I think the following is fairly obvious from watching the show:
1) all of the vessels in the "ragtag fleet" are capable of a speed that lets them visit multiple solar systems (and maybe even galaxies) in a matter of weeks or months.
2) Galactica is capable of travelling much faster than the other ships of the fleet.
3) Galactica has a super-fast speed called "Lightspeed" that before the Battle of Cimtar had not been used in a very long time, and that apparently burns a great deal of fuel (see "Living Legend").
4) Given that the speeds reached in 1 are probably FTL, "Lightspeed" must not mean travel at 1*c.
This leaves the question of how far, both in lightyears and more importantly in time, it is between Colonies.
Back to the map, I have a question about the possable measurement of distance.
A very long time ago, I took Geometry. I faintly recall from that something about "mapping functions", and that there are two different ways to graph a mathmatical function. One of those was on "graph paper", which I think we all know is covered with little squares. Most of the maps we are used to use this principal. The other, however, used special paper with a bunch of concentric circles and rays spreading out from the center of the page.
Now imagine that we are going to graph "cosine X" for posative integers.
On normal graph paper, we just number the bottom of the page with 1, 2, 3, etc. Then we grab a scientific calculator, put in "1", press the "cosine" button, and put a dot above the "1" on our graph in the spot that coincides with the value we just got. (0.9998 if you care.)
BUT WAIT! You may have noticed that your scientific calculator has some special modes. Instead of using "degrees" as we did above, you can set it to give the answer in "radians".
I have no idea what that means anymore, but IIRC that is what you use if plotting on the funky graph paper.
And this is relevant because: the grids behind the maps look like the funky paper. So, I'm thinking that what we're seeing might be somehow convertable into a more standard graph of boxes with an X, Y, and Z axis.
I just have no clear memory on how to do that anymore.
Does anyone out there have a clue about this?
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