3D CONSTELLATIONS

Zodiac Constellations.

Some constellations have been used since Antiquity to guide navigators and explorers, such as Ursa Major, Ursa Minor or the Southern Cross. And there is a set of 12 constellations especially known, included in a strip of the sky determined by the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun. This set is called Zodiac and each of the constellations that form it, is particularly visible at some time of the year. In Antiquity, in some cultures, these constellations gave name to the so-called "signs of the zodiac", since the apparent movement of the Sun on the celestial sphere places it, precisely, on each constellation during certain months of the year. But in reality, during its annual trajectory, the Sun travels a set of 13 constellations. In chronological order, these are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Ophiuchus (the least known), Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. Due to the complex movement of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun, at present the Sun passes in front of each of them approximately one month later! of the dates that were assigned to them several thousand years ago.

A spacewalk.

In each of the attached videos -available for download in Spanish and English- you can enjoy, in just a couple of minutes, a spacewalk that, even traveling at the great speed of light (about 300,000 kilometers per second), it would take hundreds of years to be completed.

This content arise froms an scientific outreach activity that consists in the generation and edition of a set of videos that allows us to appreciate the true three-dimensional disposition of the sets of stars that we call constellations. As seen from the Earth, they seem to be drawn on the celestial dome and evoke figures of animals or imaginary beings. However, the stars that compose them are not small bright spots, but gigantic bodies emitting large amounts of energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Located at enormous distances from each other, the stars form groups that can only be understood correctly if they are seen in 3D.

The melodies that accompany them have been specially chosen. Enjoy them!

	Constellations displayed in the attached videos. The colors and relative dimensions of the stars and backgrounds are analogous to the real ones. ©Animals and mitological beings figures from: stellarium.org

Colaboration.

This series of videos, 3D Constellations, has been developed within the framework of the institutional collaboration begun between the Universidad de Sevilla, through the Group of Interdisciplinary Physics (GFI), based in the Department of Applied Physics III of the Higher Technical School of Engineering (ETSI), the Calar Alto Astronomical Observatory, in the Sierra de Filabres, Almería and the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia - CSIC, in Granada.
We hope you like them!

Authors

Prof.Dr. Emilio Gómez González (Group of Interdisciplinary Physics, ETSI, Universidad de Sevilla)
B.E. Manuel Guerrero Claro (Group of Interdisciplinary Physics, ETSI, Universidad de Sevilla)
B.E. Isabel Fernández Lizaranzu (Group of Interdisciplinary Physics, ETSI, Universidad de Sevilla)
Dr. Jesús Aceituno Castro (Calar Alto Astronomical Observatory)
Dr. Jorge Iglesias Páramo (Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia - CSIC)
Music: Almaclara·Inés Rosales Women’s Chamber Orchestra

The video series 3D Constellations is part of the teaching material of the subjects "Applied Optics (OA)" and "Holography and 3D Visualization (H3D)" of various Bachelor's degrees in Engineering taught at the School of Engineering of the Universidad de Sevilla, in the Campus of Andalusia-Tech International Excellence of the Universities of Malaga and Seville.

With the support of the Unit of Scientific Culture and Innovation (UCC+i) and the Secretariat of Audiovisual Resources and New Technologies (SAV) of the Universidad de Sevilla.

Poster Sevilla Science Fair 2018

Gómez González E, et al: 3D Constellations, Universidad de Sevilla 2018