StarLab Portable Planetarium    Cylinders

 

Summary

 

StarLab is a portable planetarium that can be used in a variety of locations but, as you can see, it takes quite a bit of space.   The dome is kept inflated by a fan that connects to the planetarium. Entry is through a covered space at the front. It can seat about 20 students comfortably and cushions are provided.   The presenter uses a projector in the center and through a control panel can control a variety of parameters such as rotation speed, date, etc. Students view the presentation as the galaxies, etc are displayed on the inside of the dome. Open House Tour Guides Demo   Viewing Options   A number of viewing options are available to cover various topics as described below.

q  Native American Mythology Mythology: Examines the origins and cultural importance of Native American mythological stories.

 

q  Greek Mythology:  Examinations of ancient Greek constellations and the mythology associated with them.

 

q  Biological Cells: Exploration of the nucleus, cell division, and protein synthesis processes of the cell.

 

q  Plate Tectonics: Examines the theory of plate tectonics, making special note of the relationship between volcanoes, earthquakes, and plate boundaries.

 

q  Deep Sky Objects; Explorations of 5 constellations and 5 bright stars.

 

q  Constellations: Explores a large number of constellations that are visible during different times of the year.

 

q  Celestial Coordinates: Introduces the terms right ascension and declination to students and allows them to use that information to find specific star locations.

 

q  Earth Coordinates: Used to locate continents and oceans, hemispheres, lines of latitude and longitude, and to find specific locations on the Earth.

 

q  Solar System and Galaxy: Explores the Milky Way Galaxy and the principle astronomical objects that make up our solar system.

 

q  Starfield: Introduces galaxies at a beginning level.

 

Stellarium Planetarium Software

 

Summary

 

Stellarium is software that allows you to use a personal 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. An example display is shown on the right.   Stellarium is currently used in the Astronomy elective at the Academy. Students are encouraged to download a copy for use in homework assignments. It is free and can be used by anyone that wishes to learn more about the night sky, as an observational aid for amateur astronomers, or simply because it is so much fun to use.   Because of the high quality of the graphics that Stellarium produces, it is used in some actual 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.

 

q  Equatorial Grid: Draws grid lines for the Celestial Coordinate System consisting of Right Ascension and Declination.

 

q  Constellations: Draws the names of and draws the constellation lines

 

q  Constellation Art: Superimposes artistic representations of the constellations over the stars

 

q  Location: Allows placement of the observer in terms of latitude, longitude, and elevation.

 

q  Date, Time, and Time speed: Allows setting of the date, time, and speed with which the space objects move across the sky.

 

q  Toggle Ground: Can be turned off to see objects that are below the horizon.

 

q  Toggle Atmospheric Effects:  Used to make stars visible in the daytime

 

q  Toggle Cardinal Points: Used to mark North, South, East, and West points on the horizon.

 

Tour Guides