diff --git a/doc/commands.docbook b/doc/commands.docbook index 5ead555bd..4b7f6c0a7 100644 --- a/doc/commands.docbook +++ b/doc/commands.docbook @@ -1,1677 +1,1677 @@ Command Reference Menu Commands CommandsMenu File Menu &Ctrl;O File Open FITS... Open a FITS image in the FITS Viewer tool &Ctrl;I File Save Sky Image... Create image on disk from current display &Ctrl;R File Run Script... Run the specified &kstars; script File Printing Wizard Starts a wizard to configure capturing sky objects images using telescope and printing the results as a good looking printout for further use or catalogization. &Ctrl;P File Print... Send the current sky map to the printer (or to a PostScript/PDF file) &Ctrl;Q File Quit Quit &kstars; Time Menu &Ctrl;E Time Set Time to Now Sync time to system clock &Ctrl;S Time Set Time... Set time and date < Time Advance one step backward in time Advance one step backward in time in the &kstars; simulation of the sky chart. The duration of the time step can be configured after pressing the little > button on the &kstars; toolbar. Time Stop Clock Toggle whether time passes > Time Advance one step forward in time Advance one step forward in time in the &kstars; simulation of the sky chart. The duration of the time step can be configured after pressing the little > button on the &kstars; toolbar. Pointing Menu Z Pointing Zenith Center the display at the Zenith point (straight up) N Pointing North Center the display above the North point on the horizon E Pointing East Center the display above the East point on the horizon S Pointing South Center the display above the South point on the horizon W Pointing West Center the display above the West point on the horizon &Ctrl;M Pointing Set Coordinates Manually... Center the display on specific sky coordinates &Ctrl;F Pointing Find Object Locate an object by name using the Find Object Window &Ctrl;T Pointing Stop Tracking Toggle tracking on/off. While tracking, the display will remain centered on the current position or object. View Menu &Ctrl;+ View Zoom in Zooms view in &Ctrl;- View Zoom out Zooms view out &Ctrl;Z View Default Zoom Restore the default Zoom setting &Ctrl;&Shift;Z View Zoom to Angular Size... Zoom to specified field-of-view angle &Ctrl;&Shift;F View Full Screen Mode Toggle full-screen mode Space View Switch to star globe view / Switch to horizontal view Toggle between the Horizontal and Equatorial Coordinate Systems F5 View Projection Lambert Azimuthal Equal-area Switch sky chart view to the Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection. F6 View Projection Azimuthal Equidistant Switch sky chart view to the azimuthal equidistant projection. F7 View Projection Orthographic Switch sky chart view to the orthographic projection. F8 View Projection Equirectangular Switch sky chart view to the equirectangular projection. F9 View Projection Stereographic Switch sky chart view to the stereographic projection. F10 View Projection Gnomonic Switch sky chart view to the gnomonic projection. View HiPS All Sky Overlay -Select and configure &hips; sky overlays +Select and configure HiPS sky overlays Tools Menu &Ctrl;&Shift;C Tools Calculator Opens the AstroCalculator Tool, which provides full access to many of the mathematical functions used by &kstars;. Tools Devices Telescope Wizard... Opens the Telescope Wizard, which provides a step-by-step guide to help you connect to your telescope and control it with &kstars;. &Ctrl;D Tools Devices Device Manager... Opens up the device manager, which allows you to start/shutdown device drivers and connect to remote INDI servers. Tools Devices INDI Control Panel... Opens up INDI Control Panel, which allows you to control all the features supported by a device. Tools Sky Calendar Opens the Sky Calendar Tool, which allows you to plan observations of Solar System planets by giving graphical data on sets and rises of these objects. &Ctrl;A Tools Altitude vs. Time Opens the Altitude vs. Time Tool, which can plot curves representing the altitude of any object as a function of time. This is useful for planning observing sessions. &Ctrl;U Tools What's Up Tonight Opens the What's Up Tonight Tool, which presents a summary of the objects which are observable from your location on a given date. &Ctrl;W Tools What's Interesting... Opens the What's Interesting Tool, which allows you to be informed about the most interesting observations that can be made from your current location using the given equipment. &Ctrl;B Tools Script Builder Opens the Script Builder Tool, which provides a GUI interface for building &kstars; &DBus; scripts. &Ctrl;Y Tools Solar System Opens the Solar System Viewer, which displays an overhead view of the solar system on the current simulation date. &Ctrl;K Tools Ekos Opens Ekos, a complete and powerful tool for astrophotography. With Ekos, you can align and guide your telescope, focus your CCD, and capture images using an easy intuitive interface. &Ctrl;J Tools Jupiter's Moons Opens the Jupiter Moons Tool, which displays the positions of Jupiter's four brightest moons as a function of time. Tools Flags Opens the Flag manager Tool, which can be used to assign color labels and icons to the given positions on the sky chart. Data Menu &Ctrl;N Data Download New Data... Open the Get Hot New Stuff dialog to download additional data for &kstars;. Data Updates This submenu can be used to update various object data, namely asteroids, comets and satellites orbital elements as well as recent supernovae data from the Internet. The data will be downloaded for the current user account only. If you use &kstars; from different account you should download them for every account separately. &kstars; tries to download recent supernovae list automatically by default. You can switch the download off using Supernovae page of &kstars; Settings window. Observation Menu &Ctrl;L Observation Observation Planner Open the Observation Planner tool. &Ctrl;2 Observation Execute the session Plan Opens session plan wizard or execute the planned session. Settings Menu Settings Info Boxes Show Info Boxes Toggle display of all three Info Boxes: Time Box Focus Box Location Box Settings Info Boxes Show Time Box Toggle display of the Time Info Box. By default, the Time Info Box is located in the top left side of the screen. You can change the position of Time Info Box by holding the left-click mouse button and dragging it to the new position. Settings Info Boxes Show Focus Box Toggle display of the Focus Info Box. By default, the Focus Info Box is located in the top right side of the screen. You can change the position of Focus Info Box by holding the left-click mouse button and dragging it to the new position. Settings Info Boxes Show Location Box Toggle display of the Location Info Box. By default, the Location Info Box is located in the bottom left side of the screen. You can change the position of Location Info Box by holding the left-click mouse button and dragging it to the new position. Settings Toolbars Shown Main Toolbar Toggle display of the Main Toolbar. By default, the Main Toolbar provides useful shortcuts for controlling the sky map view (&ie; Zoom in and Zoom out) and for controlling &kstars; clock as well. You can Start / Stop the clock, advance one step backward / forward in time