Stellarium Presentation Notes
- Submitted by: Tam11
- Views: 193
- Category: Science
- Date Submitted: 12/11/2013 07:19 AM
- Pages: 4
- Report this Essay
INTRO
* It’s a planetarium software, it simulates the night sky showing the position of the Moon, planets and distant objects from any location and time.
* It is available to everyone and easy to use
* It can be downloaded on your pc, Mac or android
HOW TO USE IT
* There’s a left and bottom panel
* To change location use left panel and click on the location window. Choose any location from the list or set coordinates if known. It can be set as default.
* Move cursor 360° to show night sky at that time.
* Click on an object and zoom in and out, using page up and down or forward and back slash. Show how to deselect the object.
WHY DOES THE SKY ROTATE?
* Add equatorial lines from the bottom panel. In astronomy, the sky is represented as a huge dome and the stars are points of light on that sphere. These lines are like longitude and latitude on Earth but drawn on the celestial sphere.
* Speed up and show how the celestial sphere rotates about a point.
* The fixed point appears to be the North Star, Polaris, which much to contrary believes is not the brightest star in the night sky.
* The sky appears to rotate because the Earth rotates about an axis. If we project an imaginary line this axis points to where this star is located.
* Earth rotates anticlockwise at about a thousand miles an hour. The sky appears to rotate clockwise, the stars rise and set from East to West.
HOW TO LOCATE JUPITER
* The best object to observe at this time is Jupiter, because it’s at its closest point to the Earth since 1963.
* It is also called “the amateur’s planet”, because it is bright in the night sky therefore easy to locate and have many features to observe. Its cloud belts and its moons.
* Click on it and zoom in to show Ganymede, Io, Callisto, Europa and speed up to show how the moons rotate [remember to tell them / make sure to lock].
* First man to discover its moons was Galileo with an early version of a...
* It’s a planetarium software, it simulates the night sky showing the position of the Moon, planets and distant objects from any location and time.
* It is available to everyone and easy to use
* It can be downloaded on your pc, Mac or android
HOW TO USE IT
* There’s a left and bottom panel
* To change location use left panel and click on the location window. Choose any location from the list or set coordinates if known. It can be set as default.
* Move cursor 360° to show night sky at that time.
* Click on an object and zoom in and out, using page up and down or forward and back slash. Show how to deselect the object.
WHY DOES THE SKY ROTATE?
* Add equatorial lines from the bottom panel. In astronomy, the sky is represented as a huge dome and the stars are points of light on that sphere. These lines are like longitude and latitude on Earth but drawn on the celestial sphere.
* Speed up and show how the celestial sphere rotates about a point.
* The fixed point appears to be the North Star, Polaris, which much to contrary believes is not the brightest star in the night sky.
* The sky appears to rotate because the Earth rotates about an axis. If we project an imaginary line this axis points to where this star is located.
* Earth rotates anticlockwise at about a thousand miles an hour. The sky appears to rotate clockwise, the stars rise and set from East to West.
HOW TO LOCATE JUPITER
* The best object to observe at this time is Jupiter, because it’s at its closest point to the Earth since 1963.
* It is also called “the amateur’s planet”, because it is bright in the night sky therefore easy to locate and have many features to observe. Its cloud belts and its moons.
* Click on it and zoom in to show Ganymede, Io, Callisto, Europa and speed up to show how the moons rotate [remember to tell them / make sure to lock].
* First man to discover its moons was Galileo with an early version of a...