

A Quick Spin Around the Big Dipper - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/19/illusions/a-quick-spin-around-the-big-dipper?utm_source=tss&utm_medium=desktop&utm_campaign=linkfrom

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rrss1122
When I took astronomy classes in college, I was introduced to a very cool
program called Digital Universe. It's developed by the Hayden Planetarium (the
one where Neil deGrasse Tyson is Director) and comes with a module to explore
the "local neighborhood" of stars.

It was used in the astronomy program for education and outreach to the general
public, and one of the cool things we would do with it was have the audience
identify a constellation and then zoom in to see just how disconnected the
stars actually are.

It has other modules for different astronomical objects/scales. They have a
free version for download on their website:

[http://www.amnh.org/our-research/hayden-
planetarium/digital-...](http://www.amnh.org/our-research/hayden-
planetarium/digital-universe/download)