and also you can easily set the time step used by &kstars;' clock. The time step is the rate at which time flows in the simulation. For setting the time step, you can use the spin box used for establishing the time step units and the spin box used for increasing / decreasing the time step value. Using the Main Toolbar you can quickly open the Find Object, Set Time or Set Geographic Location window. Main Toolbar can be configured using SettingsConfigure Toolbars. Settings Toolbars Shown View Toolbar Toggle display of the View Toolbar. View Toolbar controls which sky objects are drawn on &kstars; Sky Map (stars, deep sky objects, Solar system objects, supernovae or satellites) as well as what constellation information is included (constellation lines, constellation names, constellation art or constellation boundaries). It also provides icon shortcuts for: showing milky way (drawn with dark grey color), showing equatorial/horizontal coordinate grid and for showing the green opaque ground. Note that when the horizon is switched off, refraction effects are temporarily disabled. View Toolbar can be configured using SettingsConfigure Toolbars. Settings Toolbars Shown INDI Toolbar Toggle display of the INDI Toolbar. By default, INDI Toolbar contains three shortcut icons: Toggle Ekos Toggle INDI Control Panel Toggle FITS Viewer INDI Toolbar can be configured using SettingsConfigure Toolbars. Settings Statusbar Show Statusbar Toggle display of the Statusbar. It is located in the bottom of &kstars; window. Settings Statusbar Show Az/Alt Field Toggle display of the mouse cursor's horizontal coordinates in the statusbar. Settings Statusbar Show RA/Dec Field Toggle display of the mouse cursor's equatorial coordinates in the statusbar. Settings Statusbar Show J2000.0 RA/Dec Field Toggle display of the mouse cursor's equatorial J2000 coordinates in the statusbar. Settings Color Schemes This submenu contains all of the defined color schemes: Classic, Star Chart, Night Vision and Moonless Night. It can also include your custom color schemes. Select any item to set that color scheme. Settings FOV Symbols This submenu lists the available field-of-view (FOV) Symbols. The FOV Symbol is drawn at the center of the display. You may choose one or more from the list of predefined symbols (7x35 Binoculars, Telrad, One Degree, HST WFPC2 or 30m at 1.3cm) by checking their specific checkbox, or you may use no symbol by unchecking all the items from the symbols list. You can also define your own symbols (or modify existing symbols) using the Edit FOV Symbols... option. Settings Artificial Horizon If you select this submenu, then Artificial Horizon Manager will be opened. Artificial Horizon Manager is used to define on the skymap one or more regions that are blocked from view from your current location (&ie; tall trees or building). The window is split in two sections: in the left side is the Regions section while in the right side is the Points section. You can add a new region by pressing the + (Add Region) button or you can remove a region by selecting it in the regions list and then pressing the - (Remove Region) button. In order to draw a region you need to define a list of points that encompasses the blocked area. You can add a new point by pressing the + (Add Point) button from the right Points section. You can also remove a highlighted point from the list of points or you can clear all the points. There are two ways to add a new point to a selected region: manually by entering the point's coordinates or by selecting the point from the skymap after clicking Select Points button. Note that each point is described by a set of horizontal coordinates: Az (Azimuth) and Alt (Altitude). If you want to modify a point's coordinates, just double click on its Az/Alt text box value and enter the new value. First and Last points must be on the horizon. Polygons must be closed to be considered valid regions. Artificial Horizon Manager provides a easy way to rename your regions. By default, regions are named as: Region plus an index (&ie; Region 1 or Region 2). For renaming a region, just double click on its name and then you will be invited to complete a new region name. You can also control which regions are enabled or disabled for marking on the map by a simple click on the checkbox in front of each region. After you defined your desired regions you can apply them by pressing the Apply button. If you want to use these regions again, in further astronomy sessions, you can save them such that next time when you will open &kstars; they will be automatically marked on the skymap. &Ctrl;0 Settings Configure Observation Logging List your Equipment Allows you to define your equipment characteristics for observation logs. The Configure Equipment window is divided into four tabs: Telescope, Eyepiece, Lens and Filter. You can add a new equipment by completing its characteristics and pressing Add New... button. You can also save or remove an equipment from the list. &Ctrl;1 Settings Configure Observation Logging Manage Observer Selecting this will open Manage Observers window that enables you to register a number of observers which are using &kstars; on this computer. You can add a new entry to observers list by completing the mandatory fields: Name and Surname and then pressing the + (Add observer) button. Note that Contact field is optional, &kstars; allowing you to add a new observer even though Contact text box is empty. You can also remove an observer from the list using - (Remove observer) button. &Ctrl;G Settings Geographic Select a new geographic location. Settings Configure &kstars; Modify configuration options. Settings Configure Shortcuts Open the Configure Shortcuts window which allows you to modify &kstars; shortcuts. You can use &kstars; default shortcuts scheme or define your own shortcuts scheme. In order to add a new custom shortcut to an action, you need to click on action's name and then press the Custom checkbox. Then click on the button next to Custom checkbox and enter the shortcut you would like to use in &kstars;. You can also remove a shortcut by pressing the Delete button after you select an action from the list. &kstars; helps you to find an action by providing its search method; just enter the name of the action and the list will be reduced to its best matches. For example, I will give you a brief example on how to use &kstars; Configure Shortcuts feature: Firstly, open the Configure Shortcuts window from the Settings menu. Then select the action you would like to add a shortcut (&ie; Artificial Horizon). You can use the search method provided by &kstars;. Just type art in the search text box and the list will be reduced to only four actions. The Artificial Horizon is the first action in the list. Now that you find your desired action, you can add a new shortcut by clicking on its name. After you click on the action name, press the Custom checkbox. There is a button next to Custom checkbox used for adding new shortcuts. By default, if an action has no custom shortcut, the None tag will be assigned to this button. Press this button and then add your custom shortcut. For example, for Artificial Horizon, you can use &Ctrl;+H shortcut. Hold the &Ctrl; key and press H. Your shortcut be automatically saved, thus