Home/Curriculum resources/Mathematics, moon phases, and tides/What is Stellarium?
Learning Area:
Mathematics
Year level:
Level 8
What is Stellarium?
This activity is a part of the Mathematics, moon phases, and tides resource.
Scorpius featuring Mars and Saturn. Photographer: Peter Lieverdink. Source: Flicker. License: CC BY-SA 2.0.
What is Stellarium?
It is a digital planetarium that can accurately display the night sky from anywhere in the world for any time period. It accurately portrays the movements of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars in real time. It includes 20+ pre-installed sky cultures, each containing imagery, nomenclature, and text describing the objects and its meaning in a given culture. Because of its open-source architecture, it is fully customisable by the end user. This enables Indigenous artists to add and display their own sky culture information.
The following explainer activity may be useful to get acclimatised to the software, or as a student reference guide.
Related activities within this resources:
Inquiry-based learning questions
These inquiry-based questions are provided for flexible classroom use, allowing teachers to tailor discussion and reflections specific to their classroom needs.
Activity 1 - Measuring lunar phase angle and percentage illumination
In this activity, students estimate the illuminated lunar surface area during different phases, calculate phase angles, and explore the Moon's changing appearance throughout a lunar cycle.
Suggested timing:
30-45 minutes
Activity 2 - Establishing the link between moon phases and tides
In this activity, students analyse tide data from Murray Island to establish a link between lunar phases and tide amplitudes. Students then use this information to determine optimal fishing days based on Meriam knowledge of fishing, Moon phases, and tides.
Suggested timing:
30 minutes