Home/Curriculum resources/Indigenous Astronomy and the Solar System/What is Stellarium?
Learning Area:
Science
Year levels:
Level 5, Level 6
What is Stellarium?
This activity is a part of the Indigenous Astronomy and the Solar System 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 - Planet nomenclature
In this activity, students will research and share Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander names for visible planets, explore their ordering by distance and size, and analyse how these names reflect knowledge about the planets, offering insights into cultural perspectives on celestial bodies.
Suggested timing:
30 minutes
Required resources:
Laptop/tablet, Internet access
Activity 2 - Observing retrograde motion using Stellarium
In this activity, students will use the Stellarium digital planetarium to visually explore retrograde motion of planets, observing their positions relative to stars and constellations, and take notes on their movements.
Suggested timing:
30 minutes
Required resources:
Stellarium app, Laptop/tablet
Activity 3 - Observing the planets (Homework task)
In this homework activity, students will hone their observational skills by identifying planets in the evening sky without relying on apps or aids.
Required resources:
Star wheel for the southern hemisphere