How does going to a planetarium help you see constellations?

I need to know how going to planetariums can help you see constellations and stars better than just seeing normally for a research project but i cant seem to find it anywhere someone help me?How does going to a planetarium help you see constellations?Planetariums let you see a projection of the sky which is fairly accurate and shows more stars than you could probably ever see with the naked eye.



In this day of amazing computer technology, you don't even need to go to a planetarium. You can download them onto your computer from the internet. Try Stellarium or Celestia. I like Celestia because you can navigate anywhere you want and move with things in any time passage mode.



There's also Google sky. It comes with Google Earth, now.



http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

http://www.stellarium.org/How does going to a planetarium help you see constellations?
Most people are more able to understand more readily with visual inputs. That's been established throughout the educational communities world-wide.



Answerers above have provided links to software to assist you along these lines. I'll provide two more you might find useful and economical:



These two free computer downloads have no time limit for use. Users never have to pay anything to use them.



Edit: SimSolar is merely a solar system simulator that allows users to establish the rough positions of each of the traditional 9 planets and the moon on any day, or to run it on automatic to watch their different positions in their orbits in relation to other planets. It's elementary and rough, but it's also only 1.5 mb.How does going to a planetarium help you see constellations?The main advantage of a planetarium over a printed star chart or a computer program is that the sky is projected onto a large dome shaped screen so that the star patterns are the same size as they actually appear in the sky. People often have trouble relating a small chart or computer image to the much larger pattern of stars in the sky.



Nowadays there is an even better option. Thanks to green laser pointers, it is now possible to take groups out under the real sky and use the laser pointer to show them the constellation patterns. I've worked in planetariums, and I work for Starry Night software, but I find a laser pointer under the real sky to be the best educational tool of all.
because its a projection, like a movie theater.How does going to a planetarium help you see constellations?if you really want to see the stars go to the mountains in wyoming and camp the night above the timberline....

what a view!!!How does going to a planetarium help you see constellations?
Planetariums project the night sky from any location on the Earth aat any time of the year. There are over 1500 planetariums of various sizes in the USA. Each can show the night sky, including the correct current phase of the Moon and the location of whatver planets may be visible. Most planetariums incorporate a segment on the current night sky into their on going shows, even if they are, for example, talking about the Christmas Star of 2000 years ago. Planetariums love to show off, and welcome visitors who ask to have things pointed out. Since the stars are created by a machine in the middle of the room and projected onto the domed ceiling, there are no concerns with weather or bright city lights hiding the sky.
Got your work cut out here for best answer, good luck



Reading my profile will back up my answer. Using a pointer in a planetarium does help the audience see the pattern. The minds eye makes out what it wants to without help and left to its own devices. In Great Britain the big dipper is called a "Plough".

They work pretty much the same way I use my flying program. I go to google earth, find out of the way landmarks, make a note of them, start the simulator, fly around and find the landmarks. You can do the same sort of things in a planetarium. Look for patterns, make a note of them, go outside and find them. I one time tilted the projector so that it was impossible to recognize the patterns. The audience wa amazed and loved the show.



There are a lot more pointers in the sky than the big dipper.How does going to a planetarium help you see constellations?
Normally the guy running the computer knows a good deal about the constellations as far as their locations in the sky, best time for viewing, and their histories. Because a planetarium can duplicate the night sky (or daytime sky with the sun "removed") for pretty much any place on the planet at any time of (almost) any year, one can learn not only what a constellation looks like now (and where it is in the sky at any given time), but what it may have looked like thousands years ago (or to come). You may want to check the Hayden Planetarium's Astronomy Resource page at http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/resourc鈥?/a> It may help you somewhat, though I am not sure.



Of course there's always the possibility of seeing "Laser Floyd" or something similar...
http://www.starlab.com/



This is a website for StarLab which is a portable and inflatable planetarium. Lots of us take them to schools and scout meetings and such to teach kids about the night sky. I think that if you look at one of these it might make more sense to you.



The person who conducts the session will normally tell you how to 'star hop' from constellation to constellation from the perspective as if you were standing outside at night. They can also super-impose images of the constellations on top of the stars to help you see the whole image together.



I hope this helps you to understand that planetariums are pretty cool.
Hi Johnny!



I disagree with most of the others.



I find a planetarium show of little help in making your acquaintance with the constellations:



1) The only way you're ever going to get to know the stars is to go outside with your star maps and locate stars for yourself. You cannot do that in the planetarium, if for no other reason than that you can't see your star chart.



2) When the planetarium staff do attempt to point out the constellations, which is seldom, they usually use clumsy and ineffective tools, such as a little pointer or an allegorical overlay of the constellation. There are no pointers in the real sky, of course (except for the pointers of the Big Dipper and the great southern pointer stars Alpha Centauri and Agena) and the allegorical pictures of hunters and bears don't exist in the starry heavens.



3) Planetarium shows usually have little to do with stargazing. They are more often astronomy films projected on the dome of the planetarium, actually blotting out the stars that the planetarium instrument is supposed to project.



4) Try as they might, the constellations projected on the dome don't really look all that much like the real ones. Since the brightness of stars must be represented by size, not luminosity, the constellations look smaller than the real thing, and dimmer stars seem exaggerated.



I enjoy visiting the planetarium, but my interest in the stars came first. I suggest getting your star map and going outside at night. You'll enjoy the planetarium much better AFTER you already recognize the constellations.
going to a planetarium helps you identify the shapes of constelations, and locations of different stars. Also depending on the type of planetarium, such as a digital planetarium the stars are photographed at such a high quality that it is possible to distinguish differneces among them that would be immposible for the human eye, not to mention weather is not an issue.