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Stellarium User Guide Stellarium User Guide Matthew Gates 25th January 2008 Copyright c 2008 Matthew Gates. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sec- tions, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License". 1 Contents 1 Introduction 6 2 Installation 7 2.1 SystemRequirements............................. 7 2.2 Downloading ................................. 7 2.3 Installation .................................. 7 2.3.1 Windows ............................... 7 2.3.2 MacOSX............................... 7 2.3.3 Linux................................. 8 2.4 RunningStellarium .............................. 8 3 Interface Guide 9 3.1 Tour...................................... 9 3.1.1 TimeTravel.............................. 10 3.1.2 MovingAroundtheSky . 10 3.1.3 MainTool-bar ............................ 11 3.1.4 TheObjectSearchWindow . 13 3.1.5 HelpWindow............................. 14 3.1.6 InformationWindow . 14 3.1.7 TheTextMenu ............................ 15 3.1.8 OtherKeyboardCommands . 15 4 Configuration 17 4.1 SettingtheDateandTime .. .... .... ... .... .... .... 17 4.2 SettingYourLocation. 17 4.3 SettingtheLandscapeGraphics. ... 19 4.4 VideoModeSettings ............................. 20 4.5 RenderingOptions .............................. 21 4.6 LanguageSettings............................... 21 5 Advanced Use 24 5.1 FilesandDirectories . .... .... .... ... .... .... .... 24 5.1.1 Windows ............................... 24 5.1.2 MacOSX .............................. 25 5.1.3 Linux................................. 25 5.1.4 DirectoryStructure . 25 5.2 TheMainConfigurationFile . 26 5.2.1 SettingYourLocationPrecisely . 26 5.2.2 SettingtheDisplayResolution . 27 5.2.3 EnablingtheScriptBar. 27 5.2.4 SettingtheTimeZone . 27 5.3 CommandLineOptions.... .... .... ... .... .... .... 27 2 CONTENTS CONTENTS 5.3.1 Examples............................... 27 5.4 GettingExtraStarData . 27 5.5 Scripting.................................... 29 5.5.1 RunningScripts.... .... .... ... .... .... .... 29 5.5.2 RecordingScripts. 29 5.5.3 EditingScripts ............................ 29 5.5.4 Examplescript ............................ 29 5.5.5 ScriptingHintsandTips . 30 5.6 VisualEffects ................................. 30 5.6.1 LightPollution ............................ 30 5.7 CustomisingLandscapes . 30 5.7.1 SingleFish-eyeMethod . 31 5.7.2 SinglePanoramaMethod. 31 5.7.3 MultipleImageMethod . 32 5.7.4 landscape.ini [location] section ............. 34 5.8 AddingNebulaeImages ... .... .... ... .... .... .... 34 5.8.1 Modifying ngc2000.dat ..................... 35 5.8.2 Modifying ngc2000names.dat ................. 35 5.8.3 Modifying nebula_textures.fab ............... 35 5.8.4 EditingImageFiles. 36 5.9 SkyCultures.................................. 36 5.10 AddingPlanetaryBodies . 37 5.11 OtherConfigurationFiles. .. 39 5.12 TakingScreenshots . 40 5.13 TelescopeControl... .... .... .... ... .... .... .... 40 5.13.1 TelescopeServers. 40 5.13.2 Configuration. .... .... .... ... .... .... .... 41 5.13.3 KeyboardControls . 42 5.13.4 FieldofViewMarkers . 42 5.14ImageFlipping ................................ 43 A Configuration file 44 B Scripting Commands 52 C Precision 56 D TUI Commands 57 E Star Catalogue 60 E.1 Stellarium’sSkyModel. 60 E.1.1 Zones................................. 60 E.2 StarCatalogueFileFormat . 60 E.2.1 GeneralDescription . 60 E.2.2 FileSections ............................. 61 E.2.3 RecordTypes............................. 62 E.2.3.1 FileHeaderRecord . 62 E.2.3.2 ZoneRecords ....................... 62 E.2.3.3 StarDataRecords . 62 F Creating a Personalised Landscape for Stellarium 66 F.0.4 TheCamera.............................. 66 F.0.5 ProcessingintoaPanorama . 67 F.0.6 Removingthebackgroundtomakeittransparent . .... 67 3 CONTENTS CONTENTS G Astronomical Concepts 70 G.1 TheCelestialSphere ............................. 70 G.2 CoordinateSystems.............................. 71 G.2.1 Altitude/AzimuthCoordinates . 71 G.2.2 RightAscension/DeclinationCoordinates . ..... 71 G.3 Units...................................... 73 G.3.1 Distance................................ 73 G.3.2 Time ................................. 73 G.3.3 Angles ................................ 74 G.3.3.1 Notation .......................... 74 G.3.4 TheMagnitudeScale. 75 G.3.5 Luminosity .............................. 75 G.4 Precession................................... 75 G.5 Parallax .................................... 76 G.6 ProperMotion................................. 78 H Astronomical Phenomena 79 H.1 TheSun.................................... 79 H.2 Stars...................................... 79 H.2.1 MultipleStarSystems. 