Custom Stellarium Landscapes

Stellarium is free planetarium software for your computer. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Stellarium shows a realistic sky from any location on Earth (and the Moon and Mars!), just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars, or a telescope. It is also used in real planetariums (including the one at SUNY New Paltz).

You can learn more about Stellarium, and download the software, from stellarium.org.

Stellarium Vade Mecum: This is a reference for Stellarium (a "cheat sheet) printed on a single sheet of paper so that it can be folded to fit in your pocket. When the first fold is opened the information shown is what most beginners need to know first: navigating the sky, controlling the view, and changing the time. Opening the second and third folds reveals more detailed information.

Installing a Landscape: Instructions for installing a "landscape" in Stellarium. (My prior instructions can be found here)
More Landscapes (from Stellarium.org): The complete collection of user contributed landscapes for Stellarium, covering all 7 continents, as well as special locations on the Moon and Mars. You can download the landscapes for the Walkway Over The Hudson and Ocean City from this page as well (they are under "North America").

Download the Landscapes

	Vassar College Observatory Poughkeepsie, New York	Eric Myers	CC-BY-NC	0.11.x	English
	The Class of 1951 Observatory at Vassar College opened in 1997, replacing the original campus Observatory from 1865. The two domes each house large reflecting telescopes, one with a 20 inch diameter and the other 32 inches in diameter -- one of the two largest research telescopes in the state of New York.

	USMA Cadet Observatory West Point, New York	Eric Myers	CC-BY-NC	0.11.x	English
	The Cadet Observatory at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, sits on the top of Bartlett Hall, home of the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering (PANE). The pictures for this landscape were taken (in 2017) on the open-air observation platform on the roof next to the dome, which is used for star parties and solar observations. The dome houses a 12" Mead LX 200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope which sits on a Paramount MEII mount. This new observatory was opened in 2016, replacing an earlier observatory on a different corner of the building. Starting with the class of 2020, West Point now offers an academic major in Space Sciences.

	Old Main Quad SUNY College at New Paltz, New York	Eric Myers	CC-BY-NC	0.11.x	English
	The Old Main Quad at SUNY New Paltz is the heart of the campus, bordered on the west by the Old Main Building and on the north by the Old Library. To the south is Wooster Hall, which was renovated in 2017, including the new orange paint scheme, and which houses Engineering Labs, the Psychology department, and admissions and financial offices. The photos were taken in July of 2021.

	Walkway Over The Hudson, Poughkeepsie, New York	Eric Myers	CC-BY-NC	0.11.x	English
	Walkway Over The Hudson Historic State Park spans the Hudson river in the state of New York between Poughkeepsie and Highland. It was originally a railroad bridge, which was completed in 1889 and was in service until 1974, when it was closed after a fire. The bridge is 1.28 miles long, with the center deck 212 feet above the river (which is at sea level -- the river actually flows both directions with the ocean tides far inland beyond Poughkeepsie). The bridge was later refurbished into a pedestrian walkway, which opened in 2009, becoming the longest footbridge in the world.

	United States Military Academy West Point, New York	Eric Myers	CC-BY-NC	0.11.x	English
	The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, was established in 1802, at a location originally used by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The photos used to assemble this landscape were taken from the parade field at West Point during Branch Week. Visible in front of Washington Hall one can see, among other things, two AH-64 Apache helicopters, two CH-47 Chinook helicopters, a Stryker armored fighting vehicle, and an M-1 Abrams Tank.

	SUNY College at New Paltz, New Paltz, New York	Eric Myers	CC-BY-NC	0.11.x	English
	View from the roof of the John R. Kirk Planetarium at the State University of New York at New Paltz.

	Ocean City, Maryland	Eric Myers	CC-BY-NC	0.11.x	English
	On the beach near 2nd Street, in Ocean City, Maryland, USA

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Last modified: 05 December 2023