[vtkusers] Best visualisation tool

[Brett Morgan]

Hullo. I am a newbie to the world of scientific visualisation. 
I am trying to find the best visualisation tools to create an 
"accurate" interactive 3D model of the Milky Way galaxy based 
on existing astronomical galactic star field observational 
datasets (e.g. the Hipparcos catalogue). The datasets will 
be of the order of a few Terabytes in size. Access to the 
model will be via a Web interface. Its primary purpose is 
for tertiary level astronomical education. The user will 
be able to explore different parts of the Galaxy, 
seeing realistic visualisations, and perform simple 
astronomical experiments. A "Beowulf" UNIX workstation 
cluster supercomputer will be creating the visualisations. 
Any advice is appreciated. Sorry to be a pest. 
I plead ignorance. 
Thanks, Brett Morgan.