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Electronic planetarium stellarium. Review of computer planetariums. Modest but tasteful

Stellarium is a free, open-source virtual planetarium, available under the GNU General Public License for the Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Ubuntu and Android platforms (as Stellarium Mobile). Starting from version 0.10.0, the program uses OpenGL and technologies (before version 0.10.0 OpenGL and technologies were used) to create realistic skies in real time.

The Stellarium program reproduces with the highest degree of realism images that we can see with the naked eye, as well as through the lens of binoculars or a small telescope. The app is a great educational tool and is highly recommended for parents who want to introduce their children to the basics of astronomy and for anyone who enjoys stargazing. Even a child can master the simple and user-friendly interface without much effort.

The Stellarium application provides visualizations of more than 120,000 stars registered in the Hipparcos catalog, as well as other deep space objects in the Messier catalog. The program also provides observations of solar eclipses and the movements of comets.

Among the most interesting features of the product are the function of time management, generating the location of stars observed from anywhere on the globe, photorealistic landscapes, simulating atmospheric optical phenomena, displaying coordinate grids, adding labels for all objects, as well as searching for objects, reproducing the orbits and trajectories of planets. and highlighting constellations with connecting lines.

Stellarium features

Celestial sphere

  • More than 120,000 stars from Hipparcos (in total more than 600,000 stars in the standard catalog of the program, 210 million stars with additional catalogs)
  • Planets of the entire solar system and their main moons.
  • Asterisms and artistic images of constellations. There are a variety of sky cultures (constellation patterns) to choose from: modern Western, ancient Egyptian, Chinese, Arabic and many others.
  • Images of nebulae (complete Messier Catalog).
  • Realistic Milky Way.
  • Panoramic landscapes, fog, atmosphere and realistic sunsets, sunrises and eclipses.

Interface

  • Standard perspective, wide-angle (fisheye) and spherical design methods.
  • Possibility to enlarge the image.
  • Time management, the ability to write your own scripts.
  • Telescope control.

Visualization

  • Possibility of choosing projections.
  • Equatorial and azimuthal grids.
  • Ability to select a landscape or disable it.
  • Visualization of atmospheric refraction effects.
  • Visualization of bright historical supernova explosions.
  • As time changes, the outlines of the constellations change, which adds realism.

Starting with version 0.8.0, Stellarium is available in more than 40 languages ​​(including Russian).

Limitations and shortcomings of Stellarium

  • The display of the real surface at a certain point on the planet is not observed.

For example, you can set an observation location from the surface of the ocean, and the landscape will remain the same as when observed from the mainland. The same thing will happen if you move to another planet altogether. You have to change the landscape manually.

Stellarium is a program that is a virtual 3D planetarium. By installing this application on your computer, you will be able to observe the starry sky, zooming in and out of objects on it. Stellarium comes with a catalog containing about 600 thousand stars. At the same time, you can download additional catalogs, which include a total of more than 200 million stars. A panorama of the starry sky is displayed realistically, based on the geographic coordinates and time of day you enter. The program is capable of displaying sunsets and sunrises, the Moon and planets of the solar system, meteors, the Milky Way and other objects that you can observe in the real sky. In addition, you can enable the display of azimuthal and equatorial grids, adjust the blinking of stars, emulate eclipses and supernovae. The program provides the widest possibilities for setting up a virtual planetarium - you can customize landscapes and atmospheric transparency, add images of nebulas, use a wide-angle fish-eye lens mode and much more. Stellarium supports many plugins that allow you to display artificial Earth satellites, control a virtual telescope, etc. The program can be controlled via the command line and has a built-in script engine - you can download scripts for it from a special repository.

Key Features and Functions

  • the widest possibilities for realistic simulation of the starry sky;
  • more than 200,000 stars in the default catalog and more than 2,000,000 stars in additional catalogs;
  • support for scripts and plugins;
  • the ability to fine-tune the display of stars, atmosphere and landscapes.

The Stellarium program is a virtual planetarium on your computer. A free multi-platform application that is regularly updated and contains a fairly large database of celestial bodies.

Modest but tasteful

Don't be fooled by the capabilities of the Stellarium application - it's a planetarium and nothing more! A database of constellations and nebulae, linked to location and time, but quite flexible in configuration and easy to use. This application should be downloaded by those who are in any way interested in astronomy, or are simply interested in the subject.

The Stellarium installation procedure is standard and does not raise any questions. The program does not write anything to system folders, with the exception of the config.ini configuration file in the folder of the same name in the user's home directory. This is a text file and you can manually “edit” some data in it. For example, accurately setting the latitude and longitude of a virtual observatory

Mastering the management of a home planarium

After launching the application, the user is presented with a sky with visible (currently) constellations. The planetarium program takes the current date and time from the system clock, and the location can be set through the settings menu - it can be easily found in the panel located in the lower left corner of the screen. There are various functional “buttons” here, and one of them is responsible for settings. Here you can show or hide the names of constellations, search for a celestial body, etc.

The “picture” of the sky is not static, it changes in real time. Moreover, the program has the ability to “slow down/speed up” the passage of time or “return” to the current one. The panel in the lower right corner of the screen is responsible for these functions.

“Navigation” across the sky is best done with the mouse: by pressing the left key you can “move” the sky, and with the wheel you can “zoom in/out” the stars.
By selecting the object of interest with the left mouse button, in the upper left corner we see detailed information about it: coordinates, distance, azimuth and altitude. By the way, the meaning of the latter is changing right before our eyes - do not forget that the planetarium operates in real time.

In conclusion…

Stellarium is not just an application, it is a whole project of astronomy lovers on the Internet. Since the program is distributed under a free license, anyone can translate the interface into their native language, “rebuild” the application under any operating system, be it Windows or MacOS, download additional files for the program, and even try to connect the virtual planetarium with a real telescope.