From the very begining, humans made maps of the sky. The first star charts included the mythlogical figures associated with the constellations.
We now identify eighty-eight modern constellations Like maps of the surface of Earth, star charts usually have a coordinate system printed on
them. The coordinate system used for the sky uses right ascension and declination, analogous to longitude and latitude. . But aside from these
simple measurements very little was known about the stars.
You will need to install the planetarium program called Stellarium on your computer. You’ll be using it for some assignments. A version for both
Macs and PCs can be found here..
Looking for a particular star? Find it here!
