The list of stars that most people know is limited, and among the constellations we can boast of knowing Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
Of course, now few people use the stars in navigation, location determination, and few are interested in the fact that the god Osiris was associated with the stars of Orion’s belt.
I became interested in Orion's belt because I saw these stars and somehow they attracted my attention, even before I knew what kind of asterism it was.
If you want, then you can find these stars in a computer program, and then in the sky.
Further you can find such a star as Sirius, the Latin name - vacation translated means "little dog".

In general about the program.

Installing the Stellarium program

1. Go to the program website - http://www.stellarium.org/ru
2. Select the program version. I have Windows 32 on my laptop, and Windows 64 on my computer, so the 32-bit version is suitable for my laptop.

(photo 1)

3. On the next page in the download window that appears, click on the “Save” button.

(photo 2)

4. After downloading, find the file in the “Downloads” folder and begin the installation.

(photo 3)

5. After the installation starts, click “Next” three times, since there are practically no settings to choose from.

How to use the program

6. Click “Start / All programs / Stellarium folder / Stellarium”.

7. After starting the program, we find that we need to move the cursor to the lower left edge of the screen for the menu bars to appear.

(photo 4)

8. If you run the program during the day, the daytime sky will be shown corresponding to the time of year - winter, spring, summer, autumn.
To see the night sky, you need to go to the date and time settings and indicate the time at which you saw the star you are interested in.

(photo 5)

9. Select your location to see the same stars as in your area at the same time that you specify.
After selecting a location, click on the cross in the location selection window.

(photo 6)

10. Now turn on the “constellation lines” and “constellation names”.

(photo 7)

Now you can use the cursor to spin around its axis and look at the starry sky and constellations.

How to find the right constellation?

11. If, while scrolling, you have not found the desired constellation, then perhaps it does not yet appear in the sky at this time.
It is necessary to speed up the passage of time to see which constellations appear.
For example, I was looking for where Sirius was, and he appeared later.

(photo 8)

How to work with star descriptions

12. If you click on a star, its description will appear.

(photo 9)

You can remove the description of a star by hovering the mouse cursor over it and pressing the right button.

conclusions

Thank you for your attention.

Ancient astronomers, peering into the night sky, noticed that some stars were located close to each other, while others were far away. Nearby luminaries were united into groups or constellations. They began to play an important role in people's lives. This was especially true for the sailors of merchant ships, who used the stars to determine the direction of movement of their ships.

The first constellation map appeared in the 2nd century BC. uh. It was created by one of the greatest Greek astronomers, Hipparchus of Nicaea. While working at the Library of Alexandria, he compiled a catalog of 850 stars visible to the naked eye. He distributed all these luminaries among 48 constellations.

The final point on this issue was put by the Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD. He wrote his famous monograph "Almagest". In it he outlined all the astronomical knowledge that existed at that time. This work was unshakable for a whole millennium until the appearance of the greatest scientist from Khorezm, Al-Bruni, at the beginning of the 11th century.

In the 15th century, the German astronomer and mathematician Johann Müller (not to be confused with the biologist Johann Peter Müller) founded one of the first astronomical laboratories in Nuremberg. On the initiative of this respected master, astronomical tables based on the works of Ptolemy were published.

These first maps of the starry sky were used by such famous navigators as Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus. The latter, guided by them, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1492 and reached the shores of South America.

The German artist and engraver Albrecht Dürer became acquainted with the works of Johann Müller, who is better known under the nickname Regiomontanus. It is thanks to his skill that in 1515 the first printed map of the constellations appeared. Those on it were depicted in the form of figures from Greek mythology. This was the beginning of the publication of celestial atlases.

They tried to reflect the brightness of the stars in descending order. For this they began to use letters of the Greek alphabet. The brightest luminaries within the constellations were assigned the letter "alpha". Then came the letter "beta", "gamma" and so on. This principle is still used today.