you can use it next time when you open &kstars;. Settings Configure &kstars;... Modify configuration options. Settings Startup Wizard By selecting the Startup Wizard... submenu, the Setup Wizard window will pop up. It is the same window that you saw when you ran &kstars; for the very first time. &kstars; Setup Wizard will help you set up some basic options, such as your location on Earth. The first page of Setup Wizard is a welcome page and if you press Next button, you will get the Choose Your Home Location page. Here you can select your exact home location or a city near your home location if your accurate location is not present in &kstars; cities database. Browsing the entire list is not so efficient and thus, &kstars; provides you a easy-to-use method for selecting your desired city in a short time. You may filter the list of cities by the name of your city, province and country. By giving more details about your location, the list's size will reduced only to its best matches. When you highlight a city in the cities list, the Longitude and Latitude boxes will be updated, containing the accurate information of your selected location. When you hit the Next button, you will get the last page of &kstars; Setup Wizard: Download Extra Data Files page. Here you may download optional data files via the Internet, in order to enhance &kstars;, such as Messier object images, or a more complete NGC/IC catalog. Press the Download Extra Data button to proceed. After you pressed the Download Extra Data button, the Get Hot New Stuff window will appear. It is &kstars; Add-On Installer, which will help you to manage what extra information you added to &kstars;. Firstly, you can choose how the add-ons list is displayed, by pressing the Details view mode or Icons view mode button. You may also order the list by various criteria like: newest, rating, most downloads or installed. This can be easily done by selecting an option using the radio button. You can also make searches using the Search: text box. Regarding the list of add-ons, you may perform several actions by selecting an add-on from the list: you can install or uninstall an add-on using the Install / Uninstall button, you can open the Details window using the Details button or you can rate an add-on by giving a number of gold stars, up to five stars. If you want to send an email to the author of an add-on, you are able to do that by clicking on his e-mail address. Then, your default e-mail application will guide you through the sending process. After you managed your &kstars; add-ons, then you can close the window by pressing the Close button. You can also use the Download Extra Data Files tool later, by selecting Data Download New Data.... Additionally &kstars; has the common &kde; Settings and Help menu items, for more information read the sections about the Settings Menu and Help Menu of the &kde; Fundamentals. Help Menu &kstars; has the common &kde; Help menu item, for more information read the section about the Help Menu of the &kde; Fundamentals. Popup Menu Popup MenuDescription The right click popup menu is context-sensitive, meaning its content varies depending on what kind of object you click on. We list all possible popup menu items here, with the relevant object type [in brackets]. [All] Identification and type: The top one to three lines are devoted to the name(s) of the object, and its type. For stars, the Spectral Type is also shown here. [All] Rise, Transit, and Set times for the object on the current simulation date are shown on the next three lines. [All] Center & Track: Center the display on this location, and engage tracking. Equivalent to double-clicking. [All] Add flag...: Open &kstars; Flag manager window. Here you can manage your flags and use some of &kstars; features. When Flag manager window is open for a selected object, Right ascension and Declination text boxes will be automatically filled with the coordinate values of the selected object on the Sky Map. Besides these two text boxes, you can set the Epoch, add a Label, set the Label color or even add an Icon. To add custom icons, just add images in `qtpaths --paths GenericDataLocation`/kstars/. File names must begin with the flag keyword. For example, the file flagSmall_red_cross.gif will be shown as Small red cross in the combo box. After you set up the information of the new flag, you can add it to the flags list using the Add button. You may also change flags details (&ie; RA/Dec, label or icon) and then save the new ones by pressing the Save changes button. Using the Flag manager, you can easily center an object in Map or in Telescope, by pressing Center in Map or Center in Telescope button. In order to delete a value from the list, just select it in the list and then press Delete button. Your flags are saved after you close current session and thus you will be able to see them everytime you will use &kstars; again. [All] Angular Distance To...: Enter "angular distance mode". In this mode, a dotted line is drawn from the first target object to the current mouse position. When you click with the &RMB; on a second object, this will display the angular distance between the two objects near the second object. You can press the &Esc; key to exit angular distance mode without measuring an angle. [All] Starhop from here to: will enable you to find a path between two points in the sky. Star hopping is a technique that uses bright stars as a guide for finding fainter objects. So if you have a bright star, you can use it as a reference to find a fainter object. Starting from your reference star, &kstars; will find a route to the destination, traversing a sequence of stars/patterns of stars. The object for which you called Starhop from here to tool will be your starting point. When your starting point is established, a dotted line will appear, allowing you to decide which will be your end point. You have to move the mouse cursor to your destination object position and right click on it. Then, a dialog box will pop up, requiring you to set the FOV used for star hopping. For selecting a FOV, you need to make a choice from the FOV combo box list of values. The values you can choose include default FOV values (7x35 Binoculars, Telrad, One Degree, HST WFPC2 and 30m at 1.3cm) plus your customized FOVs. After you selected the FOV, &kstars; will find a route for you. Thus, the dialog box will contain a list of object used in the starhop. If &kstars; did not manage to find a route, then an error dialog box will be displayed, giving you a helping hand. When the Star-Hopper algorithm ends, the dialog box will contain a list of objects used in starhop route. For every object from the list, you can perform a set of actions: you can ask for details using the Details button, center selected object in the map using Center on map button or you can go to next star by pressing the Next button. Note that when go to next star, it will be automatically centered on the map. Also, Star-Hopper tool provides directions to star hop for every object of the list. [All] Details: Open the Object Details window for this object. [All] Attach Label: Attach a permanent name label to the object. If the object already has a label attached, this item will read Remove Label. [All] Add to Observing