9 replies to this topic

[JTYoder2017]

I teach a beginners astronomy class here in the Phoenix metro area with Bortle 8 skies and would like to be able to generate star charts that show stars down to magnitude 4 so they represent more what is visible in our city.  

 

I was thinking Cartes du Ciel might work (I don't know much about using this software).  I did a quick search to see if I set the magitude stars down to 4 and less but haven't been able to get this to work.  There seem two paths, and they do help cut down a lot of stars, but I am still seeing stars on the chart as low as 4.75 magnitude.  Here are the two settings I tried changing:

1.  | Chart | Star Filter | Less Stars |

2.  | Setup | Chart, coordinates | Object Filter | Star Filter | Naked eye reference = 3 | 

 

Anyone out there know what I'm doing wrong, or have an idea of a different way I can generate a chart that I can freely distribute?

 

Thanks!

James

 

[SoftwareDeveloper]

https://www.theskylive.com has a planetarium online, it probably does 99% of what you are looking for and its $FREE$. As well as provide coordinates for anything interesting such as planets, comets, asteroids, etc. Check it out, if it doesn't meet your needs as a planetarium, its a great resource and doesn't cost anything to try it out- or use it indefinitely. I guarantee I check it every time I plan to go out for the evening to help me organize my observing sessions.

 

If you do use the program, they appreciate some monetary feedback, as does most everyone! Hope that is of use

[JTYoder2017]

Thanks Vostok 1, but the one critical feature that I need is to be able to limit stars to magnitude 4 and less, and neither the personal star map or the online Planetarium seems to be able to make that adjustment from what I can see.

[SoftwareDeveloper]

https://virtualsky.lco.global/

 

Clearly has the feature you wish:

Options

There are a range of options to try (default values in brackets):

    id ('starmap') - The ID for the HTML element where you want the sky inserted
    projection ('polar') - The projection type as 'polar', 'stereo', 'lambert', 'ortho', 'equirectangular', 'mollweide', 'planechart' or 'fisheye'
    width (500) - Set the width of the sky unless you've set the width of the element
    height (250) - Set the height of the sky unless you've set the height of the element
    planets - either an object containing an array of planets or a JSON file
    magnitude (5) - the magnitude limit of displayed stars
    longitude (53.0) - the longitude of the observer
    latitude (-2.5) - the latitude of the observer
    clock (now) - a Javascript Date() object with the starting date/time

and a host of other options..

 

The bad news is it doesnt feature a "form" to enter the desired parameters, it expects the user to be comfortable with JSON and Javascript. A VERY low hurdle, but does take some time, especially to anybody new to it. The general idea is create a text file with the control settings you want

 

This site expects the user to define a school web site with the parameters preset for that application. The good news is if a custom web site is implemented, any given day a student or teacher can just look at the web page and the info for that evening would be displayed ready-to-use.

 

I suggest you check with your schools IT people/web developers to see if they could set it up for you. From a quick peek at the artcentrics website you reference in your profile, adding the planetarium display page may be within easy reach.

 

Best wishes in any case

[Lee D]

I teach a beginners astronomy class here in the Phoenix metro area with Bortle 8 skies and would like to be able to generate star charts that show stars down to magnitude 4 so they represent more what is visible in our city.  

 

I was thinking Cartes du Ciel might work (I don't know much about using this software).  I did a quick search to see if I set the magitude stars down to 4 and less but haven't been able to get this to work.  There seem two paths, and they do help cut down a lot of stars, but I am still seeing stars on the chart as low as 4.75 magnitude.  Here are the two settings I tried changing:

1.  | Chart | Star Filter | Less Stars |

2.  | Setup | Chart, coordinates | Object Filter | Star Filter | Naked eye reference = 3 | 

 

Anyone out there know what I'm doing wrong, or have an idea of a different way I can generate a chart that I can freely distribute?

 

Thanks!

James

In that same Setup / Chart, coordinates / Object filter / Star filter area, uncheck "Automatic". With Automatic checked, CdC adjusts the limiting magnitude depending on the field of view of each chart, based on the naked eye reference. With Automatic off, you can pick what you want for each field of view (in the boxes underneath).

 

It may be that CdC interprets mag 4 as up to 4.5. So if you still get dimmer stars using "4", try "4.0" or "3.9".

[GrassLakeRon]

I use cartes du ciel because I can customize it.

[JTYoder2017]

Thanks for the feedback.

• Surveyor 1, your recommendation worked!
• Vostok 1, that VirtualSky look very nice, I'll investigate the further.

Thanks again for your feedback.

 

James

[nou]

Surveyor and Vostok are forum ranks not user names.

[trurl]

Surveyor and Vostok are forum ranks not user names.

Like your username isn't Sputnik

[Der_Pit]

Have a look at fchart3 

It is for example used in the CzSky project