The San Juan Stargazers meet on the first Thursday of each month at the Community United Methodist Church at 434 Lewis St.
There is social time from 6 to 7 p.m. and the meeting from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Everyone is welcome. Please enter using the side door near the parking lot.
In addition to our regular educational monthly meetings, we occasionally host public virtual events over Zoom. Sunday, Jan. 14, is our first event.
The webinar will be a demonstration of the free online planetarium app Stellarium. What can Stellarium do? How do I use it? Can it drive my telescope? Is it really free? Attend the webinar to find out. Already have the Stellarium app? Thinking of upgrading to Stellarium Plus? The demo will also include features of the paid version.
Too cold outside to stargaze or use your telescope? You can explore the night sky from any location on Earth at any time past, present or future — all from the comfort of your own home. Stellarium can open up the cloudy, snowy skies so you can learn and plan for the warmer months. Or, perhaps plan some stargazing for an upcoming trip to a warm climate you are planning.
We use Stellarium to prepare and outline our Night Sky Programs. The moon phase, visible planets, visible constellations and the deep-sky objects within them are all considerations as we plan. Club members were given a demonstration of Stellarium-web at the December 2023 meeting, but we did not cover the Stellarium Plus app. The paid version of the app has many capabilities beyond the free version. We’ll demonstrate these awesome features during the webinar.
This is a one-hour webinar taking place on Sunday, Jan. 14, at 1 p.m. over Zoom. Go to our Events page at SanJuanStargazers.org to register by Jan. 13. You will receive an email the day prior with the link to the Zoom call. You can simply click the Zoom link in a browser on your computer to join. If you plan on joining the call on your mobile device, you will need to install the Zoom app prior to the webinar. Installing the free Stellarium app on your mobile device prior to the webinar is encouraged, but not required.
It is assumed participants have some minimal knowledge of astronomy, the sky, celestial objects and planets, but first-timers are welcome to attend. We will not teach astronomical concepts. This is a software demonstration. We are in no way affiliated with the company who develops Stellarium, we just think it is truly amazing and easy to use.
