The discussion focuses on calculating the positions of stars and planets in the night sky using mathematical formulas and programming techniques. The recommended tool for this task is the Python library Astropy, which provides functionalities to determine the position of astronomical objects based on time and location on Earth. Users are encouraged to familiarize themselves with celestial coordinate systems through provided resources, including Wikipedia and specific educational links. Astropy can be downloaded from its official website for practical implementation.
PREREQUISITESAstronomy enthusiasts, Python developers, and educators looking to teach or learn about calculating celestial positions and understanding the night sky.
e.bar.goum said:If you are able to program in python, there's an excellent library called astropy that can be used to give the position of an astronomical object at any time at any place on Earth, in all the common coordinate systems. If you're not familiar with how stars are located in the sky, I suggest you look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_coordinate_system and https://dept.astro.lsa.umich.edu/ugactivities/Labs/coords/index.html