
Even the largest and closest stars are points of light too small for the human eye to resolve.

Photographs makes stars look brighter by making the circles of light larger, but real stars are so distant that the human eye cannot see a disk. The stars in a Stellarium are strikingly realistic. It is a real 3 dimensional object, not “virtual” and not an “effect.” No existing technology can duplicate the appearance of a Stellarium. Radius of mapped space = 13.33 parsecs.Įxposure: 3 sec f /5.6, asa 400, Distance = 8.5 ft to window, 11 ft to map center. Stars from the 3rd edition of the Gliese Catalog of Nearby Stars with updates from NASA’s N-stars database are carefully located in space, with each star the appropriate color and brightness. A Stellarium is a 3D model of space around us that extends to the stars. A Stellarium is a 3D map on a scale not of hundreds or millions of kilometers per centimeter, but of trillions. The orrery is a 3D map at a much larger scale, A model of our solar system. This globe is a 3D map of our planet on a scale of hundreds of kilometers per centimeter or miles per inch. It is like these, but on a vastly larger scale. The Christian Science Monitor, January 4, 1993, by Clara Germani " The exhibit's Stellarium can inspire the peaceful, but gripping, awe of the universe that opens thought."
