If you have already learned Stellarium and been evaluated by me, you are eligible for the early bird special plus you can challenge yourself with this discussion problem. You will be doing tasks which are NOT covered in the handouts. Up for the challenge? 5 points each task.
1. Use the Stellarium program to place yourself on Mars and add a Martian landscape. Find the next time you can view a transit of Earth (as seen on Mars) ...Google it. We cover what a transit is in unit 3 but for now, it is when you can observe the Earth cross in front of the sun. Take a screenshot which clearly shows the date, location, and landscape.
The event occurs on 11/9/2084 (or 11/10/2084 ... depending on where you are on Mars) .... I can't wait!
2. Place yourself on the equator of Mars and find the longitude you would have to be to observe the beginning of the transit at sunrise. Hint: It is in the Eastern hemisphere. Take a screen shot showing the sky as well as your location on Mars (an arrow shows where you are in the location window). Will you be able to observe the entire transit from this location?
The Eastern longitude is about E 124 degrees. The entire transit is visible from this location. I will certainly give you a bit of latitude about your exact longitude (sorry ... I couldn't resist). All I will do is look where the red arrow is on Mars and if it is close, I'm good. Also, you may be very confused about the date given for the beginning and end dates for the transit as you work on the next part. The center of Mars is like an international date line (of sorts) so the beginning of the transit in the east occurs at a later day than the end of the transit in the west.
3. Place yourself on the equator of Mars and find the longitude you would have to be to observe the end of the transit at sunset. Hint: It is in the Western hemisphere. Take a screen shot showing the sky as well as your location on Mars (an arrow shows where you are in the location window). Will you be able to observe the entire transit from this location?
The Western longitude is about W 173 degrees. The entire transit is visible from this location.
4. On 8/20/2013, the Curiosity rover on Mars took this picture:
It shows the transit of the tiny moon, Phobos, across the sun. Your job is to recreate this event using the Stellarium program. You will need to look up where (on Mars) the rover landed. Take a screen shot of any portion of the transit as well as the tiny location picture of Mars where the rover was (indicated by a tiny red arrow).
Curiosity landed in the Aeolis Palus crater. The location is S 4 ° 40 ‘ 4.97” E 137 ° 45 ‘ 14.38” but since it is a rover, I'm not sure of the exact coordinates when it took the picture (it will be very close)
Set the date to 8/20/2013 and play
around with the time until the transit occurs.
The program shows Phobos as a sphere ... not the irregular shape it actually is ... but hey, the program is free!!!