By Heather Hershley
So, you wanna check your Alt Az coordinates?
Well, go to the Day Lab, that would be in the Astronomy Department,
down the hall from our classroom, to your immediate left from the west entrance
from McCormick Rd. Your ZA-4 key will open the door. Four computers
in there have been designated for 313 use and have the programs you will need
for future data reduction. They are Optera-313, Fantoma-313, Garuda-313,
and Tirol-313. They are the only computers marked with names, so they
should be easy to spot. The other computers have Starry Night on them,
so you may use them if you wish, but I doubt you'll be fighting for computer
space.
Ok, so you're now at a computer called "something"-313. Move the mouse around a bit to end the monitor's power save. You will see three profiles. Click on the one marked "313" and use the password I sent through the email. Now, you will need to go through the start menu: Start->Programs->Starry Night Backyard->Starry Night Backyard
Ok, so you're now at a computer called "something"-313. Move the mouse around a bit to end the monitor's power save. You will see three profiles. Click on the one marked "313" and use the password I sent through the email. Now, you will need to go through the start menu: Start->Programs->Starry Night Backyard->Starry Night Backyard
This is the lower corner of the screen, no sense in you
all seeing empty space.
Now you're in Starry Night. If you got a window that asked to make updates, just hit "Cancel" or "Ask Me Later" or whatever, it only updates new comets and asteroid positions. Any rate, you may see a lovely day in an imaginary place at our latitude and longitude. You want to fast forward to night, so go to the top where you see a few arrows, one left and one right, around a square button, as well as a ball with an arrow extending right. To fast forward, press the right arrow. At nightfall, hit the square to stop. Left click on the background to pan about until you find the constellation near the star you need. Or use the "Find" command in the Edit drop down and search for the star by it's common name (like Vega or beta Cygni). When you see your star, you'll want to put your cursor over it:
Now you're in Starry Night. If you got a window that asked to make updates, just hit "Cancel" or "Ask Me Later" or whatever, it only updates new comets and asteroid positions. Any rate, you may see a lovely day in an imaginary place at our latitude and longitude. You want to fast forward to night, so go to the top where you see a few arrows, one left and one right, around a square button, as well as a ball with an arrow extending right. To fast forward, press the right arrow. At nightfall, hit the square to stop. Left click on the background to pan about until you find the constellation near the star you need. Or use the "Find" command in the Edit drop down and search for the star by it's common name (like Vega or beta Cygni). When you see your star, you'll want to put your cursor over it:
In this crappy image, note that there is a star with a name
next to it. That is what you should see if you have your arrow over
it. Now, right click and select "Info Window":
Now, you'll see an info window with Alt Az coordinates of
the star already in them!
The crappy red arrow is pointing at these coordinates. Good
job! But wait! What if you need RA and DEC, or wish to confirm
these values? Easy enough, see that area above Alt Az that I have colored
in with nasty blue? Notice the box doesn't connect there, as the header
for the box below does? Click on it:
Holy cow! The nasty red arrow shows that there is
a hidden drop down menu! And you may use this menu to choose Galactic,
Ecliptic, or Equatorial coordinates, on top of your Alt Az!! So go ahead
down to J2000. That's what your Norton uses. JNow are the positions
to more precise fractions of arcseconds or arcminutes, as it works to an
algorithm to accommodate for the fact that we are in 2004. No worries
though, just use J2000, it's close enough:
Viola! (pretty instrument, cello player myself!) The
crappy red arrow shows that you are now using Equatorial J2000, and the nasty
blue boxes in the RA and DEC. Now you know where your stars are!
Good job! Now you can check your estimates of Alt Az! ^_^ Have fun!
Heather, on lack of sleep
Good job! Now you can check your estimates of Alt Az! ^_^ Have fun!
Heather, on lack of sleep