In the 17th century, Polish astronomer and telescope designer Jan Hevelius compiled a catalog that included 1,564 stars. He also indicated their coordinates on the celestial sphere.

The modern names of the constellations and their boundaries were finally established by international agreement in 1922. There are 88 constellations in total, and their names are mostly borrowed from ancient Greek mythology. Each cluster of stars also has a common Latin name. This is so that astronomers speaking different languages ​​can understand each other.

constellation map,
located in the sky of the Northern Hemisphere

The picture above shows celestial map of the Northern Hemisphere. It includes the following constellations: Andromeda (1), Ursa Major (2), Auriga (3), Bootes (4), Coma Berenices (5), Hercules (6), Canes Venatici (7), Dolphin (8), Dragon (9), Giraffe (10), Cassiopeia (13), Swan (14), Lyra (15), Chanterelle (16), Ursa Minor (17), Little Horse (18), Little Lion (19), Pegasus (21 ), Perseus (22), Lynx (23), Northern Crown (24), Arrow (25), Triangle (26), Cepheus (27), Lizard (29), Hydra (33), Unicorn (35), Whale ( 43), Canis Minor (47), Orion (53).

The white circles contain the numbers of the Zodiac constellations: Aries (77), Taurus (78), Gemini (79), Cancer (80), Leo (81), Virgo (82), Pisces (88).

The figure below shows celestial map of the southern hemisphere. These include: Ophiuchus (11), Snake (12), Eagle (20), Shield (28), Canis Major (30), Wolf (31), Raven (32), Dove (34), Altar (36), Painter (37), Crane (38), Hare (39), Goldfish (40), Indian (41), Keel (42), Compass (44), Poop (45), Flying Fish (46), Microscope (48 ), Fly (49), Pump (50), Square (51), Octant (52), Peacock (54), Sails (55), Furnace (56), Bird of Paradise (57), Cutter (58), Sextant ( 59), Grid (60), Sculptor (61), Table Mountain (62), Telescope (63), Toucan (64), Phoenix (65), Chameleon (66), Centaurus (67), Compasses (68), Clock (69), Chalice (70), Eridanus (71), Southern Hydra (72), Southern Crown (73), Southern Fish (74), Southern Cross (75), Southern Triangle (76).

The white circles show the numbers corresponding to the following Zodiac constellations: Libra (83), Scorpio (84), Sagittarius (85), Capricorn (86), Aquarius (87).

constellation map,
located in the sky of the Southern Hemisphere

The most famous constellation in the Northern Hemisphere is Ursa Major. These are 7 bright stars forming a bucket. If you draw a straight line through its “wall” opposite the “handle” (the stars Dubhe and Merak), then it will rest against the North Star, that is, it will indicate the northern direction. Over the centuries, the position of these stars in the sky changes. Therefore, several thousand years ago the outline of the ladle looked different than it does today.

The constellation map would lose a lot without Orion. Its brightest star is called Betelgeuse. And the second brightest is called Rigel. Three second magnitude stars form Orion's belt. To the south you can find the brightest star in the night sky, called Sirius. It is part of the constellation Canis Major. Still, the diversity and beauty of the night sky is impossible to describe. This must be seen and admired by the cosmic forces that are capable of creating such splendor.

Details Oleg Nekhaev

Zvezdnoye the sky that you see on this map (below) reflects the real position of the planets, bright stars and constellations at the moment. It is enough to make adjustments to the program settings and you will see everything on the screen based on your location. How to set up the “starry sky”? How to see the most interesting things in space? Please note that not all browsers display the star map. For example, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge have problems with this.

