Astronomical Softwares
Are you interested in getting to know more about the heavenly objects in the sky? If yes, read on. There are two planetarium softwares which I found quite interactive and allows you to explore the universe. They are Stellarium and Celestia (the links to the website can be found under applications link on top of this page. Then check under Astronomical Softwares). Not to worry, both are free softwares and the download size is just about 15MB each. I used Stellarium for one of my modules: Heavenly Mathematics. Yeah, this module sounds cool, right? Stellarium allows the visual of heavenly objects from earth point of view. You can see how stars moved in the sky at night. If you travel far north or south, you can actually see that the sun does not set at some time of the year but instead it moves horizontally, just like in one of the scenes in March of the Penguins (This is a very nice documentary/movie). You can also travel to the heavenly objects and have a closer look. You can actually experience virtual solar eclipse from the latest version of Stellarium, and even see meteor showers. So, you can predict the dates and where such phenomenons would occur by fast forwarding to the future. A new "skill" learnt to show to your friends.
As for Celestia, "unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy. All movement in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across. A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit. " But I use Stellarium more often than Celestia, (Well, it was recommended by my Prof)
Find it useful? I hope so.
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