Activity 2: Special Places on Earth For this stage of your project you will be u

Question

Activity 2: Special Places on Earth For this stage of your project you will be using a free cross-platform program called Stellarium To prepare for the assignment, go to www.stellarium.org and download the Stellarium software (for Windows, Mac, or Linux) as well as the user guide. After installing the software on your computer and familiarizing yourself with the user guide, please complete ALL FIVE of the below short activities and turn them in as Stage 1. In this exercise, we’ll see how what you discovered about how the stars move for your area compares to some special places on earth. Using the Location Window, set Stellarium for the Equator by setting the latitude for zero degrees. (The longitude is not important..) After closing the Location Window, Once again face West as you did in Activity 1. Question: What happens? Describe how the celestial objects appear to move How does this differ from what you saw in your location? (Hint: consider how they move relative to the horizon.) Now face North (again by dragging the field of view around). Question: With the time still fast-forwarding, how are the stars moving? How does this differ from what you saw in your location? Now, using the Location Window, set Stellarium for the North Pole by setting the latitude for 90 degrees North. (What the longitude is is not important.) Note there’s not really any land at the North Pole as Stellarium implies, but for the sake of our exercise, and for Santa Claus, we’ll pretend there is. Question: Try to face West once again. Do you notice anything unusual about the Cardinal Directions? Why do you suppose this is? Question: Describe how the celestial objects appear to move (for instance, in what direction, from where to where?). How does this differ from what you saw in your location? Using the Search window, find Polaris (the North Star) Question: Where is Polaris relative to you in the sky? Question: Pick a random star near the horizon. Describe its motion relative to the horizon. What can you say about when it will set?

Explanation / Answer

Dear Friend

Thanks a lot for this question!!!

It opened me to this mind boggling soft-ware of which I know nothing.....not even it's existence.

Now The answer:

When we face W at Equator - celestial objects appear to move down vertically into the horizon

When we face W my location in Northern hemesphere- the stars are moving at angle of 30 degrees into horizon.

When we face N -at Equator- celestial objects appear to move counter clock-wise

When we face N at my location also the sky appears to rotate counter clock-wise.

At the N-pole - face West -or any direction -the direction is south as it should be

At N-pole Celestial objects are moving parallel to horizon to the right.

The Polaris in Northern sky- plumb North

The star picked is ( Capella) moving into horizon counter clock-wise every 24 hrs

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.