WishList: Add the selected object to Observation Planner's Wish List. You can see the Wish List, by selecting ObservationObservation Planner. If the object is already in the Observing WishList, then this item will become Remove Label. [Solar system objects] Add Trail: Add a trail to current Solar system object. A star trail is the continuous path created by the star in the night sky due to the rotation of the Earth. If the object already has a trail, this item will become Remove Trail. [All] Simulate eyepiece view: Eyepiece View feature renders the view through the eyepiece of various telescope types. Firstly, an input dialog is shown, which asks you to select one of the visible FOVs to use as a FOV for the eyepiece view. The user also has the option of trying to determine it from the image (accurate if image has metadata, otherwise it will be random). After you set the FOV, the "Eyepiece Field View" window will pop up. You can easily rotate the view using the "Rotation" slider. You can also flip and invert the view to help match the view through a telescope/camera. "Eyepiece view" tool can help you locate many objects with ease, instead of trying to work with relative positions and relative orientations. This is an important advantage, especially when you are star hopping. Note that for getting best results, time must be synced with current time in &kstars;, and &kstars; must be in horizontal coordinates mode. [Solar system objects] Image Resources: gives a list of image links for current Solar system object. The images are displayed in &kstars; Image Viewer tool. Image Viewer tool allows you to invert the colors and save the image in your computer. [Solar system objects] Information Resources: gives a list of documentation links for current Solar system object. The links are opened in your default browser. [All objects without Solar system objects] Show SDSS Image: download a SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) image of the object from the Internet, and display it in the Image Viewer tool. [All objects without Solar system objects] Show DSS Image: download a DSS (Digitized Sky Survey) image of the object from the Internet, and display it in the Image Viewer tool. Keyboard Commands Commands Keyboard Navigation Keys Navigation Controls Keyboard Arrow Keys Use the arrow keys to pan the display. Holding down the &Shift; key doubles the scrolling speed. + / - Zoom In/Out &Ctrl;Z Restore the default Zoom setting &Ctrl;&Shift;Z Zoom to specified field-of-view angle 0–9 Center Display on a major Solar System body: 0: Sun 1: Mercury 2: Venus 3: Moon 4: Mars 5: Jupiter 6: Saturn 7: Uranus 8: Neptune 9: Pluto Z Center the display at the Zenith Point (straight up) N Center the display above the North point on the horizon E Center the display above the East point on the horizon S Center the display above the South point on the horizon W Center the display above the West point on the horizon &Ctrl;T Toggle tracking mode < Advance the simulation clock backwards by one time step > Advance the simulation clock forwards by one time step Menu Shortcuts Commands Menu Keyboard Shortcuts &Ctrl;N Download extra data &Ctrl;O Open a FITS image in the FITS Editor &Ctrl;I Export sky image to a file &Ctrl;L Run a &kstars; Observation Planner. &Ctrl;R Run a &kstars; &DBus; script &Ctrl;P Print the current sky map &Ctrl;Q Quit &kstars; &Ctrl;E Sync the simulation clock with the current system time &Ctrl;S Set the simulation clock to a specified Time and Date &Ctrl;&Shift;F Toggle full-screen mode &Ctrl;0 Define equipment (telescope, eyepiece, lens and filter) characteristics for observation logs. &Ctrl;1 Add a new observer item for your observation logs Space Toggle between the Horizontal and Equatorial Coordinate Systems F1 Open the &kstars; Handbook F5 Switch sky chart view to the Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection. F6 Switch sky chart view to the azimuthal equidistant projection. F7 Switch sky chart view to the orthographic projection. F8 Switch sky chart view to the equirectangular projection. F9 Switch sky chart view to the stereographic projection. F10 Switch sky chart view to the gnomonic projection. Actions for the Selected Object Objects in the Sky Keyboard Actions Each of the following keystrokes performs an action on the selected object. The selected object is the last object which was clicked on (identified in the status bar). Alternatively, if you hold down the &Shift; key, then the action is performed on the centered object instead. C Center and Track on the selected object D Open the Details window for the selected object L Toggle a name label for the selected object O Add the selected object to the observing list P Open the selected object's popup menu T Toggle a trail on the selected object (solar system bodies only) Tools Shortcuts &Ctrl;F Open the Find Object window, for specifying a sky object on which to center &Ctrl;M Open the Set Coordinates Manually tool, for specifying RA/Dec or Az/Alt coordinates on which to center [ Start an Angular Distance measurement at the current mouse cursor position. The angular distance between start and end points is displayed at the endpoint. &Ctrl;G Open the Set Geographic Location window &Ctrl;C Open the AstroCalculator &Ctrl;A Open the Altitude vs. Time tool &Ctrl;U Open the What's Up Tonight? tool &Ctrl;W Open the What's Interesting tool &Ctrl;B Open the Script Builder tool &Ctrl;Y Open the Solar System Viewer &Ctrl;J Open the Jupiter Moons tool Mouse Commands Commands Mouse Navigation Controls Mouse Moving the mouse The sky coordinates (Az/Alt, RA/Dec and J2000.0 RA/Dec) of the mouse cursor are updated in the status bar. The status bar is located in the right bottom corner of the screen. The status bar can be customized by selecting Settings Statusbar submenu. Here you may choose what coordinates systems &kstars; will display in the status bar. Furthermore, you can hide the status bar by unchecking the Show Statusbar checkbox. "Hovering" the mouse A temporary name label is attached to the object nearest to the mouse cursor. Left-clicking Objects in the Sky Identifying The object nearest the mouse click is identified in the status bar. Double-clicking Objects in the Sky Centering Center and track on the location or object nearest the mouse click. Double-clicking on an Info Box will shade it to show/hide extra information. Right-clicking Objects in the Sky Invoking Popup Menu for Open the popup menu for the location or object nearest the mouse cursor. Scrolling the mouse wheel Zoom the display in or out. If you do not have a mouse wheel, you can hold the middle mouse button and drag vertically. Click-and-dragging Dragging the sky map Pan the display, following the drag motion. &Ctrl;+dragging the sky map Define a rectangle in the map. When the mouse button is released, the display is zoomed in to match the field-of-view to the bounds of the rectangle. Dragging an Info Box The Info Box is repositioned in the map. Info Boxes will stick to window edges, so that they remain on the edge when the window is resized. diff --git a/doc/config.docbook b/doc/config.docbook index f088e51ec..87d5bf38a 100644 --- a/doc/config.docbook +++ b/doc/config.docbook @@ -1,1184 +1,1223 @@ Configuring &kstars; Setting the Geographic