St. Louis Astronomical Society Meeting: Producing Tours of the Night Sky
Bill Breeden and Chris Hanson of the St. Louis Astronomical Society will be featured at the IN PERSON July meeting. The meeting will be in McDonnell Hall,Room 162, Washington University in St. Louis, and via Zoom.
Astronomy software is a very useful tool for exploring the night sky, for both novice and advanced amateur astronomers, as well as for the general public. For the past two years, Mr. Breeden has produced a YouTube tour each month of one of the eighty-eight constellations that cover the entire night sky. He traces out the brighter stars and shows viewers how to locate the constallation. He also indicates some of the interesting astronomical objects - double stars, star clusters, interstellar nebulae, and galaxies - that lie within the constellation's boundary. He will review his production process and a few basics of the Stellarium software. He will also talk about recording videos and creating a YouTube channel. Stellarium is a free open source planetarium program for computers, tablets, and smart phones. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what can be seen with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. More information on Stellarium can be found at http://stellarium.org. Mr. Hanson will provide an explanation about how to modify Stellarium to add personalized landscapes and custom Oculars add-in tabs.
The St. Louis Astronomical Society is an organization for individuals interested in astronomy and telescopes. The public is invited to attend its meetings, telescope observing sessions, and special events. For more information about Astronomical Society events, please visit www.slasonline.org or call 314-962-9231. The event, cosponsored by NASA's Missouri Space Grant Consortium at Washington University, is open to the public free of charge.
McDonnell Hall is on the south side of the Danforth Campus, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis 63130. The closest parking is street parking on Forsyth Boulevard or the East End Garage. Parking is free for entry after 5:00 pm in yellow or visitor parking spaces only.