79 H.2.2 OpticalDoubles&OpticalMultiples . 80 H.2.3 Constellations. .... .... .... ... .... .... .... 80 H.2.4 StarNames .............................. 80 H.2.4.1 BayerDesignation. 81 H.2.4.2 FlamsteedDesignation . 81 H.2.4.3 Catalogues. .... .... ... .... .... .... 81 H.2.5 SpectralType&LuminosityClass . 81 H.2.6 Variables ............................... 84 H.3 OurMoon................................... 84 H.3.1 PhasesoftheMoon.. .... .... ... .... .... .... 84 H.4 TheMajorPlanets............................... 85 H.4.1 TerrestrialPlanets. 85 H.4.2 JovianPlanets............................. 86 H.5 TheMinorPlanets............................... 86 H.5.1 Asteroids ............................... 86 H.5.2 Comets ................................ 86 H.6 Galaxies.................................... 86 H.7 TheMilkyWay ................................ 87 H.8 Nebulae .................................... 87 H.9 Meteoroids .................................. 87 H.10Eclipses .................................... 88 H.10.1SolarEclipses. 88 H.10.2LunarEclipses .... .... .... ... .... .... .... 88 H.11Catalogues................................... 88 H.11.1Hipparcos............................... 89 H.11.2TheMessierObjects . 89 H.12ObservingHints................................ 90 H.13HandyAngles................................. 90 I Sky Guide 92 4 CONTENTS CONTENTS J Exercises 95 J.1 FindM31inBinoculars............................ 95 J.1.1 Simulation .............................. 95 J.1.2 ForReal................................ 95 J.2 HandyAngles................................. 95 J.3 FindaLunarEclipse ............................. 96 J.4 FindaSolarEclipse.............................. 96 J.5 ScriptaMessierTour ............................. 96 K GNU Free Documentation License 97 L Acknowledgements 100 Bibliography 101 5 Chapter 1 Introduction Stellarium is a software project that allows people to use their home computer as a virtual planetarium. It will calculate the positions of the Sun and Moon, planets and stars, and draw how the sky would look to an observer depending on their location and the time. It can also draw the constellations and simulate astronomical phenomena such as meteor showers, and solar or lunar eclipses. Stellarium may be used as an educational tool for teaching about the night sky, as an observational aide for amateur astronomers wishing to plan a night’s observing, or simply as a curiosity (it’s fun!). Because of the high quality of the graphics that Stellarium pro- duces, it is used in some real planetarium projector products. Some amateur astronomy groups use it to create sky maps for describing regions of the sky in articles for newsletters and magazines. Stellarium is under fairly rapid development, and by the time you read this guide, a newer version may have been released with even more features that those documented here. Check for updates to Stellarium at the Stellarium website. If you have questions and/or comments about this guide, please email the author. For comments about Stellarium itself, visit the Stellarium forums. 6 Chapter 2 Installation 2.1 System Requirements • Linux/Unix; Windows 2000/NT/XP/Vista; MacOS X 10.3.x or greater. • A 3D graphics card with a support for OpenGL. • A dark room for realistic rendering - details like the Milky Way or star twinkling can’t be seen in a bright room. • Minumum of 256 MiB RAM, 1 GiB required for the largest star catalogues. 2.2 Downloading You should visit the Stellarium website. Download packages for various platforms are available directly from the main page. Choose the correct package for your operating system1. 2.3 Installation 2.3.1 Windows 1. Double click on the stellarium-0.9.1.exe file to run the installer. 2. Follow the on-screen instructions. 2.3.2 MacOSX 1. Locatethe stellarium-0.9.1.dmg file in finder and doubleclick on it, or open it using the disk copy program. 2. Havea browseof the readme file, and drag Stellarium to the Applications folder (or somewhere else if you prefer). 3. Note that it is better to copyStellarium out of the .dmgfile to run it - some users have reported problems when running directly from the .dmg file. 1Linux users, your distribution may already carry Stellarium as part of the distro - just look in your package manager. 7 2.4. RUNNINGSTELLARIUM CHAPTER2. INSTALLATION 2.3.3 Linux Check if your distribution has a package for Stellarium already - if so you’re probably best off using it. If not, you can download and build the source. See the the wiki for detailed instructions. 2.4 Running Stellarium Windows The Stellarium installer creates an item in the Start Menu under in Programs section. Select this to run Stellarium.
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