You can immediately close the left information column. To do this, in the right column, top left, click the icon with three stripes. You can move the sky map using the cursor and mouse wheel, change the scale and angle. You will be able to see the entire sky or just a small area. Try it! Please note that if you have given permission to the browser to determine your location, it will usually be displayed automatically. In the lower left corner this is indicated by the line Near (Near...). Click it to change the data if required. In the map that opens, hold the “inverted drop” icon with the cursor and move it to the place of your observation. To commit, click on the line above on the right Use this location (Your location.) In this way, you can secure the observation point until it is tied to your home. At the bottom right is the time countdown. Click this icon and set the date and time you need for observations. To set your real time, click on the icon with the indicating “ring” in the middle.

At the bottom of the star map, in the central part, there are several icons to display additional information. You can turn on the display of constellations (Constellations), deep sky objects (Deep Sky Objects), illumination (Atmosphere), surrounding landscape (Landscape), different projections, and a mode for night contemplation of the real sky, so that the observer is not blinded.

The star map is very convenient not only for preparing views through a telescope, but also for ordinary observations of space objects, without the use of technical means. You will always know what planets are shining in the sky or what the name of the noticeable star you saw today is, and what the name of the constellation that appears in the sky is called. You will be able to watch the passage of low-orbit satellites of the Iridium system. Or you can predict the flight path of the International Space Station in advance. And you will wait for her to appear in a certain place in the starry sky. Live broadcast from the station is carried out in Siberia. And you can calculate the exact time of the visible passage of the ISS in your location on our page at this LINK. On the map you will clearly see the location of the planets, for example, the very bright Venus. Which can be observed without any optical means. The main thing is that clouds do not interfere with this, and that lights, the Moon, and the Sun do not illuminate it. Surprisingly, on this map you can even see the passing of bright satellites if you look closely at certain areas of the sky. Please note that if you click on a satellite, you will receive information about it. An indicator such as the brightness value will also be displayed there (Magnitude). The larger it is, the worse the object is visible in real conditions. With a value of 5-6, it can be viewed without optical devices, only with ideal visibility and excellent vision. For example, the star Vega has a brightness equal to zero, the brightest of the distant stars Sirius visible to us is minus one and nine hundredths... And the ISS can sparkle up to minus six, although usually it is about minus two units. This is the brightest man-made "star" in space.

And if you zoom in as much as possible, then look at the stars and planets through a virtual telescope. And you will be able to observe the rapid movement of starry landscapes. This is our earth rushing through space at a speed of thirty kilometers per second.

A few clarifications. The cardinal directions indicated on the diagram will help you get a correct idea. On the map you see them along the edges of the circle. You need to identify them in reality. Determine where North (N) is at your location using a compass or other means, for example, using GPS-Glonass navigation in programs on a smartphone or tablet. And then mentally place a map of the starry sky based on the identified data, or rotate the configured map using the cursor.

Do not forget that in the northern hemisphere, where the vast majority of visitors to our site are located, the most significant coordinate star is Polaris. It’s easy to find in the sky if you take the famous constellation to help Ursa Major(Ursa Major), or rather its Big Bucket. So, if you draw a line up through the last two stars of the bucket, then after five the same distances as between these stars, you will findin Ursa Minor ( Ursa Minor) Polar . She is the only one who is in one place, and everyone else seems to revolve around her. She also points to the North. That's why she was always called a guide. By the way, if you move the cursor to an object in the starry sky and click on it with the left mouse button, you will receive detailed information (in English) about most of them.

Now, a little information about the bright stars visible to the eye. Here are some of the most notable ones...

Deneb is one of the largest and is the most powerful star of all the 25 brightest stars in the sky known to science. In one day, Deneb emits more light than our Sun does in 140 years. A very distant star.

Chapel- the third brightest star in the sky of the Northern Hemisphere. Four thousand years ago, an ancient man depicted it on a clay tablet.

Sirius– according to perception, it is the brightest star for us. Because it is located much closer to us than other luminaries, with the exception, of course, of the Sun. In fact, it is double. Moreover, it has significant mobility. In about 11 thousand years, Sirius will no longer be visible to those living in Europe.

