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% Status info:
% M. Gates 2006-2009
% A. Wolf 2011-2014
% B. Gerdes 2013
% Additions inserted from wiki 2015-12-26
% Content OK for 0.12.4.
% 2016-04 GZ started restructuring
% TODO: typo&grammar check
% \chapterimage{chapter-t2-bg} % Chapter heading image now set in guide.tex
\chapter{The User Interface}
\label{ch:gui}
This chapter describes the dialog windows which can be accessed from the left menu bar.
Most of Stellarium's settings can be changed using the view window
(press \guibutton[0.35]{2}{btd_view.png} or \key{F4}) and the
configuration window (\guibutton[0.35]{2}{btd_config.png} or
\key{F2}). Most settings have short labels. To learn more about some
settings, more information is available as \emph{tooltips}, small text
boxes which appear when you hover the mouse cursor over a
button.\footnote{Unfortunately, on Windows~7 and later, with some Nvidia
and AMD GPUs in OpenGL mode, these tooltips sometimes do not work.}
You can drag the
windows around\newFeature{0.15}, and the position will be used again when you restart
Stellarium. If this would mean the window is off-screen (because you
start in windowed mode, or with a different screen), the window will
be moved so that at least a part is visible.
Some options are really rarely changed and therefore may only be
configured by editing the configuration file. See
\ref{sec:ConfigurationFile} The Main Configuration File for more
details.
\section{Setting the Date and Time}
\label{sec:gui:date}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{date_and_time_dialog.png}
\caption{Date and Time dialog}
\label{fig:gui:date}
\end{figure}
In addition to the time rate control buttons on the main toolbar, you
can use the date and time window (open with the \guibutton[0.35]{2}{btd_time.png}
button or \key{F5}) to set the simulation time. The values
for year, month, day, hour, minutes and seconds may be modified by
typing new values, by clicking the up and down arrows above and below
the values, and by using the mouse wheel.
The other tab in this window allows you to see or set
\indexterm{Julian Day} and/or \indexterm[Julian Day!Modified]{Modified Julian Day} numbers
(see~\ref{sec:Concepts:JulianDay}).
\section{Setting Your Location}
\label{sec:gui:location}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.85\textwidth]{location_dialog.png}
\caption{Location window}
\label{fig:gui:location}
\end{figure}
\noindent The positions of the stars in the sky is dependent on your location on
Earth (or other planet) as well as the time and date. For Stellarium to
show accurately what is (or will be/was) in the sky, you must tell it
where you are. You only need to do this once -- Stellarium can save your
location so you won't need to set it again until you move.
After installation\newFeature{0.13.1}, Stellarium uses an online service which tries to
find your approximate location based on the IP address you are
using. This seems very practical, but if you feel this causes privacy
issues, you may want to switch this feature off. You should also consider
switching it off on a computer which does not move, to save network bandwidth.
To set your location more accurately, or if the lookup service fails,
press \key{F6} to open the location window (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:location}).
There are a few ways you can set your location in this dialog:
\begin{enumerate}
\item Just click on the map.
\item Search for a city where you live using the search edit box at
the top right of the window, and select the right city from the
list.
\item Click on the map to filter the list of cities in the vicinity of
your click, then choose from the shortlist.
\item Enter a new location using the longitude, latitude and other
data.
\item Click on \menu{Get Location from GPS} if you have a GPS
receiver.\newFeature{0.16/0.18.1} You activate a periodic request
for GPS fixes. After a few seconds, the button should change color
and give a textual feedback. Green indicates a good location fix, yellow
indicates a 2D-fix only, which means altitudes are not
available. (Leave the GPS device running for a few minutes and/or
search a place with better sky view.) You could leave it running if
you are operating a fast-moving observatory platform, but rather
switch it off when you see a good fix, so that other programs can
use the serial GPS connection. Red signals an error, and further
positions are not retrieved but the button is reset. You may press
the button again to start over.
Sometimes you have to try several times or let it run for a while to get a
green button indicating a valid 3D fix including altitude.
See section~\ref{sec:ExtraData:GPS} for configuration details.
On Windows, if there is no GPS device, a system location service will be queried as fallback.\newFeature{1.0}
\end{enumerate}
\noindent If you want to use the current location permanently, click on the
``use as default'' checkbox, disable ``Get location from Network'',
and close the location window.
Two settings may influence the landscape when changing locations:
\begin{description}
\item[Auto select landscapes] When changing the planet,
a fitting landscape panorama will be shown when available.
Also, \newFeature{23.2} when clicking on the earth map,
a zero-altitude landscape is displayed in the approximate color of that location (taken from the map).
\item[Auto-enable atmosphere] When changing planet during
location change, the atmosphere will be switched as required.
\end{description}
As a reverse functionality, loading landscapes may also change location. See section~\ref{sec:gui:view:landscape}.
\subsection{Time Zones}
\label{sec:gui:location:timezones}
Locations in Stellarium's location database include their respective
time zone.\newFeature{0.15.1/0.19.0} When you click on a location in
the list, the time should be shown in the respective time zone. If
daylight time rules exist and you have selected ``Enable daylight
saving time'', also this abomination of modern civilisation is respected. Most
users will require to have this setting active.
When you select ``Use custom time zone'', you can select other time zones.
Those that start with UTC have no daylight time rules.
Time zones were introduced in the 19th century, originally for
purposes of railway traffic synchronization. The first such action was
taken in 1847, and therefore Stellarium by default will present Local
Mean Solar Time (LMST) for dates before 1847, and ignore all
configured time zones unless you deliberately activate ``Use custom
time zone''. The history of time zones and their rules is very
complicated, though, and Stellarium should not be expected to find the
exact date when time zone use was introduced at a certain location or
country. Just be sure to use LMST when replaying historical
observations before the 20th century.
