Want tot learn to read the sky, wherre do I start?

[michigander]

By the way I've found another fun that you can go for when you know all the constellations. In Starry Night (and may be in Stellarium) you can set different types of constellations. I've been learning "Astronomical" ones. But when I set "Reyhs", I found out that some of them look funnier. So in Astronomical version Hercules looks like a square with 4 lines (which are probably legs and arms) going from corners. And in Reyhs this constellation looks like a guy with a club. And Reyhs Perseus looks like a man in triangle hat which is more nice then astronomical version. So now I am learning alternative versions of known constellations.

I'll have to check out 'Starry Night' because I didn't realize that any of these packages could show H A Rey's constellation outlines. It sounds to me as though Crovax is referring to these outlines.

I would suggest getting a copy of H A Rey's book 'The Stars - A New Way to See Them' Here's a link to UK Amazon which you may be able to use to navigate back to Amazon for your own country.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0547132808/sr=1-3/qid=1242337954/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1242337954&sr=1-3&seller

He starts out with the Big Dipper and and the North Star and works his way out from there.

BTW I believe Rey does manage to get a stick giraffe out of Camelopardis. It would take mag 5.5 skies to see it, but it is there.

Dana

[crovax]

In Starry Night this can be found under View -> Constellations. You can also select Asterisms (which is probably useful only when you are starting to lean sky), Zodiac (no fun becuase this shows very small amount of constellations), Oriental Moons Stations (this is a mystery, I don't have any idea what are those Black Tortoises And White Tigers it shows).

[omneferuss]

I'm sorry, but I finally had to respond to this thread.. thinking that it said "want tot to learn to read the sky" ....I thought "What kind of cruel adult is wanting instructions on forcing a pre-schooler to read star-charts and comprehend RA and Dec ??? " oops, my mistake.. I was gonna say it's hard enuff for us old f*rt noobs !!

I 'second' the previous recommendations... and.. err, I'll go now

[Bizibilder]

I assume you mean Stellarium Coffee Prince? If so - you only get artwork (picture overlays of the constellations) for western. Some of the others have strange names and I would hate to think how you could "picture" them!!

[omneferuss]

In Stellarium (0.9.1 version in my case) go to 'configuration' (the spanner/wrench symbol) .. language tab.. sky culture. All your choices are there for constellations of other cultures/mythologies

[coffee_prince]

Excellent, making progress!

Just went outside with my laptop and stellarium, holding the darn thing upwards and upside down. I couldn't see ursor minor but what I did instead was just look straight up from facing north, and I found cassopeia, and from there I was able to 'jump' around and spot a good fair few number of constellations!

Could also easily see Jupiter, and even spotted mars with the help of stellarium. I did not notice it before because it was so close to the horizon and blocked by a few houses etc

Feel well chuffed

I lowered the light pollution level on stellarium so it resembled my own, and it does help a lot. I only wish I could do something about not having to hold my laptop upside down!

[dobserver]

I lowered the light pollution level on stellarium so it resembled my own, and it does help a lot. I only wish I could do something about not having to hold my laptop upside down!

Well done - it is a very useful program

If you use your mouse pointer on the screen you can 'grab' constellations and move them around, so you should be able to get the view you need without holding your laptop upside down. Just click and hold, then move your mouse to the right position.

[Bizibilder]

Well done Coffee prince - you're an astronomer now!!!