Arcturus. Orange giant. One of the brightest stars. It can be seen all year round from Russia. Arcturus became the first star that could be seen through a telescope during the day. This happened more than three hundred years ago.

Vega. A young, rapidly rotating star. The best studied (if you do not take into account the Sun). The first one that we managed to photograph well. Apart from Antarctica, it can be seen from almost any other point in the world. Vega is one of the favorite “heroines” of science fiction writers.

Altair- a star quite close to us. It is located only 159 trillion kilometers away. Compare: the mentioned Deneb is almost a hundred times further from us.

Rigel- a blue-white supergiant. More than seventy times larger than the Sun. Located so far away from us that the light we now see was emitted by a star 860 light years ago. Compare: light from the Moon reaches us in one second at a distance of about 400 thousand kilometers. Rigel is a star of incredible power in its luminosity and monstrously distant. And there, someone or something perceives it as the sun. But from there it is impossible even with the most powerful telescope to see our Sun, not to mention the Earth on which we live...

Please pay attention! 1. Read the instructions for displaying the star map carefully. Many people ask questions about the location of stars and planets, to which they can get answers themselves by entering the appropriate data in the map settings. 2. There are visible “parades of planets” and invisible ones (without the use of binoculars and telescopes). The latter happens quite often. The nearest visible parade of five planets from Russian territory will occur only in 2022. Don't believe the frequent reports about the "end of the world" and that planetary positions can affect the Earth's rotation.

Clear skies and successful observations to you!

When studying the starry sky, they use star maps compiled in certain cartographic projections, therefore, when comparing the starry sky with a map, it is necessary to take into account image distortions in these projections.

All stars, depending on their apparent brightness, are divided into classes called stellar magnitudes. This term, of course, does not refer to the actual size of the stars.

6th magnitude stars are visible to the naked eye. Brighter luminaries have zero and negative magnitudes. For example, the Sun shines like a star of minus 27th magnitude, the full Moon - minus 12th magnitude, Venus - minus 4th magnitude.

The brightest star, Sirius, has a magnitude of minus 1.6; Canopus-minus 0.9; Vega-plus 0.1; Capella - plus 0.2; Crossbar - plus 0.3; Arcturus - plus 0.2; Procyon - plus 0.5; Achernar - plus 0.6; a Centauri-plus 0.1; Altair-plus 0.9; R Centauri - plus 0.9; Polar - plus 2.1.

The most famous constellation in the northern hemisphere is the constellation Ursa Major, consisting of seven main stars of approximately the same magnitude. They are bright enough to be used for astronomical observations and are the easiest way to find other navigation stars.

By extending the line connecting the stars b and a of Ursa Major, beyond a by about 5 distances between them, we obtain the location of the Polar Star (a Ursa Minor). Next to it is the North Pole of the World. The height of the North Star above the horizon is approximately equal to the latitude of the observer.
The constellation Cassiopeia is easily recognizable in the starry sky by the characteristic shape of the arrangement of its constituent stars, reminiscent of the letter W. The constellation is located at the same distance from the North Star as Ursa Major, only in the exact opposite direction.

Continuing the line from the North Star through b Cassiopeia to the distance between them, we find the star Alpheras (a Andromeda). It is, as it were, a connecting link between the constellations Andromeda and Pegasus, as it forms the fourth corner of a large square with the stars of the constellation Pegasus.

If we continue the diagonal a Pegasus - a Andromeda to a distance equal to the side of this square, we will find the star Mirakh (b Andromeda) and further along the diagonal the star Alamak (g Andromeda).

If we continue the diagonal of the large square a Pegasus - a Andromeda even further, approximately 2 times the distance between these stars, we will find the star Mirfak (a Perseus). The constellation Perseus can also be found by extending the line of stars g - a Ursa Major to 5.5 distances between them.

Continuing the line connecting the stars d and a of Ursa Major, beyond the star a to approximately 5 distances between them, we find the star Capella (a Auriga), which lies at the intersection of this line with the continuation of the line of the constellation Andromeda - a Perseus.

