StuffThatMatters: Astronomy & Computing
One of the greatest things about modern computer software, counting in the power and flexibility of open source and the imagination of human mind, is our growing ability to simulate natural systems using digital means. I discussed Step and Celestia as part of Linux's educational software suite, and this time, let's discuss Stellarium.
Planetariums have always fascinated me, dedicated singularly to the task of catering audio-visual edutainment on a myriad variety of topics, centering around my favourite domain of study, the universe. I am lucky to be a resident of Kolkata, India which houses the second largest planetarium in the world, the M.D Birla Planetarium ( http://goo.gl/qlsN8M ) situated in the southern part of the megacity. But not every town has one, and this is where Stellarium enters the scene.
What's this thing called 'Stellaium'?
Basically, Stellarium describes itself as "free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope". And that pretty much sums it up for the masses. It's essentially a simulation of the night sky, which you can customize by changing the place or time, the direction of observation, the type of visual grid (if you want any) etc. And most certainly, being open source, it's free to download, install, study, modify and share.
It packs in latest and detailed information on more than 6,00,000 stars by default, and over 200 million stars can be added by enabling additional catalogues, and several additional interstellar objects as of now, and the list continues to grow each day. But if that's not enough for you, then there's always room for expanding the software using custom add-ons that can be written using the Qt scripting engine. This feature makes it possible for us to make small programs that can be executed by Stellarium itself, for the purpose of showing presentations, educational documentaries etc.
Together with Celestia that I covered in a previous post (here: http://goo.gl/pi0fXC ), Stellarium forms a sophisticated astronomy software bundle.
Features
1. Software freedom: Pardon me for repeating this part like a mantra, being the open-source advocate that I am, but Stellarium is free, as in speech! You can freely download and distribute it as you see fit, being the good neighbour in the neighbourhood. In addition, the codebase of the software is available to study, modify and redistribute, as long as you follow the GPL.
2. Lightweight: Although it looks really fancy, Stellarium consumes very little system resources, and can run smoothly on comparatively older systems. This gives us plenty of opportunities and ideas, to recycle that old computer sitting in the garage.
The officially listed minimum system requirements show that even 256 MB of RAM and 150 of hard disk space can run Stellarium.
3. Detailed and informative interface: The easy-to-use UI of Stellarium is packed with features. In addition to stars, nebulaes, planets, moons and even spacecrafts are simulated.
4. Full customizability: The Settings allow you to tinker the configurations to your choice, helping you set the degree of detail you want, the amount of information visible by default, whether or not constellations are displayed as art, figures etc.
5. HQ graphics: Well, the screenshots below do the talking, I guess. :) Eclipses are simulated nicely, and even the stars can be seen to be twinkling. The atmosphere is very realistic, and sunrise, sunsets, clouds etc are rendered beautifully.
6. Telestope control: Other than all the software capabilities mentioned above, Stellarium serves as a master program for controlling digital telescopes attached to the computer, using an additional plug-in. A growing list of telescopes are being supported at present, and the list grows, as usual.
Details can be found here: http://goo.gl/8lqLYN
7. Extendibility: The default features of Stellarium are sufficient, but that doesn't restrict the user from programming additional content for the software. Scripts can be written using ECMAScript language, which Stellarium natively supports. But please ensure that you download the latest version of the software, because older versions aren't compatible with ECMAScript, relying instead on Stellarium's own scripting language, StratoScript.
Even if you don't code yourself, there's a wealth of online plugins, some of them adding additional control or features, others unlocking additional details and objects. Even DSOs (Deep Space Objects) have been added to the program.
In addition to all these, Stellarium supports graphical visualizations of supernovae, which are some of my favourites. The official site http://ift.tt/HEbSin mentions the features of stellarium in further detail.
Experience
Stellarium has a broad userbase - including scholars, researches, enthusiasts, academics and so on. Most certainly, a certain amount of astronomical know-how is expected from the userbase, but it's not mandatory.
Having used Stellarium since 2009, I have personally used this software for aiding my studies, preparing projects and reports, simply delighting my friends and neighbours, and just satisfying my own curiosity.
There's a well-maintained user manual if you're interested, which can be found on the official site.
Availability
Stellarium is available free of cost, for most major platforms out there. Linux users can install it using their reposiroties, while dedicated binaries are maintained for Windows and Mac users.
Download: http://ift.tt/HEbSin (just select your system type, and the download will start).
Conclusion
Stellarium, as a complement to my beloved KDE Education Software bundle, is a fabulous and fantastic software. It's a testament to the glory and power of open source, and as such, it deserves placement inside every astronomy class. But then again, even students of humanities will find this software useful, in my opinion, because it is our birthright to know about the universe we inhabit.
After all, that's the motto of science and philosophy, my twin teachers.
Sources and acknowledgement
http://ift.tt/HEbSin
http://ift.tt/1iSjTPi
http://ift.tt/Q4IRhf
http://ift.tt/1xb7xcK
Image credits: Wikimedia, Stellarium.org and my Linux box. ;) Collaged, as usual, with #GIMP
#stellarium #linux #universe #space #freesoftware #physics #astronomy
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