Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:12:41.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Stellarium: Simulation for Research and Outreach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2021

Georg Zotti*
Affiliation:
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology, Hohe Warte 38, A-1190 Vienna, Austria email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Over the past decade the free and open-source cross-platform desktop planetarium program Stellarium has gained not only most of the computational accuracy requirements for today’s amateur astronomers, but also unique capabilities for specialized applications in cultural astronomy research and astronomical outreach. A 3D rendering module can put virtual reconstructions of human-made monuments in their surrounding landscape under the day and night skies of their respective epochs, so that the user can investigate and experience the potential connection of architecture, landscape, light and shadow, and the sky. It also played a key role in an exhibition about Stonehenge in Austria.

Exchangeable “skycultures” allow the presentation of constellation patterns and mythological figures of non-Western cultures. Stellarium’s multi-language support allows community-driven translation of the whole program, which predestines its use in education also in minority languages.

Stellarium is developed by a very small core team, but is open to external contributions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

References

Bortle, J.E., S&T Feb. 2001, 126Google Scholar
Bretagnon, P. & Francou, G., 1988, A&A, 202, 309 Google Scholar
De Lorenzis, A. & Orofino, V., 2018, Astronomy and Computing, 25, 118 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devlin, K., Chalmers, A., Wilkie, A. & Purgathofer, W., 2002, in: Proc. EUROGRAPHICS Google Scholar
ESA (ed.), 1997, The HIPPARCOS and TYCHO catalogues. Astrometric and photometric star catalogues derived from the ESA HIPPARCOS Space Astrometry Mission, ESA Special Publication, vol. 1200Google Scholar
Fernique, P., 2017, HiPS – Hierarchical Progressive Survey, Tech. rep., IVOAGoogle Scholar
Filzwieser, R., Neubauer, W., Nau, E. & Toriser, L., 2016, Archaeologia Austriaca, 100, 199 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folkner, W.M., Williams, J.G., Boggs, D.H., Park, R.S. & Kuchynka, P., 2014, The Planetary and Lunar Ephemerides DE430 and DE431, IPN Progress Report 42-196, JPL/NASAGoogle Scholar
Frischer, B., Pollini, J., Cipolla, N., Capriotti, G., Murray, J., Swetnam-Burland, M., Galinsky, K., Häubner, C., Miller, J., Salzman, M.R., Fillwalk, J. & Brennan, M.R., 2017, Studies in Digital Heritage, 1, 1, 18 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frischer, B., Zotti, G., Mari, Z. & Vittozzi, G.C., 2016, Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (DAACH), 5579 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frommert, H., 2014, Comet data of all comets up to 1994, including some predictions up to 2000, online at http://spider.seds.org/spider/Comets/comets.data.txt, retrieved 01/2014Google Scholar
Ghezzi, I. & Ruggles, C.L.N., 2015, in: Ruggles, C.L.N. (ed.), Handbook for Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, vol. 1, chap. 62, 807–820 (New York: Springer Reference)Google Scholar
Hilton, J.L., Capitaine, N., Chapront, J., Ferrandiz, J.M., Fienga, A., Fukushima, T., Getino, J., Mathews, P., Simon, J.L., Soffel, M., Vondrak, J., Wallace, P. & Williams, J., 2006, Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 94, 351 10.1007/s10569-006-0001-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Høg, E., Fabricius, C., Makarov, V.V., Urban, S., Corbin, T., Wycoff, G., Bastian, U., Schwekendiek, P. & Wicenec, A., 2000, A&A, 355, L27 Google Scholar
Hoskin, M., 2001, Tombs, Temples and their Orientations, chap. 3: The Temples of Malta and Gozo, 23–36 (Bognor Regis: Ocarina Books)Google Scholar
Jensen, H.W., Premoze, S., Shirley, P., Thompson, W., Ferwerda, J. & Stark, M., 2000, Night Rendering, Tech. Rep. UUCS-00-016, Computer Science Department, University of UtahGoogle Scholar
Jensen, H.W., Stark, M.M., Premože, S., Shirley, P., Durand, F. & Dorsey, J., 2001, in: Proc. SIGGRAPH 2001 (ACM)Google Scholar
Kapadia, A., Chéreau, F., Christensen, L.L., Nielsen, L.H., Gauthier, A., Hurt, R. & Wyatt, R., 2008, in: Christensen, L.L., Zoulias, M. & Robson, I. (eds.), Communicating Astr. with the Public 2007: Proc. from the IAU/National Observatory of Athens/ESA/ESO Conf. 8-11 October 2007, 220–224 (ESA/Hubble)Google Scholar
Kwon, S.M., Hong, S.S. & Weinberg, J.L., 2004, New Astron., 10, 91 10.1016/j.newast.2004.05.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, G.W., Rushmeier, H. & Piatko, C., 1997, A Visibility Matching Tone Reproduction Operator for High Dynamic Range Scenes, Tech. Rep. LBNL-39882, Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryCrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, D.D. & Luzum, B.J., 2003, Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 85, 37 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mucke, H., 1985, Die Sterne, 61, 5/6, 276Google Scholar