Location Here is a screenshot of the Set Geographic Location window: Changing the Geographic Location Set Location Window There is a list of over 3400 predefined cities available to choose from. You set your location by highlighting a city from this list. Each city is represented in the world map as a small dot, and when a city is highlighted in the list, a red crosshairs appears on its location in the map. Geographic Location Tool Filtering It is not practical to scroll through the full list of 3400 locations, looking for a specific city. To make searches easier, the list can be filtered by entering text in the boxes below the map. For example, in the screenshot, the text A appears in the City Filter box, while Te has been entered in the Province Filter box, and USA is in the Country Filter box. Note that all of the cities displayed in the list have city, province, and country names that begin with the entered filter strings, and that the message below the filter boxes indicates that 6 cities are matched by the filters. Also notice that the dots representing these six cities in the map have been colored white, while the unmatched cities remain gray. The list can also be filtered by location in the map. Clicking anywhere in the world map will show only those cities within two degrees of the clicked location. At this time, you can search by name, or by location, but not both at once. In other words, when you click on the map, the name filters are ignored, and vice versa. Geographic Location Tool Custom locations The longitude, latitude and time zone information for the currently-selected location are displayed in the boxes at the bottom of the window. If you feel that any of these values are inaccurate, you can modify them and press the + (Add City) button to record your custom version of the location. You can also define a completely new location by pressing the Clear Fields button, and entering the data for the new location. Note that all fields except the optional State/Province must be filled before the new location can be added to the list. &kstars; will automatically load your custom locations for all future sessions. Please note, at this point, the only way to remove a custom location is to remove the appropriate line from the file kstars/mycities.dat in your folder qtpaths . If you add custom locations (or modify existing ones), please send us your mycities.dat file so that we can add your locations to the master list. Setting the Time Date and Time The simulation clock When &kstars; starts up, the time is set to your computer's system clock, and the &kstars; clock is running to keep up with the real time. If you want to stop the clock, select Stop Clock from the Time menu, or simply click on the Stop Clock icon in the toolbar. You can make the clock run slower or faster than normal, or even make it run backward, using the time-step spinbox in the toolbar. This spinbox has two sets of up/down buttons. The first one will step through all 83 available time steps, one by one. The second one will skip to the next higher (or lower) unit of time, which allows you to make large timestep changes more quickly. Date and Time Setting You can set the time and date by selecting Set Time... from the Time menu, or by pressing the time icon in the toolbar. The Set Time window uses a standard &kde; Date Picker widget, coupled with a spinbox for setting the hours and minutes. If you want to re-synchronize the simulation clock back to the current CPU time, just select Set Time to Now from the Time menu. Date and Time Extended range of dates &kstars; can accept very remote dates beyond the usual limits imposed by QDate. Currently, you can set the date between the years -100000 and +100000. We may extend this range even further in future releases. However, please be aware that the accuracy of the simulation becomes more and more degraded as more remote dates are examined. This is especially true for the positions of solar system bodies. The Configure &kstars; Window Configure &kstars; window The Configure &kstars; window allows you to modify a wide range of display options. You can access the window with the configure toolbar icon, or by selecting Configure &kstars;... from the Settings menu. The window is depicted below: Configure &kstars; Window Configure &kstars; Window -The Configure &kstars; window is divided into nine pages: +The Configure &kstars; window is divided into eleven pages: Catalogs, Solar System, Satellites, -Supernovae, Guides, Colors, -INDI, Ekos and Advanced. +Supernovae, Guides, Colors, FITS, +INDI, Ekos, Xplanet and Advanced. Configure &kstars; window Catalogs page In the Catalogs page, you determine which object catalogs are displayed in the map along with several properties. Configure &kstars; window Solar System page In the Solar System page, you can specify whether the Sun, Moon, planets, comets and asteroids are displayed. Configure &kstars; window Satellites page The Satellites page allows you to set the satellites view options. Configure &kstars; window Supernovae page The Supernovae page allows you to manage how supernovae are displayed by &kstars;. Configure &kstars; window Guides page The Guides page lets you toggle whether non-objects are displayed (&ie;, constellation lines, constellation names, the Milky Way contour). Configure &kstars; window Colors page Color Schemes Customizing The Colors page allows you to set the color scheme, and to define new custom color schemes. +For detailed explanation of the options on the FITS +page see the Configure FITS section. + + For detailed explanation of the options on the INDI page see the Configure INDI section. For detailed explanation of Ekos astrophotography suite, see the official Ekos page. + +Configure &kstars; window +Xplanet page +The Xplanet page provides fine-grained control +over Solar system planet surface renderer Xplanet (should be installed separately). + + Configure &kstars; window Advanced page The Advanced page provides fine-grained control over the more subtle behaviors of &kstars;. Catalogs Catalogs Window Catalogs Window Catalogs page Short overview In the Catalogs page, you can configure which object catalogs are displayed by &kstars;, as well as how much information you would like to be included on the Sky Map. By default, &kstars; includes ~300,000 named and unnamed stars up to magnitude 8. For Deep Sky Objects, the included catalogs are New General Catalog (NGC), Index Catalog (IC), and Messier Catalog. New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated as NGC) is a catalogue of 7,840 deep-sky objects. Index Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated as IC) serves as a supplement to the NGC, and contains an additional 5,386 objects, collectively known as the IC objects. Messier Catalogue is a catalogue of 110 deep-sky objects, including diffuse nebulae, planetary nebulae, open clusters, globular clusters and galaxies. Messier objects have names like M1, M2, up to M110. The maximum apparent visual magnitude of Messier Catalogue is represented by M91's value of 10.2. You can install new catalogues using &kstars; Add-On Installer. You can open it by opening the DataDownload New Data... submenu. You can choose from a list of catalogues, including: Steinicke NGC/IC Catalog: is a more complete NGC/IC catalog. Abell Planetary Nebulae Catalog: is a catalog of 86 planetary nebulae. The maximum magnitude is represented by Abell 47's value of 19.5. Sharpless HII region Catalog: is the Sharpless (Sh2) catalog of HII regions (diffuse nebulae). Hickson Compact Groups: is a catalog consisting of 99 compact groups of galaxies. Tycho-2 Star Catalog: is a catalog of more than 2.5 million of the brightest stars. It contains stars with a magnitude value from 8.0 to 12.5. USNO NOMAD Catalog: is a catalog of about 100 million stars with magnitude from 12.5 to 16.5. Note that is requires Tycho-2 to be installed. The following is a summary of catalogs in KStars: Stars Catalogues Name Abbreviation Number of objects Magnitude Add-On Default Default Catalog Default ~300,000 Up to 8 magnitude No Yes Tycho-2 Tycho2 more than 2.5 million 8.0-12.5 Yes No Naval Observatory Merged Astronomic Dataset USNO NOMAD 100 million 12.5-16.5 Yes No
