Uncle Milton Star Planetarium - Manual (Page 4)

Time Ring
Date
Selector
The Moving Sky
The horizon ring is an important part of your planetarium. It divides the sky into two halves, the
visible and the nonvisible. In the course of 24 hours, all of the objects visible from a given
location on Earth seem to rise in the east and set in the west.
Your planetarium projects stars that are visible from the northern hemisphere. To see all the
stars that are visible from the northern hemisphere, slowly rotate the light wand to the left
(westward) while the projection lamp is on. Do you notice that some stars around Polaris never
set while some of the stars that can be seen from the southern hemisphere (at the opposite pole
of the Star Sphere from Polaris) never rise in the northern hemisphere?
Stellarium Astronomy Program
The Stellarium Astronomy program lets you explore the cosmos in great detail. You can view the
night sky for any time—past, present or future—and from any point on Earth. You can see the
constellations and their names and you can locate the positions of stars, nebulas, planets, and
their moons.
Follow the set-up instructions on the screen. The software is compatible with either PC or Mac.
System requirements: Windows XP or Mac OS X with at least 500 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM
and 500 MB of hard disk space . Minimum recommended monitor resolutions is 1024 x 768
pixels. (Note: Software is not currently compatible with Windows Vista or Macs using Intel
Processors.)
Setting the Date and Time
You can set your planetarium to project the night sky for any
date and hour. Here is how:
1. Setting the date: With projection lamp off, turn light wand
until the month you want lines up with the pointer on
date selector. Below the month, there are markings
indicating the 1st, 10th and 20th of the month. Turn light
wand to the left until the date you want lines up with the
pointer. For example, if you want to project the night sky the way it is on July 4th, first select
July, then turn further to the left, to just past the mark for the first day of the month.
2. Setting the time: Once you have selected the month and date, rotate the time ring—
without turning the light wand—so that the time at which the sun sets lines up with the
pointer. (The time at sunset can be found in the local newspaper or on the Internet.) Now
turn the light wand to the exact time you want. (Note: The months and dates will change on
the date selector as you select the time; once you’ve selected the date and set the time ring
for sunset, the time selection function takes over.) You can set your planetarium to project
the stars for any time of the night. You can even see what stars are up during the day, when
they are not visible.