Sky Quiz

Stella 2000 is unique in offering the luxury of a fully-fledged online quiz for consolidating your knowledge of the heavens. It must be stressed that Sky Quiz is in no way sequestered from the rest of Stella: there is no 'quiz page' to move off into  -  the Sky will still lie before you, the stars will still move in their courses, you can utilise all Stella's functions - apart from those which might enable you to cheat. Sky Quiz is integrated, seamless.

Go to the Setup tab in the Sky Quiz window and click the [New Quiz] button to start or reset a quiz. You may also use the Setup tab to tailor the Quiz as to the types of question it will include. Some types are more demanding than others, and carry higher points values when they are selected. Others, such as the 'Point out any star in the constellation of...', will carry only a single point as they are so easy!  Experiment. 

The points structure for question-types is as follows:

Name the highlighted constellation 	1    point
Point out any star in the constellation...	2    points
Name circled star			5    points	x  vmag
Point out the star named...		10  points   x  vmag
(Designation of circled star...		15  points    x  vmag)
(Point out the star designated...		20  points    x  vmag)

vmag = object's visual magnitude.

Your overall skill is then a measure of the average points attained per question. Therefore, for the highest skill award, you will be best served by selecting only the most demanding question-type(s) within your capabilities.

Now go back to the Quiz page to begin things in earnest. Click once in the navy blue question panel whenever you're ready for a new question. The type of question will be decided randomly, unless only one type (or no type) has been selected. 

You can have as many attempts as you like at answering the current question, even indefinitely, or until you hit upon the right response. After all, it's only mouse-clicks. Stella will adjust your score downwards in accordance with the number of tries, but you'll get something provided you finally hit on the right answer. Running score totals, along with number of tries for the current question, will be displayed on the status bar in green.

Some Hints and Tips on Quizzes

Attempting to find out the answer to a question by clicking on the relevant object in the sky display will result in immediate cancellation of the current question, and concommitant increment of the question number. In other words, cheating will be looked upon in the same way as a mouse click in the question panel: a request for a new question, and loss of one question point.

To make the quiz easier, there are two techniques you can employ:

1) Zoom in so that only a limited number of bright stars are showing - this is an excellent way to familiarise yourself with a single constellation or just a very small area of sky.

2) Reduce the number of stars (ie. increase the limiting magnitude of the display) by pressing the [-] minus key, thereby reducing the sky to its essentials. Stella will only ever ask you questions on stars which are visible in the sky window.

Some of Stella's normal functions will be inhibited whenever the Quiz Window is present: these include

Find facilities
Lines and Grids
Constellations
All labels

If you need to check on the answer to a particularly challenging question during the course of a quiz, the way to go about it is to close the Quiz window temporarily. All Stella's functions, including realtime updates, will return until you reopen it. But bear in mind that, if a question is pending when you do this, you will lose the point unless the question has first been answered successfully.

If you cannot answer the current question, clicking the question panel again will inform Stella and get you another. 

We believe that Sky Quiz alone is one of your best reasons for registering Stella 2000. ( apart from lifetime support by mail, total personalisation, absence of reminder dialogs, and comprehensive reports). You'll be astonished at how quickly you attain familiarity with the stars. Through Sky Quiz, you will eventually 'read' the sky as effortlessly as you can read this.