SOFTWARE STELLARIUM: PRINCIPAIS FERRAMENTAS PARA A SIMULAÇÃO DE FENÔMENOS CELESTES NAS CULTURAS

Abstract

Although research in the cultural astronomy area is recent, it is possible to find tools that contribute to these studies, where one of which is a simulator of celestial phenomena: the Stellarium. According to the website of the simulator, it is an open-source astronomy software, characterized as a planetarium for viewing the sky. The Stellarium allows the visualization of constellations from over thirty different cultures; the interest in this work is to investigate the possibilities offered by such software for simulating celestial phenomena in indigenous cultures. This research has a qualitative approach, and, for the data analysis, the technique of content analysis was used. Based on our analysis, it was verified that the use of Stellarium software tools helps in the studies of indigenous cultures, presenting information about the desired culture and authors who contributed to the study. It is believed that research on this cultural astronomy theme can contribute to the recognition of this cultural diversity and motivate reflections on the knowledge presented by different cultures, especially the indigenous one. Besides that, it is believed that the utilization of the tools that aggregate the use of technology in this investigation can also contribute to integration between direct observation of the sky and simulations of celestial phenomena.

Keywords: astronomy in cultures; Stellarium; indigenous skies; science teaching.