Stellarium Introduction

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University of Missouri, Columbia *

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1020

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Physics

Date

Apr 3, 2024

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docx

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S TELLARIUM : I NTRODUCTION 1. Launch the program.  The program has two navigation panels which appear when you mouse over: one on the left and another at the bottom of the screen. Move your mouse over each tool so that you can familiarize yourself with the menu.  There are also several hotkeys which turn on and off certain features. There is a list of Stellarium shortcuts in the Week 1 Module which you may want to reference for future labs.  If you click on an astronomical object, an information panel shows on the left. You can get rid of this by right-clicking. 2. From the left panel, select the Location Window (F6) and search for Columbia (Missouri) in the search bar (the one with the magnifying glass). Ensure that the red arrow on the world map moves to Columbia. Click the box in the lower left to make this your default location. Close this window. You should see your location listed in the lower left of the viewing window. 3. Let us begin by pretending the Earth does not have an atmosphere so that we can see the stars even during the day. To do this, hit the "A" key to turn off/on the atmosphere. 4. Change your viewing direction by clicking on the ground and dragging. Orient your view to the East and observe how the stars move with respect to your horizon. You will want to speed time up. To do this, click "L" three times . (You can return to normal speed at any time by hitting the "K" key.) 5. Describe the motion you observe for each cardinal direction. EAST – SOUTH – WEST – NORTH – 6. Open the Location Window (F6) and change your location to Sunbury, Australia . Repeat the observations. Describe the motion of the stars in each direction. EAST – SOUTH – WEST – NORTH – How has the movement of the stars changed?

7. Open the Location Window (F6) and change your location to Beni, Congo . Repeat the observations. Describe the motion of the stars in each direction. EAST – SOUTH – WEST – NORTH – How has the movement of the stars changed? 8. Open the Location Window (F6) and change your location back to Columbia (Missouri) by clicking on the “Return to default location” button. You should see “Earth, Columbia (Missouri)” in the lower left corner when you return to the main screen. 9. Orient your view to the North and find Polaris (The North Star). You may want to click on the ground and drag it downward. Polaris is directly above the North direction, and it should not be moving like all the other stars. Click on Polaris. This will bring up lots of information about the star in the upper left of your screen. Find the data entry labeled: "Az/Alt". This is the azimuth and altitude of Polaris. Record the altitude below. Just give the angle in degrees and minutes. Altitude of Polaris: _____________________ Determine the latitude of Columbia, MO as well. This can be found in the Location Window (F6). Latitude of Columbia, MO: _________________ Compare the two numbers. They should match within a degree of each other. This will hold true for any location in the northern hemisphere and is historically a very useful navigational tool. 10. Hit the “7” key on the keyboard to stop time. We can observe the sky at any time by opening the Date/Time Window from the left navigation panel or by hitting F5. Note that the clock is in 24-hour format. Change the date to 2021-1-20 and the time to 19:00:00 (this is 7pm on January 20). Move the Date/Time window to the lower right of your screen so that it is out of the way but still visible. 11. Open the Search Window by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the left navigation panel or by hitting F3. Search for Sirius . Once the star is selected, hit the spacebar to keep the object centered. 12. In the chart on the next page, record its azimuth and altitude every hour through 2am (2:00:00). Record only the degrees ; you can ignore the minutes and seconds for this exercise. Do not use the fast forward time this time. Instead, advance time incrementally by one hour at a time. To do this, click on the clock to select it again, and click the small arrow above the hour position.

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