The celestial e-sphere

Abstract

The Celestial E-Sphere originally came from an idea from Dr. Bob Lambourne who expressed a desire for a Celestial Sphere that you could see from outside, rather like the desk-top spheres that you can buy. There was some discussion about the possibility of modifying the open source of Stellarium, a very popular planetarium package, but this was perceived as probably being very complex. The final impetus came when using the Sky Maps tool of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey website, shown below