Deep-sky objects Catalogues Name Abbreviation Number of objects Magnitude Add-On Default Index Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars IC 5,386 Up to 18.3 magnitude No Yes New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars NGC 7,840 - No Yes Messier Catalogue - 110 Up to 10.2 magnitude No Yes Steinicke NGC/IC - - - Yes No Abell Planetary Nebulae Catalog - 86 Up to 19.5 magnitude Yes No Sharpless HII region Catalog Sh2 - - Yes No Hickson Compact Groups - 99 - Yes No
Catalogs Star Catalogs The Stars section allows you to manage how stars are displayed in &kstars;. You can choose to see the stars or not by checking the Star Catalogs checkbox. If you check it, then multiple options will be enabled. Thus, you can set how many stars are drawn on the map using the Star Density slider. You can also customize &kstars; to toggle star name and magnitudes. Star names are drawn next to bright stars. To display labels of fainter stars, increase the Label density slider. Catalogs Deep-Sky Catalogs Below the stars section, the Deep-Sky Objects section controls the display of several non-stellar object catalogs. You can toggle the display of Deep Sky Objects and control the display of their names and magnitudes. By default, the list of deep-sky objects includes the Messier, NGC and IC catalogs. Addons catalogs are available via the DataDownload New Data... submenu where you can download catalogs provided by &kstars; team and the community. Furthermore, &kstars; supports import of custom catalogs. To import a raw ASCII catalog data file into &kstars;, press the Import Catalog and follow the instructions. To import a custom catalog already in &kstars; catalog format, press the Load Catalog button. Each line in the custom catalog file should contain the following space-separated fields: For stars: type(0 for stars), RA, Dec, mag, SpType, name(optional) For other types: type(3-8), RA, Dec, mag (optional), flux(optional), name(optional) The types are: 0: star 1: star (in object catalog...probably don't want to use this) 2: planet (don't use this in custom catalog) 3: open cluster 4: globular cluster 5: gaseous nebula 6: planetary nebula 7: supernova remnant 8: galaxy 18: radio source The SpType is a short string for the spectral type. For example, B5 or G2. The coordinates should be given as floating-point values, in the J2000.0 epoch. The name can be anything you wish. If the name is more than one word, it must be enclosed in quotation marks. Once you have constructed a custom data file, open the &kstars; configuration window to the Catalogs tab, and press the Import Catalog... button. A popup window appears in which you can specify a name for the catalog, and the name of the file (including the path): Import Catalog Window Import Catalog Window When you press Ok button, &kstars; will attempt to read the lines of your data file. It will report any problems, and if any lines at all were successfully parsed, you are given a choice to accept the data file (ignoring any unparsed lines), or to cancel the operation to attempt to resolve the problems first. You can load a new catalog using the Load Catalog... button. A new window will appear, asking you to specify the file that contains the catalog. Load Catalog Window Load Catalog Window Once the data file has been accepted, your custom catalog will be loaded on startup along with the standard catalogs. In the Catalogs window is a checkbox for each catalog which toggles the display of catalog objects. Add Catalog Add Catalog Note that, if you want to load a catalog that is already loaded, a warning dialog will pop-up. Overwrite Catalog Overwrite Catalog You can remove custom catalogs by highlighting its checkbox in the Catalogs window, and pressing the Remove Catalog... button (this button is active only if a custom catalog is highlighted in the list of checkboxes). Note that it can not be used for removing &kstars; default catalogs. Delete Catalog Delete Catalog For radio sources catalogs, you must include the flux frequency and units. For example: # Flux Frequency: 1420 Mhz # Flux Unit: mJy The following is a simple catalog file: # Name: my_catalog # Prefix: et_radio # Color: #00ff00 # Epoch: 2000 # Flux Frequency: 1420 Mhz # Flux Unit: mJy # ID RA Dc Tp Mj Mn PA Nm Flux J0001 12:31:23.1 +11:29:34 18 180.60 360.30 45 my_radio_source 70 Using the Catalogs window, you can define faint limits for sky objects for zoomed in and zoomed out states of the rendering. When the Show objects of unknown magnitude item is enabled, objects whose magnitudes are unknown, or not available to &kstars;, are drawn irrespective of the faint limits set. The following is a brief tutorial on adding new catalogues to &kstars;. To import a new catalog, download a raw catalog data file where the data columns are space delimited. Any lines starting with # shall be ignored. For this example, we shall use the Lynds Catalog of Dark Nebulae. Download / write the raw catalog data file (the raw file is the file containing catalog's objects described by a set of parameters, like: ID Number, Right Ascension, Declination and so on). In order to successfully load a custom catalog into &kstars;, you need to use the following syntax: (otherwise your catalog will be entirely ignored or maybe some objects from your catalog will be wrongly drawn) Every object should be written on a separate row. The fields of each line should be separated by white space. The catalog header may contain comment lines beginning with the # symbol. ID number: integer value. Right Ascension: colon-delimited hh:mm:ss.s or floating-point value. Declination: colon-delimited dd:mm:ss.s or floating-point value. Object type: integer value, one of [ 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 ]. Common name: string value (if it contains a space, it *must* be enclosed in quotes!). Magnitude: floating-point value. Major axis: floating-point value (length of major axis in arcmin). Minor axis: floating-point value (length of minor axis in arcmin). Position angle: floating-point value (position angle, in degrees). The following is a subset of the original raw data file: 1 16 26.0 -16 0 .18 +21.82 .054 3 49 8 452 2 18 4.0 -31 30 .13 -05.32 1.240 2 0 4 837 3 18 0.0 -31 0 .15 -04.33 5.600 2 0 6 817 4 16 59.5 -22 8 .18 +11.82 .004 5 27 7 533 5 17 13.2 -24 22 .20 +07.96 .012 4 0 9 595 The raw file contains some extra information, unusable for &kstars;. It also contains extra white spaces and values are not meeting &kstars; expectations (&ie; for Right Ascension: colon-delimited hh:mm:ss.s or floating-point value). Thus, it need to be modified in order to match &kstars; format. For a better understanding on what each column means, you can take a look at the original source of the catalog. It contains the raw data file and, in addition, it contains an useful readme, which will help you understand what you should keep and furthermore, what you need to remove from the raw data file. Minimally, the raw data file should contain the following fields: ID Number Object Type Right Ascension Declination The raw Dark Nebulae by Lynds contains only three usable fields for &kstars;: Right Ascension, Declination and Area (square degrees). Therefore, in order to properly import the catalog into &kstars;, the ID and Object Type fields need to be added. You can insert these values manually using your favorite text editor. However, it is recommended to use any spreadsheet application to import the raw data file and add the necessary columns. This is especially convenient for large data sets. Since the original raw data contains an area field which is not supported by &kstars;, we need to approximate it to a usable value which is the Major Axis. Therefore, we use the following formula in the spreadsheet to convert area to major axis in arcminutes: Major Axis = sqrt(Area) * 60 After importing the raw data file into &kstars; and selecting the appropriate columns, &kstars; shall generate the final catalog file suitable for loading directly into &kstars;. For example, this is a small subset of the content (header + first five objects) of the Dark Nebulae by Lynds catalog which was created by &kstars; after importing the raw data file which only contains the data columns: # Delimiter: # Name: LyndsCatalog # Prefix: Lynds # Color: #ff7600 # Epoch: 2000 # ID RA Dc Mj Tp 1 16:26:0 -16:0:0.1 13.943 5 2 18:4:0 -31:30:0.1 66.813 5 3 18:0:0 -31:0:0.1 141.986 5 4 16:59:5 -22:8:0.1 3.795 5 5 17:13:2 -24:22:0.2 6.573 5 As seen above, each column was assigned a &kstars; designated header such as the ID, Right Ascension, Declination, Major axis and Object Type fields. Note that the Catalog Prefix (Lynds) and the ID field are used together for identifying objects in the Sky Map (&ie; objects from this catalog will have names like: Lynds 1, Lynds 2, Lynds 617 up to the last object, Lynds 1791). Open the SettingsConfigure &kstars;... menu and choose Catalogs tab. In the Deep-Sky objects section, press the Import Catalog... button. If the button is not available, check the Deep-Sky Catalogs checkbox. This will enable you to configure &kstars; deep-sky objects catalogs. After you press the Import Catalog... button, Import Catalog window will pop up. At first, click on Open file dialog button in order to select the raw data file. Import catalog Import new catalog In the dialog window, find your raw file, select it and then press Open button. Open catalog Open Dark Nebulae catalog Now, you need to specify the correct order of the catalog fields within the raw data file. The fields must be added inside Catalog fields list. Note that you can drag fields in order to build the right order or you can use additional fields from Available fields fields. For example, if your raw data file contains a magnitude column, then you need to add Magnitude field to the Catalog fields list. Complete info for new catalog Complete info for new catalog After you set the fields so that they match to your catalog raw file, you can move to the next step: completing the remaining input fields: Coordinate epoch, Catalog name prefix, Catalog name and Save catalog as. You can also choose the Symbol color used for your catalog. There you can specify how the fields are split within the raw data file: CSV (Comma-separated values) or Space Delimited. You can preview the output by pressing the Preview Output button. Pay attention to the header fields to have the same order as your catalog fields (&ie; ID RA Dec Major Axis and Object Type). Press OK button to close the Catalog Preview window. Then press OK button again to create and save your catalog. After you successfully imported your catalog, it will be displayed in the catalogs list. You can choose to be displayed or not, by pressing on its checkbox. Added Dark Nebulae by Lynds catalog Dark Nebulae by Lynds catalog Solar System Solar System Window Solar System Window Configure &kstars; window Solar System page In the Solar System page, you can specify whether the Sun, Moon, planets, comets and asteroids are displayed, and whether the major bodies are drawn as colored circles or actual images. You can also toggle whether solar system bodies have name labels attached, and control how many of the comets and asteroids get name labels. There is an option to automatically attach a temporary orbit trail whenever a solar system body is tracked, and another to toggle whether the color of the orbit trail fades into the background sky color. Satellites Satellites Window Satellites Window Configure &kstars; window Satellites page The Satellites page allows you to set the satellites view options. Firstly, you can see or hide the satellites on the skymap using Show satellites checkbox from the top View options section. By default, satellites are drawn as small light red filled circles with an optional dark red name label next to them. You can enable or disable these labels by checking or not the Show labels checkbox. It is located below the Show satellites checkbox, within the View options section. The colors of the dots representing satellites and their name labels can be easily customized using the Colors page from the same Configure &kstars; window. In addition, satellites can be drawn just like regular stars by checking the Draw satellites like stars checkbox. To display only the visible satellites from your current geographic location and time, select Show only visible satellites. &kstars; can draw artificial satellites from many predefined groups. Thus, you can select to display a particular group, multiple groups or partially select subgroups. Under each group, a list of individual satellites is presented. To select all satellites from a group, you need to check the group checkbox. You can also select only the satellites of interest in each group. The satellites orbital elements can be updated via the internet by pressing the Update TLEs button. Another way for updating the satellites orbital elements is to use the UpdatesUpdate satellites orbital elements in the Data menu. If you know the name of a desired satellite then you can use the search satellites method that &kstars; provides. You need to enter the name of satellite in the Search satellites text box and the list will be reduced only to its best matches. You can add new satellites to &kstars; default satellites set by editing the kstars/data/satellites.dat file. As each line of this file is a group of satellites, you need to add a new entry for your desired satellites group. An entry should have the following format: Group Name;local_filename;url. For example: Iridium;iridium.tle;http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/iridium.txt. Supernovae