StarDome: Astronomy.com's Interactive Star Map--Personalized for You!

Fantastic for use on an Interactive Whiteboard, or simply for use as a projection in the classroom.

"StarDome simulates a naked-eye view of the sky from any location on Earth, at any time and on any date. StarDome gives you a graphical overview of the sky and detailed information about stars, deep-sky objects, planets, and selected asteroids and comets. 

You can quickly jump to the next eclipse, transit of Venus, Mars opposition, or Full Moon. View the constellations and explore data on more than 2,500 stars, or zoom in for a closer look at planetary configurations.

The first thing you'll notice when StarDome displays is the large circular, all-sky map. This is an interactive version of the map you'll find every month inAstronomy's pull-out section. The zenith (the point directly above an observer's head) is in the center of the map, and the horizon, complete with compass directions, forms the outer boundary. 

The second thing you'll notice is that the only active tab is the one labeled Explore the Sky. All of the other functions are available in StarDome Plus, an observing tool available only to magazine subscribers."


"Tech talkStarDome is a small program — called an applet — written in the Java language from Sun Microsystems. When you visit Astronomy.com, your web browser downloads the applet and executes it. For StarDome to function, you'll need the Java Runtime Environment version 1.3 or higher, and you'll need to set your web browser to enable Java content."


Click here to go to the Astronomy.com webpage for full instructions on how to use StarDome

StarDome: Astronomy.com's Interactive Star Map--Personalized for You!