For even earlier observations, you can also set Local True Solar Time
(LTST), which is the time given by sundials. Here, 12 o'clock is the
time when the sun transits the meridian, strictly, daily. The
difference between LMST and LTST is called \emph{equation of time}.
See section~\ref{sec:plugins:EquationOfTime} for more information.
When you click on the map to set your location, Stellarium has
currently no way to guess the timezone of the coordinate pair. In this
case, Local Mean Solar Time is presented, which only depends on
longitude and was the ``normal'' time before the development of time
zones. Either select a city from the list or manually select a time
zone.
\subsection{Geographical Regions}
\label{sec:gui:location:geographicalregions}
The world is split into political entities called ``countries''. \newFeature{0.21.2}
Humans have an unappealing tendency of fighting over the question to which
country some territories should be counted. Stellarium is an astronomy
program which labels coordinates of locations like cities with a name.
Earlier editions of Stellarium used countries as further superordinate
entities to locations for identification purposes. In consequence to much
unnecessary and unfriendly discussion we decided to completely drop the
petty-minded assignment of political country names to locations in favour
of geographical regions. There is only one known habitable planet, one
humankind, and one sky. Stellarium users should overcome borders!
For the ``region'' classification of sky cultures we use the same regions (see \ref{sec:skycultures:region}),
and we follow the UN~M49 geoscheme\footnote{https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/} with extensions for other planets.
\subsection{Observers}
\label{sec:gui:location:observers}
In the list of Planets you can find entries called \emph{Solar System Observer}, \emph{Jupiter Observer} and
similar for each major planet that has moons: Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
These are specialized locations. When switching to them, you will find yourself looking
onto the respective observed object (Sun, Jupiter, \ldots) from somewhat above the plane of the Solar system.
By pressing \key{\Alt+\arrowkeyleft}/\key{\Alt+\arrowkeyright} you can rotate around a vertical axis through the observed object.
Likewise, by pressing \key{\Alt+\arrowkeyup}/\key{\Alt+\arrowkeydown} you can change the latitude of observation. Finally,
with \key{\Alt+Home}/\key{\Alt+End} you can change the distance from the observed object.
\section{The Configuration Window}
\label{sec:gui:configuration}
The configuration window contains general program settings, and many
other settings which do not concern specific display options. Press
the tool button \guibutton[0.35]{2}{btd_config.png} or \key{F2} to open.
\subsection{The Main Tab}
\label{sec:gui:configuration:main}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{config_dialog_main_tab.png}
\caption{Configuration Window: Main Tab}
\label{fig:gui:configuration:main}
\end{figure}
The Main tab in the configuration window (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:configuration:main}) provides controls for
changing separately the program and sky culture languages.
The next setting group allows to enable using DE430/DE431 and DE440/DE441 ephemeris files.
These files have to be installed separately. Most users do not require this.
See section~\ref{sec:ExtraData:ephemerides} if you are interested.
The tab also provides the buttons for saving the current view direction as default
for the next startup, and for saving the program configuration:
most display settings have to be explicitly stored to make a setting change permanent.
If you prefer\newFeature{24.4}, you can activate \button{Immediate Save}.
Then all settings changes will be stored immediately and the program will use them the next time you launch it.
Language and font settings have to be stored explicitly with the buttons next to their settings to protect you from unwanted surprises.
To permanently set this mode, use \button{Save settings} a final time.
\subsection{The Information Tab}
\label{sec:gui:configuration:info}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{config_dialog_info_tab.png}
\caption{Configuration Window: Information Tab}
\label{fig:gui:configuration:info}
\end{figure}
The Information tab (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:configuration:info}) allows you to set the type and amount of information
displayed about a selected object.
\begin{itemize}
\item Ticking or unticking the relevant boxes will control this.
\item The information displays in various colors depending on the type and
level of the stored data
\end{itemize}
\subsection{The Extras Tab}
\label{sec:gui:configuration:extras}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{config_dialog_extras_tab.png}
\caption{Configuration Window: Extras Tab}
\label{fig:gui:configuration:extras}
\end{figure}
The Extras tab (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:configuration:extras}) allows you to
customize information displayed about a selected object, download more
star catalogs and also allows to hide or show additional buttons in
the lower button bar.
\subsubsection{Customization of information displays}
The information display can be tweaked a bit with the options found in the GUI section ``Additional information settings''.
\begin{description}
\item[Use mag/arcsec\^{}2 for surface brightness] instead of mag/arcmin\^{}2.
\item[Short notation for units of surface brightness] symbolic abbreviation.
\item[tabular output for coordinates and time] uses a more eye-friendly layout.
\item[Azimuth from South] Some users may be used to counting azimuth from south.
\item[Use decimal degrees] You can toggle usage of decimal degree format for coordinates.
\item[Designations for celestial coordinate systems] Use symbols like $\alpha, \delta$ instead of textual labels.
\end{description}
\subsubsection{Customization of button visibility on bottom toolbar}
If your screen is too narrow to show all buttons
or you simply don't need them because you prefer the keyboard shortcuts,
you can choose your optimal setup. The selection of buttons is stored immediately.
\begin{description}
\item[Constellation boundaries] You can toggle display of constellation boundaries with this button.
\item[Asterism lines] You can toggle display of asterism lines with this button.
\item[Asterism labels] You can toggle display of asterism labels with this button.
\item[Ecliptic grid] You can toggle display of ecliptic coordinate grid with this button.
