Name:

Section:

Date:

Lab 2: Stellarium

Instructions

1. Open the program “Stellarium.” On the left-hand side of the screen, click on the “Location” menu.In the search bar, type “Mount Cuba” and double click on the link that appears in the box above.Close the menu, then select the “Date and Time” window, and set it to today at midnight. The clockwill continue counting, so every so often throughout the lab you’ll want to reset the time back tomidnight. Alternatively, you can hit the “play” button in the bottom menu to set it to “pause.” Thiswill hold the time constant.

2. Using the menu on the bottom of the screen, you can choose to turn on constellation lines, labels,and art, as well as nebulas, planets, or switch between telescope mounts. The search window islocated on the left-hand side; you can either type the name of objects into the search bar or use oneof the other menus available. Feel free to play around with the view and explore the night sky!

3. Click and drag anywhere on the screen to twist and change your view of the night sky. You can usethe wheel on the mouse to zoom in and out, too. Record the various objects that you see in the tableprovided: are there planets? stars? constellations? List 20 items, with at least one item in eachcategory. Also answer question 2.

4. Using the date and time menu, scroll back 100 years and look at the view of the night sky then;answer question 3.

5. Again using the date and time menu, go back to today’s date, and make sure the time is set tomidnight (0:0:0). Scroll through the next year in increments of months. Follow specifically theconstellations Orion, Pisces, Ursa Major, Canis Major, and Virgo. Record all of the months they arevisible in the chart on the worksheet (visible means at least half the constellation is above thehorizon). Also fill in the “Shape” column with the object the constellation resembles (you can thinkof this as the translation of the constellation’s name if you’d like). For example, “Aquarius” is “thewater 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 thePleiades and Ursa Major, and answer question 5 on the worksheet. The values for Parallax appear inthe descriptions that pop up on the top-left of the screen when the individual named stars areselected.

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7. Fill in the “Messier Objects” charts below, 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. Forthe “Southern Hemisphere” chart, set the date to today at 10:00:00 and the location to Sydney,Australia. Use the “ocular view” button to zoom in on the objects and discover more informationabout them! You should record the name of the object (ex. Sombrero Galaxy) and/or it’s type (ex.open cluster) on the chart in the appropriate column for each Messier object (use the given typedexamples for clarification if needed).

Picture Credits: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2003/28/image/b/. This lab uses the programStellarium, http://www.stellarium.org/, and was developed by Christiana Erba for the University of Delaware’s PHYS 133Lab Class, last updated by the author on September 4, 2015.

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Name:

Section:

Date:

Lab 2 Worksheet: Stellarium

1. (5 points) Table of Observations

Stars Planets Constellations Nebulae Galaxies Clusters

2. (1 point) Which planet(s) are visible in the night sky between sunset and midnight?

3. (1 point) Why do you think the night sky 100 years ago looks so familiar?

4. (5 points) Constellations

Constellation Shape Visibility

Orion

Pisces

Ursa Major

Canis Major

Virgo

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5. (7 points) We can get a distance measurement in parsecs by taking the reciprocal of the parallax:Distance = 1/parallax. Fill in the chart below for these four “sister” stars in the Pleiades, bycalculating the distances:

The Pleiades

Star P(arcsec) D (pcs)

Alcyone

Asterope

Celaeno

Electra

Maia

Merope

Taygeta

Ursa Major

Star P (arcsec) D (pcs)

Alioth

Dubhe

Mizar

Muscida

Talitha

Tania Australis

Tania Borealis

6. (2 points) Examine the chart above. Based on these numbers, do the stars in the Pleiades and in UrsaMajor actually lie near each other in the Universe? Why or why not?

7. (2 points) Based on your answers to the question above, why do the stars in constellations look closetogether?

8. (7 points) Messier Objects

Northern Hemisphere

Nebulae Galaxies Clusters

Ex.M2

Globular

M34

M38

M13

M31

M1

M81

M82

Southern Hemisphere

Nebulae Galaxies Clusters

Ex.M51

Whirlpool-Spiral

M6

M8

M11

M24

M27

M42

M33

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