Preetham, A.J., Shirley, P. & Smit, B., 1999, in: Proc. SIGGRAPH 1999, 90–100 (ACM)Google Scholar
Ruggles, C.L. (ed.), 2015, Handbook for Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy (New York: Springer Reference)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaefer, B.E., 1993, Vistas in Astron., 36, 311 10.1016/0083-6656(93)90113-XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stellarium, 2021, Github repository, online at https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium Google Scholar
Stephenson, F.R., Morrison, L.V. & Hohenkerk, C.Y., 2016, Proc. R. Soc. A, 472, 20160404 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trinks, I., Hinterleitner, A., Neubauer, W., Nau, E., Löcker, K., Wallner, M. et al., 2018, Archaeol. Prospection, 25, 3, 171 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tumblin, J. & Rushmeier, H., 1993, IEEE Computer Graphics & Application, 13, 6, 42 10.1109/38.252554CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urban, S.E. & Seidelmann, P.K. (eds.), 2013, Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac, 3rd ed. (Mill Valley, CA: University Science Books)Google Scholar
Vondrák, J., Capitaine, N. & Wallace, P., 2011, A&A, 534, A22, 1Google Scholar
Vondrák, J., Capitaine, N. & Wallace, P., 2012, A&A, 541, C1 Google Scholar
Weiß, E., 1892, Bilderatlas der Sternenwelt, 2nd ed. (Eßlingen bei Stuttgart: J. F. Schreiber)Google Scholar
Yeomans, D.K. & Kiang, T., 1981, MNRAS, 197, 633 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zacharias, N., Monet, D.G., Levine, S.E., Urban, S.E., Gaume, R. & Wycoff, G.L., 2004, in: AAS Meeting Abstracts, BAAS, vol. 36, 1418Google Scholar
Zotti, G., 2001, A Multi-Purpose Virtual Reality Model of the Solar System (VRMoSS), Master’s thesis, TU WienGoogle Scholar
Zotti, G., 2015, in: Ruggles, C.L. (ed.), Handbook for Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, vol. 1, chap. 29, 445–457 (New York: Springer Reference)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zotti, G., 2016, Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, 16, 4, 17 Google Scholar
Zotti, G., 2019, in: Henty, L. & Brown, D. (eds.), Visualising Skyscapes: Material Forms of Cultural Engagement with the Heavens, 35–54, Routledge Studies in Archaeology (Routledge)Google Scholar
Zotti, G., Frischer, B. & Fillwalk, J., 2020a, Studies in Digital Heritage, 4, 1, 51 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zotti, G., Frischer, B., Schaukowitsch, F., Wimmer, M. & Neubauer, W., 2019, in: Magli, G., González-Garca, A.C., Aviles, J.B. & Antonello, E. (eds.), Archaeoastronomy in the Roman World, chap. 12, 187–205, Historical & Cultural Astronomy (Springer International Publishing AG)Google Scholar
Zotti, G., Hoffmann, S., Wolf, A., Chéreau, F. & Chéreau, G., 2020b, Journal for Skyscape Archaeology, 6, 2 Google Scholar
Zotti, G. & Neubauer, W., 2011, in: Ruggles, C.L.N. (ed.), Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy: Building Bridges between Cultures, 349–356, IAU S278 (Cambridge U. Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zotti, G. & Neubauer, W., 2012a, in: Guidi, G. & Addison, A.C. (eds.), Proc. VSMM2012 (Virtual Systems in the Information Society), 33–40 (Milano: IEEE)Google Scholar
Zotti, G. & Neubauer, W., 2012b, in: Ioannides, M., Fritsch, D., Leissner, J., Davies, R., Remondino, F. & Caffo, R. (eds.), Progress in Cultural Heritage Preservation, LNCS, vol. 7616, 170–180 (Heidelberg: Springer)Google Scholar
Zotti, G. & Neubauer, W., 2015, in: Pimenta, F., Ribeiro, N., Silva, F., Campion, N., Joaquinito, A. & Tirapicos, L. (eds.), SEAC2011 Stars and Stones: Voyages in Archaeoastronomy and Cultural Astronomy, 188–193, no. 2720 in BAR International Series (Oxford: Archaeopress)Google Scholar
Zotti, G., Schaukowitsch, F. & Wimmer, M., 2017, Culture and Cosmos, 21, 1&2, 269CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zotti, G., Schaukowitsch, F. & Wimmer, M., 2018, Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, 18, 4, 523 Google Scholar
Zotti, G. & Traxler, C., 2003, in: Hamza, M.H. (ed.), Proc. of the Third IASTED Int. Conf. on Visualization, Imaging, and Image Processing, 964–969, IASTED (Benalmádena, Spain: ACTA Press)Google Scholar
Zotti, G. & Wolf, A., 2020a, in: Lago, M.T. (ed.), Astronomy in Focus: As presented at the IAU XXX General Assembly, 2018, 184186, IAU (Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Zotti, G. & Wolf, A., 2020b, Stellarium 0.20.4 User Guide, https://stellarium.org Google Scholar
Zotti, G. & Wolf, A., submitted, in: González-Garca, A.C., Rappenglück, M., Zotti, G. et al. (eds.), Beyond Paradigms (Proc. SEAC2019), BAR InternationalGoogle Scholar
Zotti, G. & Wuchterl, G., 2016, in: Silva, F., Malville, K., Lomsdalen, T. & Ventura, F. (eds.), The Materiality of the Sky: Proc. of the 22nd Annual SEAC Conf., 2014, 197203 (Sophia Centre Press)Google Scholar