\item[ICRS grid] You can toggle display of the International Coordinate Reference System (equatorial J2000 coordinate grid) with this button.
\item[Galactic grid] You can toggle display of galactic coordinate grid with this button.
\item[Cardinal points] You can toggle display of the ``Cardinal points'' button.
\item[Compass marks] You can toggle display of the ``Compass marks'' button.
\item[Night mode] You can toggle display of the nightmode button.
\item[Centering button] You can toggle display of the ``Center on selected object'' button.
\item[Fullscreen button] You can toggle display of the fullscreen button.
\item[Quit button] You can toggle display of the button to quit Stellarium.
\item[Nebula background] You can toggle display of DSO photographs with this button.
\item[Flip buttons] When enabled, two buttons will be added to
the main tool bar which allow the main view to be mirrored in the
vertical and horizontal directions. This is useful when observing
through telecopes which may cause the image to be mirrored.
\item[DSS survey] You can toggle display of Digitized Sky Survey with this button (see section~\ref{sec:TOAST}).
\item[HiPS Surveys] You can toggle display of Hierarchical Progressive Surveys with this button (see section \ref{sec:gui:view:surveys}).
\item[Bookmarks] You can enable display of Bookmarks (Observing Lists) dialog with this button.
\item[Use buttons background] Applies a gray background under the buttons on the bottom bar.
\end{description}
\subsubsection{Download more star catalogs}
Stellarium comes with enough stars for casual stargazing with the
unaided eye or binoculars. If you have a telescope and want to see
more stars, here you can download more catalogs. (See Appendix~\ref{ch:Catalogues})
\subsection{The Time Tab}
\label{sec:gui:configuration:time}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{config_dialog_time_tab.png}
\caption{Configuration Window: Time Tab}
\label{fig:gui:configuration:time}
\end{figure}
The Time tab (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:configuration:time}) allows to specify what simulation time should be used
when the program starts:
\begin{description}
\item[System date and time] Stellarium will start with
the simulation time equal to the operating system clock.
\item[System date at] Stellarium will start with the
same date as the operating system clock, but the time will be fixed at
the specified value. This is a useful setting for those people who use
Stellarium during the day to plan observing sessions for the upcoming
evening.
\item[Other] some fixed time can be chosen which will
be used every time Stellarium starts.
\end{description}
\noindent The middle field allows specify display formats for date and time on bottom toolbar:
\begin{description}
\item[JD] Stellarium will display Julian Days (JD).
\item[Date and time] Stellarium will display date and time in selected format.
\end{description}
\noindent The lowest field allows selection of the correction model for the time
correction $\Delta T$ (see section~\ref{sec:Concepts:DeltaT}). Default
is ``Modified Espenak and Meeus (2006, 2014, 2023)''. Please use other values only if you
know what you are doing.
\subsection{The Tools Tab}
\label{sec:gui:configuration:tools}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{config_dialog_tools_tab.png}
\caption{Configuration Window: Tools Tab}
\label{fig:gui:configuration:tools}
\end{figure}
The Tools tab (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:configuration:tools}) contains planetarium options
(like enabling/disabling of keyboard shortcuts for panning and zooming the main view)
and options for screenshots.
\begin{description}
\item[Spheric mirror distortion] This option pre-warps the main view
such that it may be projected onto a spherical mirror using a
projector. The resulting image will be reflected up from the spherical
mirror in such a way that it may shine onto a small planetarium
dome (or even just the ceiling of your dining room), making a cheap planetarium projection system.
\item[Disc viewport] This option masks the main view
producing the effect of a telescope eyepiece. It is also useful when
projecting Stellarium's output with a fish-eye lens planetarium
projector.
\item[Gravity labels] This option makes labels of objects in the
main view align with the nearest horizon. This means that labels
projected onto a dome are always aligned properly.
\item[Auto zoom out returns to initial direction of view] When enabled,
this option changes the behavior of the zoom out key
\key{\textbackslash{}} so that it resets the initial direction of view in
addition to the field of view.
\item[Enable keyboard navigation], i.e. moving the view with cursor keys. The tool button calls the keyboard configuration panel. (See section~\ref{sec:gui:help:hotkeys}.)
\item[Enable mouse navigation], i.e. mouse dragging.
\item[Enable mouse zooming] use mouse wheel to zoom field of view.
\item[Mouse cursor timeout] You can decide whether, and when, the
mouse cursor should disappear from view when not moved.
\item[Include]
\begin{description}
\item[Topocentric coordinates] If you require planetocentric coordinates, you may switch this off.
Usually it should be enabled. (See~\ref{sec:Concepts:Parallax:Topocentric})
\item[Nutation] Compute the slight wobble of earth's
axis. This feature is active only about 500 years around J2000.0.
\item[Aberration] Add effect of annual \indexterm{aberration of light} to the object's position (see \ref{sec:Concepts:Aberration}).
Note: This also influences the displayed position in the J2000 frame!
For didactic purposes you can exaggerate the effect by up to $5\times$.
\end{description}
\item[Overwrite text color] --- enabling this option\newFeature{0.20.2} will ignore the
color settings for each celestial object and enable one color for text on the info panel
for all celestial objects. By default Stellarium uses white color for this option,
but you may re-define it through a color chooser\newFeature{0.20.3}.
\item[Set keyboard focus to day input] --- you may use this option to force setting the
keyboard focus on the day input field in the Date and Time dialog.
Important note: the focus in the sky will be lost when you open the
Date and Time dialog after enabling this option.