Continuing the arc formed by the curved handle of the Ursa Major bucket to the length of the handle (Fig. 6.4), we find the star Arcturus (a Bootes), equal in brilliance to Capella. Continuing this arc further in the same direction, we find the star Spica (a Virgo) with magnitude plus 1.2.

Following the line from g Ursa Major through the end of the handle of the bucket (h Ursa Major), we will meet the constellation Corona Nord, consisting of seven rather faint stars forming a semicircle, convexly facing Arcturus. The middle and brightest star, Alfakka (a Northern Corona), is called the Crown Jewel.

If we draw a line from Arcturus to the Northern Corona, and then extend it approximately 1.5 distances, we will find the star Vega (a Lyrae) - one of the brightest stars. The star Vega can also be found by drawing a line from the star at Ursa Major between stars d and e of the same constellation.

South of the constellation Lyra is the constellation Aquila. It contains three bright stars on the same line, the middle of which is Altair. In the middle of the line connecting Altair and Polaris is the star Deneb (a Cygnus).

On the continuation of the line connecting the stars d and a of Ursa Major and the constellation Capella, lies the star Aldebaran (a Taurus). This star can also be found by drawing a line from Polaris between the stars Capella and a Perseus. Aldebaran will be the first noticeable star on this line. Aldebaran's magnitude is plus 1.1.

On the continuation of the line of stars d and b of Ursa Major, setting aside four distances between them, we find the stars Castor and Pollux (a and b Gemini). Their magnitudes are respectively plus 2.0 and plus 1.2. The stars Castor and Aldebaran form an isosceles triangle with Capella, in which Capella is the vertex.

On the continuation of the line of stars a - b Ursa Major in the direction opposite to the North Star, at a distance approximately equal to two lengths of the constellation Ursa Major, we will find the stars Regulus (a Leo) and Denebola (b Leo). Regulus is noticeably brighter than Denebola, their magnitudes are plus 1.2 and plus 2.2, respectively.

Continuing the line of stars d - b Ursa Major beyond the constellation Gemini, we find the brightest star Sirius (a Canis Major). Approximately at an equal distance between Sirius and Pollux is the star Procyon (a Canis Minor).

The constellation Orion, due to its characteristic shape, is well known to every sailor. The four bright stars of the constellation, including Betelgeuse and Rigel, form a quadrangle, and three more bright stars x, e and d in the center of the quadrangle form the so-called Orion's belt.

The constellation Orion can serve as an additional reference point for finding the star Capella, which is located midway between this constellation and the North Star.

If we continue the line of Orion's belt to the left to a distance equal to the diagonal Betelgeuse - Rigel, we will again find the star Sirius.

Continuing the line from Procyon to Sirius to the distance between them, we find the star a Pigeon (magnitude plus 2.7). If we now draw a line from the star Rigel through the star a of the constellation Pigeon and extend it further to half the distance between them, we will find the star Canopus (a Argo) with magnitude plus 1.0.

Continuing the side of the large square b - a of the constellation Pegasus beyond the star a to three distances between b and a of Pegasus, we find the star Fomalhaut (a of the constellation Southern Pisces).

One of the most distinctive constellations in the southern sky is the Southern Cross, and the brightest star in this constellation is the star Acrux a, with a magnitude of plus 1. The northernmost star of the Southern Cross, g, has a magnitude of plus 1.5.

On the continuation of the line of stars d - b of the Southern Cross constellation there is a pair of stars b and a of the Centaurus constellation.

One of the brightest stars, Achernar (a Eridani), is located in the middle of the straight line connecting the stars Fomalhaut and Canopus.

