- Ray Tracing in One Weekend (raytracing.github.io)
I’ve taught many graphics classes over the years. Often I do them in ray tracing, because you are forced to write all the code but you can still get cool images with no API. I decided to adapt my course notes into a how-to, to get you to a cool program as quickly as possible. It will not be a full-featured ray tracer, but it does have the indirect lighting which has made ray tracing a staple in movies. Follow these steps, and the architecture of the ray tracer you produce will be good for extending to a more extensive ray tracer if you get excited and want to pursue that.
- Gamma Hydrae (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
Skipping over obscure (at least in brightness) fourth magnitude Beta Hydrae (the southernmost of Hydra’s outlining stars), exact third magnitude Gamma Hydrae (3.00) comes in at number two, just beating out a host of slightly lesser stars (such as Nu, Zeta, Pi, and Epsilon).
- Gamma Hydrae (Wikipedia)
Gamma Hydrae (γ Hya, γ Hydrae) is a binary star in the equatorial constellation of Hydra. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 3.0, placing it second in brightness among the members of this generally faint constellation. Based upon parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos mission, this star is at a distance of around 133.8 light-years (41.0 parsecs) from Earth.