Stellarium_Fall2021
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School
University of Delaware *
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Course
133
Subject
Astronomy
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
Pages
4
Uploaded by ElderSnow13489
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Date:
Lab
2:
Stellarium
Introduction
Stellarium
is
web-based, open
-source software
that allows the user to locate stars
, planets
and
hundreds
of
other celestial
objects
in
the
night sky
as
seen
from
any
place
on
E
arth.
Using
the
options
available
in
Stellarium
we
can
also
look up other
features
of
night-sky objects
like
distance
from
Earth,
brightness,
rising
and
setting
time
, and
sky position
anytime
in
future
or past.
In
today
'
s
lab
we
will
use Stellarium
to explore the three-dimensional shape of constellations and look at the sky as it appeared in the past
.
Instructions
1.
Go to https://stellarium-web.org/ . Stellarium will open a pop-up saying "Allow stellarium-web.org to access your location?" You can click yes, but the geolocation software often gets the location wrong. To set the location properly
,
click
on
the
gray button labeled "Unknown" at the bottom-left of the screen. In
the
search
bar,
type
“Mount
Cuba
,
”
press Enter, and click
on
the
"19807 Mount Cuba" entry
.
Click "Use this location." Next, click on the gray button at the bottom right of the screen, which is a clock that's set to just after sunset. Move the slider to to
night at
midnight
(2021-09-29 00:00:00)
.
Click the pause symbol to stop the clock counting so that your sky view stays on midnight.
2.
Using
the
menu
on
the
bottom
of
the
screen,
you
can
choose
to
turn
on
constellation
lines,
labels,
and
art,
as
well
as
"deep-sky objects" (nebulae, star clusters, galaxies)
,
planets,
and two types of grid
.
You can type the names of objects you might want to observe (for example, Andromeda galaxy, Jupiter, Triangulum galaxy) in the search box at the top of the screen and the night sky view will rotate to center them
.
Feel
free
to
play
around
with
the
view
and
explore
the
night
sky!
Just make sure to move the time slider back to midnight once you're finished exploring.
3.
Click
and
drag
anywhere
on
the
screen
to
twist
your
view
of
the
night
sky
so you appear to be looking in a different direction
.
You
can
also zoom in and out on the sky view just the way you would on any other website
.
Record
the
various
objects
that
you
see
in
the
table
of obervations on Page 3. A
re
there
planets?
stars?
constellations?
List
20
items,
with
at
least
one
item
in
each
category.
Make
sure
you
list
only
those
celestial
objects
which
are
VISIBLE in
the
night
sky
at
midnight tonight
.
Also
answer
Q
uestion
2
on Page 3
.
1
4.
Using
the
date
and
time
menu
accessed through the gray button at the bottom-right of the screen
,
scroll
back
100
years
and
look
at
the
view
of
the
night
sky
then
. You can hold down your mouse button on the down arrow under 2021 to move the year back to 1921. Then scroll back 1000 years to the year 1021. (To do this, you might want to open Stellarium in a second window so you can do a deliberate, detailed comparison of the past sky vs. today's sky.) A
nswer
Q
uestion
3
on Page 3
.
5.
Again
using
the
date
and
time
menu,
go
back
to
today’s
date,
and
make
sure
the
time
is
set
to
midnight
(0
0
:0
0
:0
0
).
Scroll
through
the
next
year
in
increments
of
1 month.
Follow
specifically
the
constellations
Orion,
Pisces,
Ursa
Major,
Canis
Major,
and
Virgo.
Record
all
of
the
months
they
are
visible
in
the
chart
on
Page 3. A constellation is considered visible
if at least half of it is
above
the
horizon.
Also
fill
in
the
“Shape”
column
with
the
object
the
constellation
resembles
(you
can
think
of
this
as
the
translation
of
the
constellation’s
name
if
you’d
like).
For
example,
“Aquarius”
is
“the
water
bearer,”
and
“Gemini”
would
be
“the
twins
.
”
6.
Make
sure
the
date
and
time
are
still
set
to
today
at
midnight.
Use
the
search
function
to
find
the
Pleiades
and
Ursa
Major,
and
answer
Q
uestion
5
on
Page 4
.
The
values
for
distance and spectral type appear
in
the
descriptions
that
pop
up
on
the
top-left
of
the
screen
when
the
individual
named
objects are
selected.
(Spectral type tells us they type of light the star produces - mostly blue, mostly yellow, mostly red, etc. Pay the most attention to the letter at the front of the spectral type.)
7. Fill
in
the
“Messier
Objects”
charts
on Page 4
,
using
the
search
menu
to
locate
the
objects
listed.
For
the
“Northern
Hemisphere”
chart,
set
the
date
to
today
at
midnight
and
the
location
to
Mt.
Cuba.
For
the
“Southern
Hemisphere”
chart,
set
the
date
to
today
at
10:00:00
and
the
location
to
Sydney,
Australia.
You
should
record
the
name
of
the
object
(ex.
Sombrero
Galaxy)
and/or
its
type
(ex.
open
cluster)
on
the
chart
in
the
appropriate
column
for
each
Messier
object
(use
the
given
typed
examples
for
clarification
if
needed).
What do the Messier objects have in common?
This
lab
was
developed
by
Christiana
Erba
for
the
University
of
Delaware’s
PHYS
133
Lab
Class,
revised
by Ramiz Qudsi, and further revised by Prof. Dodson-Robinson
.
2
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