The Stellarium planetarium program is available for download and installation on your own computer from the website: http://www.stellarium.org/. (It’s FREE for Windows, Macs, and Linux!) Stellarium can also be used with your browser, and is available for a small fee from Google Play and the Apple Store, as well. Stellarium is also available on the computers in the Student Technology Centers.
Stellarium’s program controls appear when you move the mouse to the lower left corner. The User's Guide provides a good walk-through for the preliminaries like controls, features, and 'setting home location.'
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Set the geographic location (home) to your location. The top icon on the left toolbar (the compass-thing at left) opens the location window. Find and select your town, or put the coordinates in manually and save them as the default location. (Bloomington: latitude 39 09’ 21’’ north, longitude 86 30’ 06” west).
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Set the time you wish to see the sky (for example, the current date and time during the evening, or even your birthday).
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Turn the sun off (or on). See the stars in the daytime!
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Show landscape on the horizon or just the sky.
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Include the planets
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Highlight the constellations (or not…!) con2.jpg con3.jpg
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Close the Stellarium windows and exit the program
To search for an object with Stellarium, click the Search Window button on the left menu. If an object is below the horizon, turn off the ground or flow the time backward or forward until the object is visible.
Sample Solution