\item[Use kinetic scrolling] Text fields in \newFeature{0.18.3}
dialogs can either be moved on sidebar handles (with this switch
disabled) or by dragging the text itself (enabled), as it is known
from touch-enabled devices like smartphones.
\item[Dithering] options to allow select better simulation of sky on different hardware.
\item[Indication for mount mode] You can activate the short display of a message when switching type of used mount.
\item[Info text color at daylight] --- this is a color chooser\newFeature{0.20.3} for defining the
text color for the info panel at daylight to increase the contrast of the text.
By default Stellarium use black color.
\end{description}
\paragraph{Multithreading} \label{sec:gui:configuration:tools:threads}
For every frame, the positions of all planets and minor bodies of the Solar system are computed.
Most of the other time between frame updates is needed for the actual frame drawing,
and waiting for the next frame cycle if you have deliberately set a low frame rate (useful to conserve energy; see below).
If you have many thousands of solar system objects and a moderately new computer,
you may feel that Stellarium becomes slow (few frames/second) but see that mostly only one core of your CPU seems to be busy.
You can try\newFeature{24.3} to distribute the computation of solar system bodies to more CPU cores.
But take note, thread synchronization (combining all results ahead of drawing) takes its time,
so it pays off only when your solar system is really large.
With more than 1000 objects, we recommend starting with 1 additional thread.
Even with 25.000 objects, assigning more than 4 additional threads on a 20-core CPU does not show any further gain.
Frame drawing is still performed by the main thread, and too many objects still slow down the program.
Just try out what works best on your system.
\paragraph{Framerate intent} \label{sec:gui:configuration:tools:fps} The pace of screen updates (frames per second, FPS) depends on several factors:
CPU speed, graphics card speed, screen size, number of displayed objects and grids, etc.
As is common for interactive programs, the main program thread runs on a single core also on a multicore system.
For running Stellarium, a CPU with few but fast cores will appear faster in total than a multicore system at slower CPU cycles.
High-end systems may deliver needlessly high framerates, at cost of energy consumption.
The maximum FPS setting limits the frame rate when Stellarium is interactively operated
(zoomed, panned, settings switched, etc.)
After a few seconds, when Stellarium is not interactively operated, it falls back to a minimum FPS setting to conserve energy.
Of course, when the system cannot even reach this FPS, the factual FPS will be lower and the system may be overloaded.
Keep in mind that the minimum setting also applies to running scripts (non-interactively).
\paragraph{Font size and font selection} \newFeature{0.18.3} You can change the font sizes for on-screen
text and GUI dialogs separately. For some purposes like presentations
it may be helpful to enlarge screen font size while keeping GUI font
regular, or vice versa. It also depends on your screen size whether
all the object info fits on screen. This may also depend on the
writing system and installed font. If you are using a non-Western
character system and the default font looks bad, you can select
another system font. For this, edit \file{config.ini} (see
chapter~\ref{sec:Directories}): locate the \texttt{[gui]} section and
set the key \texttt{flag\_font\_selection=true}. On next start of
Stellarium, you will find two elements for font selection: one allows
you to pre-select a writing system, the other will then allow
selection of a font installed in your system that includes the
characters used in the selected writing system. When you have found
the best font, store your settings here or on the Main tab (see
section~\ref{sec:gui:configuration:main}), and you may edit
\file{config.ini} again to disable the font selection switches.
\paragraph{Screenshots} You can set the directory where screenshots
will be stored, and \newFeature{0.18.1} also whether you want
screenshots sized like Stellarium's window or some other, likely
larger size. The maximum possible size depends on your
hardware. $4096\times4096$ should be possible on most PCs, others may
even create $16384\times16384$ images. The vertical field of view will be the same as in the current view.
You can also set \newFeature{0.19.0} the file format. The exact selection depends on
platform and version of the underlying Qt framework. Notable formats are PNG (lossless), JPG (lossy),
JPEG (higher quality JPG), BMP (Windows Bitmap), WEBP, TIF (LZW compressed), TIFF (uncompressed),
PBM, PGM, PPM, XBM, XPM, and ICO (thumbnails).
Some printing workflows require particular DPI (dots per inch)
settings stored in the screenshots. \newFeature{0.22.0} You can
configure DPI which will be stored in the image metadata. The intended
print size in \mm\ is shown in the tooltip of the dpi spinner.
\subsection{The Scripts Tab}
\label{sec:gui:configuration:scripts}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{config_dialog_scripts_tab.png}
\caption{Configuration Window: Scripts Tab}
\label{fig:gui:configuration:scripts}
\end{figure}
The Scripts tab (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:configuration:scripts}) allows the
selection of pre-assembled scripts bundled with Stellarium that can be
run (See chapter~\ref{ch:scripting} for an introduction to the
scripting capabilities and language). This list can be expanded with
your own scripts as required. See
section~\ref{sec:FilesAndDirectories:DirectoryStructure} where to
store your own scripts.
When a script is selected it can be run by pressing the arrow button
and stopped with the stop button. With some scripts the stop button is
inhibited until the script is finished. %% TODO: EXPLAIN HOW?
Scripts that use sound or embedded videos will need a version of
Stellarium configured at compile time with multimedia support
enabled. It must be pointed out here that sound or video codecs
available depends on the sound and video capabilities of you computer
platform and may not work.
\subsection{The Plugins Tab}
\label{sec:gui:configuration:plugins}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{config_dialog_plugins_tab.png}
\caption{Configuration Window: Plugins Tab}
\label{fig:gui:configuration:plugins}
\end{figure}
Plugins (see chapter~\ref{ch:Plugins} for an introduction) can be
enabled here (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:configuration:plugins}) to be loaded the next time
you start Stellarium. When loaded, many plugins allow additional configuration
which is available by pressing the \menu{configure} button on this tab.
