Stellarium ?

[Budding Star Gazer]

Just a couple of Questions about the Stellarium Program,

1. Is it in real time & accurate, so if i zoom in on say saturn the face i see on the program is what you would see looking through a Scope or is it just a representation.

2. When i down loaded the program was it in full or should i now update the extra database for Star maps etc.

3. Should i follow real time atmospheric conditions so i can only see whats there if i look up, At the moment i have it set on zero LP no fog etc.

Great program thanks for the advice on the download jahmanson it will come in very handy for learning the Night Sky.

Cheers

Lee

[Shibby]

1. Yes, the planets and their moons etc are in the correct real-time positions and rotations. Of course, stellarium lets you zoom in much further than you practically can with a small telescope but the software is supposed to represent what the sky looks like.

2. I find there are enough stars in the supplied catalogue for my purposes. (the brightest)

3. Not a bad idea. I actually took a panoramic photo of my back garden and imported it as a landscape into stellarium. Now I know exactly what I will be able to see every night!

Stellarium is a very useful tool for planning an observing session, it gives you a good idea of what you will be able to see and where you can find it. I tend to zoom to the FOV I expect to be getting with any particular eyepiece

[Budding Star Gazer]

Cheers Shibby, Not a bad idea taking some pictures of your own viewing point and importing them.