Learn Stellarium

From Open Educational Resources

Introduction

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.

Educational application and relevance

Version

Stellarium Version - 0.12.4

Configuration

No need to configure
Application - Education - Stellarium

Overview of Features

sky

  • default catalogue of over 600,000 stars
  • extra catalogues with more than 210 million stars
  • asterisms and illustrations of the constellations
  • constellations for 20+ different cultures
  • images of nebulae (full Messier catalogue)
  • realistic Milky Way
  • very realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset
  • the planets and their satellites

interface

  • a powerful zoom
  • time control
  • multilingual interface
  • fisheye projection for planetarium domes
  • spheric mirror projection for your own low-cost dome
  • all new graphical interface and extensive keyboard control
  • telescope control

visualisation

  • equatorial and azimuthal grids
  • star twinkling
  • shooting stars
  • eclipse simulation
  • supernovae simulation
  • skinnable landscapes, now with spheric panorama projection

customizability

  • plugin system adding artifical satellites, ocular simulation, telescope configuration and more
  • ability to add new solar system objects from online resources...
  • add your own deep sky objects, landscapes, constellation images, scripts...

Other similar applications

Kstar ,

Development and community help

Project coordinator: Fabien Chéreau
Graphic designer: Johan Meuris
Developer: Bogdan Marinov, Alexander Wolf, Timothy Reaves, Guillaume Chéreau, Georg Zotti, Marcos Cardinot, Florian Schaukowitsch
Continuous Integration: Hans Lambermont
Tester: Khalid AlAjaji
and everyone else in the community.

Working with the application

Functionalities

  1. Please label images as Step 1
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450px Image Image Image Image (Step 2)
On opening a new installation of Stellarium, you will be presented with a 60° view of

the sky as currently seen from Paris.

At the bottom of the screen you can see additional information describing the

location, date and time.

Image Image Image Image (Step 3) Image Image Image Image (Step 4)
Cardinal indicators located on the horizon show the direction you are facing. A left mouse click on any object on the screen will display additional information in

the top left hand corner of the screen. Right mouse click to clear the selection

Image Image Image Image (Step 5) Image Image Image Image (Step 6)
Positioning your mouse at the lower left hand corner of the screen will reveal the main tool bars. They automatically disappear when the mouse is moved away. Basic Moves

Moving around Stellarium can be accomplished using mouse and keyboard commands.
Hold the left mouse button down while moving the mouse to change your orientation.
You can also use the cursor keys on your keyboard to change your orientation.
Press and hold the keyboard Page Up and Page Down keys to zoom in and out. Press the space bar to centre a selected object.
Press the forward slash key “ / ” to quickly zoom in on a selected object.
Press the back slash key ” \ “ to return quickly to a 60° field of view.

Image Image Image Image (Step 7) Image Image Image Image (Step 8)
Setting the Location and Time :

Setting the correct location and time must be done before Stellarium can be used to plan an evening’s observations.
Press F6 to open the Location Window. Alternatively, click on the Location Window icon in the tool bar.
Type the name of the city in the search box, then select it t. Click on “use as default” if you wish to retain the setting the next time Stellarium starts. Close when finished.

The main display should reflect the new location details:
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Image Image Image Image (Step 11) Image Image Image Image (Step 12)
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Image Image Image Image (Step 15) Image Image Image Image (Step 16)
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File formats for creation

Not applicable

Saving the file

Not applicable

Export and publishing files

Not applicable

Advanced features

http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Advanced_Use

Installation

Method of installation Steps
From Ubuntu software Centre Steps
From Terminal Steps
From the web Steps
Web based registration Steps

The application on mobiles and tablets

Skymap

Ideas for resource creation

References

http://stellarium.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellarium_(software)

How to use template

{{subst:Explore_an_application}} on the page you create for your tool. Page Name should be "Learn ToolName"