\section{The View Settings Window}
\label{sec:gui:view}
The View settings window controls many display features of Stellarium
which are not available via the main toolbar.
\subsection{The Sky Tab}
\label{sec:gui:view:sky}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{view_dialog_sky_tab.png}
\caption{View Settings Window: Sky Tab}
\label{fig:gui:view:sky}
\end{figure}
The Sky tab of the View window (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:view:sky}) contains settings
for changing the general appearance of the main sky view and projections. Some highlights of sky field:
\begin{description}
\item[Dynamic eye adaptation] When enabled this feature reduces the
brightness of faint objects when a bright object is in the field of
view. This simulates how the eye can be dazzled by a bright object
such as the moon, making it harder to see faint stars and galaxies.
\begin{samepage} % If the list of options is page-broken from the beginning of the "Light pollution" item, it becomes hard to orient in the text due to starting a page with a nested list.
\item[Light pollution] In urban and suburban areas, the sky is
brightened by terrestrial light pollution reflected in the atmosphere.
Stellarium simulates light pollution and lets the user configure how bright
the night sky is.
There are several ways to set it up:
\begin{description}
\item[Automatic from locations database] option makes Stellarium find sky
brightness from its locations database and simulate light pollution
without any further user input.
\item[Manual] mode lets the user choose the amount of light pollution by
moving a slider. To make it easier to orient in the resulting amount of
light pollution, a tooltip will show the classification of the sky
according to the \emph{Bortle Dark Sky Scale} (See Appendix~\ref{ch:BortleScale}
for more information), as well as the naked-eye limiting magnitude.
\item[Manual from SQM] mode lets one enter the reading of a \emph{Sky Quality Meter}.
Stellarium can accept it in several units: physical ($\mathrm{cd/m^2}$,
$\mathrm{mcd/m^2}$, $\mathrm{\mu cd/m^2}$) as well as astronomical,
$\mathrm{mag/arcsec^2}$. To enter a value, first choose the unit, and
then type the number into the spinbox.
\end{description}
\end{samepage}
\item[Solar altitude for Twilight Finder] You can configure \newFeature{0.21.2}
shortcut keys to go to the time when the sun reaches this altitude below the
mathematical horizon. See section~\ref{sec:gui:help:hotkeys:example}.
\item[Shooting stars] Stellarium has a simple meteor simulation
option. This setting controls how many shooting stars will be shown.
Note that shooting stars are only visible when the time rate is 1, and
might not be visible at some times of the day. Meteor showers can be
simulated using a dedicated plugin (see section~\ref{sec:plugins:MeteorShowers}).
\end{description}
\noindent Some highlights of the stars field:
\begin{description}
\item[Absolute scale] is the size of stars as rendered by
Stellarium. If you increase this value, all stars will appear larger
than before.
\item[Relative scale] determines the difference in size of bright
stars compared to faint stars. Values higher than 1.00 will make the
brightest stars appear much larger than they do in the sky. This is
useful for creating star charts, or when learning the basic
constellations.
\item[Twinkle] controls how much the stars twinkle when atmosphere is
enabled (\indexterm{scintillation}, see section~\ref{sec:phenomena:Scintillation}).
Since v0.15.0, the twinkling is reduced in higher altitudes,
where the star light passes the atmosphere in a steeper angle and is
less distorted.
\item[Limit magnitude] Inhibits automatic addition of fainter stars
when zooming in. This may be helpful if you are interested in naked
eye stars only.
\item[Labels and markers] you can independently change the amount of
labels displayed for stars. The further to the
right the sliders are set, the more labels you will see. Note that
more labels will also appear as you zoom in.
\item[Use designations for screen labels] --- when this option is
enabled you will see in the sky (on-screen labels) only scientific
designations (catalog numbers) of the stars instead of their common
names. To customize\newFeature{0.21.3} the on-screen labels we
added 3 additional options\footnote{These options are only used if the
star does not have Bayer/Flamsted designations.}
--- \textbf{Dbl. stars}, \textbf{Var. stars} and \textbf{HIP} --- which will show,
in this sequence of preference, the first available occurrence of
the traditional designations of double stars,
variable stars or HIP numbers, respectively.
\end{description}
\subsubsection{The Projections field}
\label{sec:gui:view:sky:projections}
Selecting items in this list changes the
projection method which Stellarium uses to draw the sky~\citep{Snyder:MapProjections}. Options are:
\begin{description}
\item[Perspective] Perspective projection maps the horizon and other
great circles like equator, ecliptic, hour lines, etc. into
straight lines. The maximum field of view is 150\degree. The
mathematical name for this projection method is \emph{gnomonic
projection}.
\item[Stereographic] Stereographic projection has been known since
antiquity and was originally known as the planisphere
projection. It preserves the angles at which curves cross each
other but it does not preserve area. Else it is similar to
fish-eye projection mode. The maximum field of view in this mode
is 235\degree.
\item[Fish-Eye] Stellarium draws the sky using \emph{azimuthal
equidistant projection}. In fish-eye projection, straight lines
become curves when they appear a large angular distance from the
center of the field of view (like the distortions seen with very
wide angle camera lenses). This is more pronounced as the user zooms
out. The maximum field of view in this mode is 180\degree.
\item[Orthographic] Orthographic projection is related to
perspective projection, but the \emph{point of perspective} is set
to an infinite distance. The maximum field of view is 180\degree.
\item[Equal Area] The full name of this projection method is
\emph{Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection}. It preserves the
area but not the angle. The maximum field of view is 360\degree.
