Neave.com

Neave Planetarium Help

• // Who made Neave Planetarium?

  It's all made by me, Mr Paul Neave, using lots of clever coding voodoo with Adobe Flash in ActionScript 2.0 with Flash Player 8.  But I'm sure you knew that already.

• // It doesn't work!

  Please make sure JavaScript is enabled and the latest Flash Player is installed.  I also recommend you use the brilliant Firefox web browser instead of Internet Explorer.  Also, the faster your computer, the better Neave Planetarium will run.

• // How do I use Neave Planetarium?

  First, get the correct view for your sky by setting your position on the world map in the Location menu on the right-hand side.  The default location is London, England, but you can move the crosshairs on the map to view the sky from any point on Earth.  If you don't know your exact position, you could always explore with Flash Earth.

  Click the sky to start or stop moving around.  As you move your mouse, your view will change.  Pointing at a star will reveal its name, its constellation, its magnitude and its distance.

  You can also use the arrow keys to change the view, and the following shortcut keys:

  
  Constellations – C
  Sky daylight – S
  Year up – y
  Month up – m
  Day up – d
  Hour up – h
  Minute up – n
  Latitude south – l
  Longitude east – k
  
  

  
  Full screen – F
  Year down – Y
  Month down – M
  Day down – D
  Hour down – H
  Minute down – N
  Latitude north – L
  Longitude west – K
  
  

  NOTE:  Keys will not work in full screen mode due to security restrictions in the Flash Player.

• // How do I view Neave Planetarium in full screen?

  You will need Flash Player 9 or above, so update your Flash Player if for some reason it isn't working.  Select "Full screen" from the Options menu, or alternatively, right-click (Mac owners use control-click) and select the option "View in full screen" from the drop-down menu. 

• // How accurate is Neave Planetarium?

  As far as I know it's accurate to within a minute or two, but please let me know if you think otherwise.  The best way to check is to go outside on a clear night and compare the real sky with the view you have in Neave Planetarium.

  NOTE:  If you change your viewing location on the world map, the time shown will not change to the timezone of that location but will stay set to your local timezone (based on your computer's clock).  Even so, the view will still be accurate.

• // How many stars are shown?

  There are around 1500 stars in Neave Planetarium, every star up to magnitude +5.  These stars are the brightest in the night sky, the ones you can see with your own naked eye on a good dark night away from city lights.  The astronomical data is taken from the Bright Star Catalog.

• // What is a 'planetarium'?

  According to one definition in my dictionary, a planetarium is simply An apparatus or model for representing celestial bodies and other astronomical phenomena... which sums it up nicely.

• // What does magnitude/light year/constellation mean?

  Magnitude is the brightness of a star; the lower number, the brighter the star.  The brightest star (apart from the sun) is called Sirius in the constellation of Canis Major with a magnitude of -1.46 because it is both bright and very near to us (in astronomical terms).  The least brightest stars in Neave Planetarium are magnitude +5. 

  The distance to the stars is measured in light years (LY) where 1 LY = 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometres.  The nearest star (apart from the sun) is Alpha Centauri (also known as Rigil Kentaurus) at 4.36 LY.  The farthest stars are many thousands of light years away, so far that we can only estimate to the nearest 100 light years or so.

  The distance to the planets is measured in astronomical units (AU) where 1 AU is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, around 93 million miles or 150 million kilometres.

  A constellation is nothing more than a pattern of lines drawn between stars that help us find our bearings and other stars.  Most have mythical origins, such as Orion the Hunter, Ursa Major the Great Bear (containing the Big Dipper or Plough), and Ursa Minor the Little Bear.

• // Why do the constellations disappear when I move around?

  This is a limitation with the Flash Player, it would slow down too much if the constellations were visible while you move around the sky.

• // Why don't all stars have names?

  All stars do have names, but the ones without names in Neave Planetarium are the boring ones made up of Greek letters and numbers.  So you're not missing out on much.

• // Can I link to Neave Planetarium?

  I'd love you to, please go ahead.

• // Can I have the source code for Neave Planetarium?

  Sorry, Neave Planetarium is not open source and the code is not available to download.

• // What other planetarium software is there?

  If you'd like to explore the skies in more detail I'd recommend downloading one of the many excellent and free programs such as the open source Stellarium, fly around in 3D with Celestia, zoom in with Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope or choose the Sky option in Google Earth.

• // What's your favourite star?

  It's in the constellation of Draco called Booboo.  It has a silly name.

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