S tellarium- This planetarium program to explore the sky in real time and with the ability to control time. Free, fairly easy to use, highly customizable, Stellarium is unlikely, of course, to surprise professionals in the field of astronomy, but it will be very useful in the first stages of studying the Universe by novice astronomers. And with its help, ordinary people will be able to expand their horizons by becoming familiar with the basics of the structure of the sky.

Or at least just find out what kind of stars shine through the window at night. Below we will get acquainted with the key features of Stellarium in the program review.

Free download for OS Windows, Linux, MacOS can be found on the official website:

1. Main functionality of the program

Because the Stellarium is a real-time sky simulator; running the program during the day, we get the same picture as in reality - the sky illuminated by the mother star, the Sun. But, unlike reality, the sky in the program window will not be covered with clouds. Stellarium should automatically detect your location within a country. All that remains to be done manually to set the desired angle is to rotate the picture with the mouse, respectively, in the desired direction of the world. Landmark button on south, north, west or East on the pop-up bottom toolbar, also controlled by the Q key, is active in the program by default.

It is impossible to see the sky dotted with stars from the earth during the day in the light of the Sun in real life. But this is possible in the Stellarium program. A special button on the toolbar at the bottom and its function key A can do a trick that in reality threatens most of the species of life on our planet - it's an atmosphere shutdown . With the atmosphere turned off, at any time of the day we can observe the sky the same as on a cloudless night far from the lights of civilization.

Using the mouse wheel you can zoom in and out of objects in the sky. By right-clicking on the selected star, planet or other space object, astronomical information will appear. By clicking the left mouse button, the help is removed from the screen. To ensure that the selected object always remains in the center of the program window when enlarging it, you can use the center button on the toolbar at the bottom or the space bar.

For convenience when exploring the sky, use the buttons on the toolbar below (or their hotkeys) You can enable or disable filters:

Lines, names and images of constellations, visibility of the earth's surface,

Equatorial and azimuthal grids,

Names of the planets of the solar system, displays of exoplanets in the sky,

Displays of deep space objects,

As well as other functions, including those added by enabling program plugins.

***

By default, the program is configured in an optimal way so that an average person not savvy in the field of astronomy can use Stellarium to satisfy his curiosity without delving into technical details that are unnecessary for him. Unless completely newbies will first have to familiarize themselves with the classification of cosmic bodies and understand what their individual indicators mean. Connoisseurs in the field of astronomy can flexibly customize Stellarium to their needs, for example, by selecting certain star catalogs, selecting the desired map projection, changing the pre-installed Western system of astronomical knowledge to the knowledge system of the Aztecs, Egyptians, Chinese, etc. At the same time, the average person will find quite understandable and interesting things in the Stellarium settings, implemented in the pop-up sidebar on the left. Let's take a closer look at some of these settings.

2. Location

The first sidebar button is location setting . If by default the checkbox for obtaining a location from the network is inactive, you can check it here so that each time you start the program you do not have to manually set the country and locality to display the sky in real time. The main feature of this setting is the abundance of vantage points from which you can observe the sky. Stellarium allows you to manually select any continent, any country, or various settlements within countries as a viewpoint. The sky in the program window will be the same as it is visible in the selected area in reality.

Moreover, in the program window you can look at the sky while being virtually on other planets, their satellites and even on the Sun. How majestic Jupiter is in the sky from the surface of its satellites, albeit through flawed graphics, can still be seen by selecting in the column "Planet" satellites of the gas giant such as Europe , And about , Ganymede or Callisto .

And the handsome Saturn is most spectacular when viewed from the surface of the satellite Mimas.

3. Date and time

You can move from the present to the past or future of space using the second sidebar setting - date and time setting tables.

Putting a significant date in it landing man on the moon - July 24, 1969 , alas, we will not see Stellarium flying towards the Earth’s satellite in the window "Apollo 11". As well as, of course, even at maximum zoom we will not be able to see Neil Armstrong, enthusiastically sticking an American flag into the soil of the Moon. Fireworks from Shoemaker's Comet colliding with Jupiter - Levi 9 in 1994 we can also observe only in video chronicles on YouTube, but not in the Stellarium window. All space simulators available today are still very far from achieving this level of software. The past and future in the Stellarium program exist only for the arrangement of cosmic bodies in the sky.