\item[Hammer-Aitoff] The Hammer projection is an equal-area map
projection, described by \name[Ernst von]{Hammer} (1858--1925) in 1892 and directly inspired
by the Aitoff projection. The maximum field of view in this mode is
360\degree.
\item[Sinusoidal] The sinusoidal projection is a
\emph{pseudocylindrical equal-area map projection}, sometimes
called the Sanson--Flamsteed or the Mercator equal-area
projection. Meridians are mapped to sine curves.
\item[Mercator] Mercator projection is a cylindrical projection developed
by \name[Gerardus]{Mercator} (1512--1594)
which preserves the angles between objects, and the scale around
an object is the same in all directions. The poles are mapped to
infinity. The maximum field of view in this mode is 233\degree.
\item[Miller cylindrical] The Miller cylindrical projection is a
modified Mercator projection, proposed by \name[Osborn Maitland]{Miller}
(1897--1979) in 1942. The poles are no longer mapped to
infinity.
\item[Cylinder] The full name of this simple projection mode is
\emph{cylindrical equidistant projection} or \emph{Plate
Carr\'ee}. The maximum field of view in this mode is 233\degree.
\end{description}
\noindent Two more settings allow finetuning:
\begin{description}
\item[Vertical viewport offset] If you have a wide screen or like wide-angle views,
you may feel that too much of screen space lies below the horizon. This setting can shift the view up or down.
\item[Custom FoV limit] Some projections allow very wide views, like 180°
which covers a complete \newFeature{0.21.2} celestial hemisphere (e.g.\ the entire skydome)
or even more. In some cases like if you are running a planetarium, you may want
to limit the vertical field of view so that you won't ever zoom out too far.
\end{description}
\subsubsection{Atmosphere settings}
\label{sec:gui:view:sky:atmosphere}
An auxiliary dialog opens when you select \guibutton[1.0]{0.75}{uibtSettings.png}
and contains detail settings for the atmosphere. Here
you can choose visual model of atmosphere, set atmospheric pressure and temperature which influence
refraction (see section~\ref{sec:phenomena:Refraction}) and the
opacity factor $k_v$ for extinction, \emph{magnitude loss per airmass}
(see section~\ref{sec:phenomena:Extinction}).
There are two visual models for the atmosphere available:
\begin{description}
\item[Preetham] This is the legacy model (see section~\ref{sec:skylight:Preetham}), fallback for the cases
when the other one doesn't work.
\item[ShowMySky] This model is the more realistic visual model of
the atmosphere colors (see section~\ref{sec:skylight:ShowMySky}). It
relies on a precomputed dataset that can be chosen in the user
interface after the \program{ShowMySky} model is enabled.
\end{description}
\subsection{The Solar System Objects (SSO) Tab}
\label{sec:gui:view:sso}
The Solar System Objects tab of the View window (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:view:sso}) contains settings
for changing the general appearance of the view of Solar system objects. Some highlights:
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{view_dialog_sso_tab.png}
\caption{View Settings Window: SSO Tab}
\label{fig:gui:view:sso}
\end{figure}
\begin{description}
\item[Simulate light speed] will give more precise positions for planetary bodies which move
rapidly against background stars (e.g. the moons of Jupiter).
\item[Scale] will increase the apparent size of the selected class of objects:
\begin{description}
\item[Moon] will increase the apparent size of the Moon
in the sky, which can be nice for wide field of view shots.
\item[Minor bodies] will increase the apparent size of minor
bodies: planet satellites, all kinds of asteroids, and comets.
Forsome of these 3D models are available, which will be better
discernible if enlarged.
\item[Sun] will increase the apparent size of the Sun
in the sky, which can be nice for didactic purposes or demonstrations.
\item[Planets] will increase the apparent size of major planets.
\end{description}
\item[Mark minor bodies] Show\newFeature{24.3} a little circle at the location of every minor body (comet,
asteroid, \ldots), down to the configured visual magnitude.
The marks are shown regardless of sky brightness, even in daytime. Also, in this mode, markers for objects
with highly outdated orbital elements are still plotted (see \ref{sec:plugins:SolarSystemEditor}
and Appendix~\ref{sec:ssystem.ini:minor}).
This is useful to show the distribution of asteroids and comets on the sky,
or especially when viewed from the Solar System Observer (see \ref{sec:gui:location:observers}).
From the ``Observer'' viewpoints, the visual magnitude for minor bodies is computed as seen from the Sun,
so that objects in inferior conjunction ae not dimmed down and filtered away by effects of phase angle,
and comet tails are better visible.
\item[Show orbits] adds a rendition of the orbit or trajectory of an SSO.
For efficiency, orbits are not displayed when the object is not inside the screen,
unless you set the ``permanently'' option. You can further fine-tune the selection
and appearance (width and colors) of orbits with the additional settings.
\item[Show trails] plots the apparent path of SSO among the stars as
seen from the current planet.
\item[Show planetary nomenclature] displays positions and names of
surface features officially named by the IAU (See
Appendix~\ref{ch:Nomenclature}). When the sun is below the horizon
at the location of the feature, the label is attenuated. A few special markers
show Centre, North and South poles, east and west points along the equator,
and the subsolar point (where the sun is at the zenith as seen from that feature).
Features like craters are best visible when they are illuminated by a low sun.
You can therefore limit the display\newFeature{1.2} to items along the
\indexterm{terminator} (the border between light and dark on the surface).
You can also\newFeature{23.3} mark craters and lunar \emph{maria} (the dark ``seas'') with circles.
