Diurnal Motion of the Celestial Objects

Celestial objects show various motions on the projected sky plane due to the motions of the Earth (rotation, orbital motion, etc.). This topic describes the apparent motions of celestial objects due to the Earth's rotation (diurnal motion).

Pending Tasks

Important pending tasks (or notes/ideas) to complete the simulation.

  • Identify undergraduate students who can take the lead in this simulation development.

Technical Aspects

Prerequisites

  • SkyTracker from the Virtual Night Sky model
  • A Python script controlling the observation time to mimic the Earth's rotation.

Newly created components from this simulation

These are newly created components (functions, materials, cameras, etc.) from this topic simulation.

  • Python script (vsky_diurnal_motion.py)
    • A loop over a time interval can show the path of celestial objects as seen by the observer on the Earth

Astro Concepts

These are underlying astronomical concepts to teach with this simulated topic.

  • General concept of the diurnal motion
  • Types of stars (circumpolar stars, rise & set stars, never-rise stars)
  • paths of the stars
  • dependence of the diurnal motions on the observer's location (latitude) on the Earth

Key Scenes

TBA

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