carlson, Udo Schuermann, Christopher Novosad-Russo, and Bob Donahue for their help! Stellar Geography in the Babylon 5 Galaxyīabylon 5 trademarks belong to J.