\item[GRS details\ldots]: The Great Red Spot (GRS) is slowly
drifting along Jupiter's System~II coordinate system. This button
opens a new dialog in which you can adjust the longitude (Jupiter system~II)
and annual drift rate of this feature at a particular epoch. To help you,
another button in this dialog opens a website with relevant data.
The central meridian data given
\newFeature{0.21.0} in the object information on screen still shows
System~II longitude.
\item[Labels and markers] you can independently change the amount of
labels displayed for Solar system objects. The further to the
right the sliders are set, the more labels you will see. Note that
more labels will also appear as you zoom in.
\item[Planet magnitude algorithm] several ways to compute planet
magnitudes have been made available from the literature. Data by
Müller (1893) provide visual magnitudes. The other models provide
instrumental (Johnson V) magnitudes.
\item[Earth shadow enlargement after Danjon] \newFeature{0.21.0}
Earth's shadow is enlarged by the atmosphere. You can select whether
the 2\% enlargement used by the Astronomical Almanac should be
applied (default), or the formulation of \name{Danjon}
(see section~\ref{sec:Eclipses:lunar}).
\end{description}
% Put these 3 on 1 page.
\begin{figure}[p]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{view_dialog_dso_tab.png}
\caption{View Settings Window: DSO Tab}
\label{fig:gui:view:dso}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}[p]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{view_dialog_markings_tab.jpg}
\caption{View Settings Window: Markings Tab}
\label{fig:gui:view:markings}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}[p]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{view_dialog_landscape_tab.png}
\caption{View Settings Window: Landscape Tab}
\label{fig:gui:view:landscape}
\end{figure}
\subsection{The Deep-Sky Objects (DSO) Tab}
\label{sec:gui:view:dso}
\indexterm{Deep-sky objects} or DSO are extended objects which are
external to the solar system, and are not point sources like stars.
DSO include galaxies, planetary nebulae and star clusters. These
objects may or may not have images associated with them. Stellarium
comes with a catalog of over 90,000 extended objects containing
the combined data from many catalogs, with 500+ images.
The DSO tab (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:view:dso}) allows you to specify which
catalogs or which object types you are interested in. This selection
will also be respected in other parts of the program,
most notably Search (section~\ref{sec:gui:search}) and
AstroCalc/WUT (section~\ref{sec:gui:AstroCalc:WUT})
will not find objects from catalogs which you have not selected here.
See chapter~\ref{ch:DSO} for details about the catalog,
and how to extend it with your own photographs.
\subsection{The Markings Tab}
\label{sec:gui:view:markings}
\noindent The Markings tab of the View window
(Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:view:markings}) controls plotting various grids and
lines on the celestial sphere. Colors for grids, lines and points can be
adjusted by clicking on the corresponding colored square. The central
column governs lines like equator, ecliptic, meridian etc., where each
can optionally be fine-tuned to \newFeature{0.20.0} show partition
marks and labels. Color settings are stored immediately, all other
flags need explicit saving of the settings (see section
\ref{sec:gui:configuration:main}).
\subsection{The Landscape Tab}
\label{sec:gui:view:landscape}
The Landscape tab of the View window
(Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:view:landscape}) controls the landscape graphics
(the horizon which surrounds you). To change the landscape graphics,
select a landscape from the list on the left side of the window. A
description of the landscape will be shown on the right.
Note that while a landscape can include information about where the
landscape graphics were taken (planet, longitude, latitude and
altitude), this location does not have to be the same as the location
selected in the Location window, although you can set up Stellarium such
that selection of a new landscape will alter the location for you.
The controls at the bottom right of the window operate as follows:
\begin{description}
\item[Use this landscape as default] Selecting this option will save
the landscape into the program configuration file so that the current
landscape will be the one used when Stellarium starts.
\item[Show ground] This turns on and off landscape rendering (same
as the button \guibutton{0.6}{bt_ground.png} in the main tool bar).
\item[Show fog] This turns on and off rendering of a band of
fog/haze along the horizon, when available in this landscape.
\item[Show illumination] to reflect the ugly developments of our
civilisation, landscapes can be configured with a layer of light
pollution, e.g., streetlamps, bright windows, or the sky glow of a
nearby city. This layer, if present, will be mixed in when it is
dark enough.
\item[Show landscape labels] Landscapes can be configured with a
gazetteer of interesting points, e.g., mountain peaks, which can be
labeled with this option. Color and font size can also be configured.
\item[Location from landscape] When enabled, selecting a
new landscape will automatically update the observer location.
Use this if the landscape is not just decoration, but a true
representation of a particular site you wish to visit in the simulation.
\item[Minimal brightness] Moonless night on very dark locations may appear too dark
on your screen. You may want to configure some minimal brightness here.
\begin{description}
\item[from landscape, if given] Landscape authors may decide to
provide such a minimal brightness value in the \file{landscape.ini}
file.
\end{description}
\item[Draw only polygon]\newFeature{0.20.2} If a polygonal horizon line has been
defined for the landscape, only draw this with the given thickness and color.
\item[Transparency] Allow peeking below the horizon. \newFeature{23.3} Note that this may show graphical errors.
\end{description}
\noindent Using the button \menu{Add/remove landscapes\ldots}, you can also
install new landscapes from ZIP files which you can download e.g.\
from the Stellarium
website\footnote{\url{https://stellarium.org/landscapes.html}}
or create yourself (see ch.~\ref{ch:landscapes} Landscapes), or remove
these custom landscapes.
Loading large landscapes may take several seconds.\newFeature{0.15.2}
If you like to switch rapidly between several landscapes and have enough memory,
you can increase the default cache size to keep more landscapes loaded previously
available in memory. Note that a large landscape can take up 200MB or more!