The third button in the sidebar launches a window with settings for the sky, deep space objects, star knowledge system, and landscape. The tab allows you to select a picture of the surface up to the horizon. Among the images that can be customized are: ocean, areas on Earth, Mars, Moon, upper atmosphere of gas giants.

Imitating the surface of planets is nothing more than an effect, and in order to concentrate only on the sky, you can select the zero horizon as a landscape, which will simply color the surface green. The landscape is applied to all points from which the sky can be observed by setting them in the location settings. We will be buried in the upper layers of gas of Jupiter and Saturn, looking at the sky from the Earth, Mars, the Moon, and the landscapes of the latter will have to be seen while on Uranus, Neptune and even on the Sun.

The drawing of the atmosphere is also the same for all planets. For example, on Venus, on the surface of which in reality nothing can be seen in the sky either day or night due to thick clouds of sulfuric acid, in the Stellarium window we will look at the stars as if from a cloudless paradise on Earth.

5. Search for space objects

The fourth button of the sidebar is to search for space objects by keyword, by their coordinates or within lists. Lists of space objects are a good tool for studying the Universe if you don’t initially know what to look for. In the tab of the Stellarium search window we can find out the location in the sky and get information about individual space objects like this: galaxies, constellations, quasars, blazars, star clusters, supernova remnants, etc. And you can even look at some of them.

Another tool for those who don’t know where to start exploring the Universe is the .

The fifth button in the sidebar opens a window with program settings. In the penultimate tab, scripts will be available that demonstrate to the user the individual capabilities of Stellarium. We can run scripts to view lunar and solar eclipses, supernova explosions, the passage of Venus across the disk of the Sun and other astronomical events. There are scripts in the format of tours to various corners of space.

Stellarium is installed with individual plugins active by default that extend the program's capabilities, such as exoplanet filter or telescope eyepiece . In the last settings tab, unused plugins can be removed so that they do not burden the program and do not distract attention. And the necessary plugins from among the inactive ones can, on the contrary, be enabled.

After checking the activation box for a particular plugin, the Stellarium program must be restarted. Plugins, such as the eyepiece, may have their own separate settings.

8. Saving and resetting program settings

You shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with Stellarium settings; at any time, everything configured can be returned to its original state. In the settings tab "Basic" there is a button. Next to it is another button - "Save settings". You should not forget about it before exiting the program, otherwise after restarting the settings made will not be saved.

9. Acceleration of time

The player buttons on the toolbar below are another opportunity to get into the virtual past or future, but not in an instant, as is the case with setting a specific date, but gradually and with a certain speed of playback of events in the sky. We can observe sunsets and sunrises on Earth and other planets of the solar system, as in a movie, accelerated forward or backward along the time line. Player buttons can be used for the same purposes when viewing scenarios.

To sum it up...

Stellarium is hard to call 3D-simulator of the Universe. From the concept 3D-product by modern standards, the program is very far away. Stellarium is perhaps a good navigator of the sky, perhaps the program can be considered as a database of certain data on space objects, but as a simulator this program clearly failed. The reason for this, independent of the Stellarium developers, is that it is very difficult to implement in one software product everything that stretches across billions of light years in the Universe. But there are also points that the creators of the program could have improved.

What can we say about the quality of drawing planets, if the program does not have images for all deep space objects. We will only get a brief astronomical information about quasars, blazars, individual galaxies and supernova remnants, as well as other cosmic objects, but we will not see what they look like. But okay, deep space objects and artificial Earth satellites could at least be drawn. To make the ISS look like the ISS, and not like a star.

The disadvantages of Stellarium graphics have a reverse, positive side - the program can be installed on low-power computers.