See section~\ref{sec:configini:landscape}.
\subsection{The Sky Culture Tab}
\label{sec:gui:view:skyculture}
\begin{figure}[th]\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{stellarium-skycultures-map.jpg}
\caption{World map showing Stellarium's built-in set of
sky cultures. To avoid overcrowding, smaller European sky cultures
which are mostly derivatives or relatives of the ``Modern'' sky culture are not
shown. (Image: S. M. Hoffmann)}
\label{fig:skycultures}
\end{figure}
\noindent If you want to explore humankind's cultural history, you could also
switch to the viewpoint of other ancient or contemporary
people. Constellations are defined as patterns in the sky serving to
set calendar marks and to navigate while travelling on Earth. Which
patterns are seen depends on the natural environment and the cultural
habits of the people, i.e., the Inuit in the arctic area might have
seen an Elk where the Chinese have seen a huge spoon or dipper. There
cannot be any astrological influence from these patterns as they had
been seen differently and, thus, are a product of human's
imagination. So, pointing out these cultural differences might have an
educational function, too.
\noindent%
\colorbox{light-gray}{\fbox{\parbox[t]{0.975\linewidth}{
\paragraph{Caution} Some of our native peoples' constellations are contributed for noncommercial use only.
Please respect their heritage holders and check-out the CC licence
version in the description before you use sky cultures for
broadcasting! See section~\ref{sec:skycultures:licenses} for details.}}}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{view_dialog_skyculture_tab.png}
\caption{View Settings Window: Sky Culture Tab}
\label{fig:gui:view:skyculture}
\end{figure}
The Sky Culture tab of the View window (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:view:skyculture})
controls which culture's constellations and bright star names will be
used in the main display. Some cultures have constellation art (e.g.,
Western and Inuit), and the rest do not. Configurable options include
\begin{description}
\item[Use this sky culture as default] Activate this option to load
this sky culture when Stellarium starts.
\item[Constellations name style] You can
select whether you want to display abbreviated, original or
translated names.
\item[Use native names for planets] If provided, show the planet names
as used in this sky culture (also shows modern planet name for
reference). %% TODO THIS FEATURE NEEDS SOME REWORK!
\item[Constellation labels] Activate display of constellation labels, like
\guibutton{0.6}{bt_constellation_name.png} or \keys{V}.
\item[Constellation lines] Activate display of stick
figures, like \guibutton{0.6}{bt_constellation.png} or \keys{C}, and you
can configure constellation line thickness in the right spinbox.
\item[Constellation boundaries] Activate display of constellation boundaries,
like \keys{B}. Currently, boundaries have been defined only for
``Modern'' sky cultures.
\item[Art in brightness\ldots] Activate display of constellation
art (if available), like \guibutton{0.6}{bt_constellation_art.png} or
\keys{R}. You can also select the brightness here.
\item[Asterism labels] Activate display of asterism labels, like \keys{Alt+V}.\newFeature{0.16.0}
\item[Asterism lines] Activate display of asterism stick figures
(like the shortcut \keys{Alt+A}), and you can configure asterism line thickness as well.\newFeature{0.16.0}
\item[Ray helpers] Activate display of special navigational lines which
connect stars often from different constellations (like the shortcut \keys{Alt+R}),
and you can configure thickness of those lines as well.\newFeature{0.17.0}
\item[Select single constellation/Isolated] See section~\ref{sec:skyculture:singleConstellations} for details.
\end{description}
\subsubsection{Select single constellations}
\label{sec:skyculture:singleConstellations}
Some presenters may want to explain a particular storyline about the
constellations of a sky culture, which includes showing single
constellations or showing a sequence of appearing constellations. To
achieve this, first activate ``Select single constellation'' mode (see
fig~\ref{fig:gui:view:skyculture}). Then, click on a star
which is part of a constellation line set. Click
another star which is part of another constellation to show that one in addition.
If you really only want to show a single constellation, also add the ``Isolated'' option.
If you explain a sky culture where constellations also have borders
defined, a click anywhere in the constellation area is enough. For
other sky cultures, clicking onto a star which is not member of a
constellation line will display all constellations.
Press \keys{W} to remove all but the last selected constellation.
If you had deleted selection (right mouse click) before pressing \keys{W},
all constellations are hidden.
Press \keys{W} again to also hide the single displayed one, or click
another star to select the next constellation. If you need to keep the
single constellation visible, select the currently selected star again
to select it again. Press \keys{Alt+W} to show all constellations.
With a little training, you will be able to give inspiring
constellation tours.
\subsection{The Surveys Tab}
\label{sec:gui:view:surveys}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering\includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{view_dialog_surveys_tab.png}
\caption{View Settings Window: Surveys Tab}
\label{fig:gui:view:surveys}
\end{figure}
The Surveys tab\newFeature{0.18.0} (Fig.~\ref{fig:gui:view:surveys}) allows to toggle the
visibility of online sky or solar system surveys (see chapter~\ref{ch:surveys}
for description of the surveys format). Currently, only HiPS surveys are
supported.
On the left side of the window we see the list of available surveys from
the configured sources (See section \ref{sec:config.ini:hips} for how to
change the default sources). On the right side a description of the selected
survey and its properties are displayed.
Surveys are grouped by types. The top combobox allows to filter the listed
surveys according to a given type (Deep Sky or Solar System).
You can toggle the visibility of a survey by checking the box on the left
of the survey name in the list. (Note that as of v0.18.0, only a single deep
sky survey can be rendered at a time, so it makes no sense to select more than one in