Supernovae Window Supernovae Window Configure &kstars; window Supernovae page The Supernovae page allows you to decide if the supernovae are displayed or not by checking the Show supernovae checkbox. By default, supernovae are drawn as small light orange + mark. As for satellites, the color of supernovae can be easily customized using the Colors page. You can configure &kstars; to check for newly discovered supernovae on startup by checking the Check for Recent Supernovae on Startup checkbox. This way, &kstars; will be always up-to-date with the most recent supernovae. You can enable supernova alerts using the Enable Supernova alerts checkbox. Thus, &kstars; will automatically alert you every time it learns of a new supernova in the sky. You can set the magnitude limit for showing a supernova as well as magnitude limit for supernova alerts using the spin boxes control. The limiting magnitude is the faintest apparent magnitude of an skyobject that is visible with the naked-eye or a telescope. The list of recent supernovae can be updated via the internet by pressing the Update List of Recent Supernovae button. Another way for updating the supernovae list is to use the UpdatesUpdate Recent Supernovae data item in the Data menu. Guides Guides Window Guides Window Configure &kstars; window Guides page The Guides page lets you toggle whether non-objects are displayed (&ie;, constellation lines, constellation names, the Milky Way contour, the celestial equator, the ecliptic, the horizon line, and the opaque ground). You can also choose whether you would like to see Latin constellation names, IAU-standard three-letter abbreviations, or constellation names using your local language. Colors Colors Window Colors Window Configure &kstars; window Colors page Color Schemes Customizing The Colors page allows you to set the color scheme, and to define custom color schemes. The tab is split into two panels: The left panel shows a list of all display items with adjustable colors. Click on any item to bring up a color selection window to adjust its color. Below the list is the Star Color Mode selection box. By default, &kstars; draws stars with a realistic color tint according to the spectral type of the star. However, you may also choose to draw the stars as solid white, black or red circles. If you are using the realistic star colors, you can set the saturation level of the star colors with the Star Color Intensity spinbox. The right panel lists the defined color schemes. There are four predefined schemes: the Default Colors scheme, Star Chart, which uses black stars on a white background, Night Vision, which uses only shades of red in order to protect dark-adapted vision, and Moonless Night, a more realistic, dark theme. Additionally, you can save the current color settings as a custom scheme by clicking the Save Current Colors button. It will prompt you for a name for the new scheme, and then your scheme will appear in the list in all future &kstars; sessions. To remove a custom scheme, simply highlight it in the list, and press the Remove Color Scheme button. + +FITS +Configure &kstars; window +FITS page +FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) is a popular open standard for storage, transmission and processing of digital data. For the details, one is referred to the corresponding Wikipedia article. This page allows you to configure presentation and processing of FITS data in &kstars;. + + + The left panel is for configuring FITS viewer itself. + + +Check item if you want automatically display received images in the FITS Viewer. + +The Single Preview Tab item is to display all captured FITS images in a single tab instead of multiple tabs +per image. The Single Window Capture item is to display captured FITS images from all cameras in a single FITS Viewer window +instead of a dedicated window to each camera. The Single Window Open item is to display opened FITS images in a single FITS Viewer window instead of a +dedicated window to each file and the Independent Window item is to Make FITS Viewer window independent from &kstars;. + + +The right panel lists processing options. The Auto Stretch item is to always apply auto stretch to images in FITS Viewer, Limited Resources Mode is to enable limited resource mode to turn off any resource-intensive, namely: Auto Debayer (bayered images will not be debayered; only grayscale images are shown), Auto WCS (World Coordinate System data +will not be processed; WCS maps sky coordinates to image coordinates; +equatorial grid lines, object identification, and telescope slew within an +image are disabled), and 3D Cube (RGB images will not be +processed; only grayscale images are shown). You can switch off some of these resource-greedy operations separately as well. + + + INDI INDI Window INDI Window For detailed explanation of the options on the INDI page see the Configure INDI section. Ekos Ekos Window Ekos Window Ekos is an astrophotography suite, a complete astrophotography solution that can control all INDI devices including numerous telescopes, CCDs, DSLRs, focusers, filters, and a lot more. Ekos supports highly accurate tracking using online and offline astrometry solver, autofocus and autoguiding capabilities, and capture of single or multiple images using the powerful built in sequence manager. For detailed explanation of Ekos, see the official Ekos page. Advanced Advanced Window Advanced Window Configure &kstars; window Advanced page The Advanced page provides fine-grained control over the more subtle behaviors of &kstars;. Atmospheric Refraction The Correct for atmospheric refraction checkbox controls whether the positions of objects are corrected for the effects of the atmosphere. Because the atmosphere is a spherical shell, light from outer space is bent as it passes through the atmosphere to our telescopes or eyes on the Earth's surface. The effect is largest for objects near the horizon, and actually changes the predicted rise or set times of objects by a few minutes. In fact, when you see a sunset, the Sun's actual position is already well below the horizon; atmospheric refraction makes it seem as if the Sun is still in the sky. Note that atmospheric refraction is never applied if you are using Equatorial coordinates. Animated Slewing The Use animated slewing checkbox controls how the display changes when a new focus position is selected in the map. By default, you will see the sky drift or slew to the new position; if you uncheck this option, then the display will instead snap immediately to the new focus position. Objects in the Sky Labeling Automatic If the Attach label to centered object checkbox is selected, then a name label will automatically be attached to an object when it is being tracked by the program. The label will be removed when the object is no longer being tracked. Note that you can also manually attach a persistent name label to any object with its popup menu. Objects in the Sky Hiding There are three situations when &kstars; must redraw the sky display very rapidly: when a new focus position is selected (and Use animated slewing is checked), when the sky is dragged with the mouse, and when the time step is large. In these situations, the positions of all objects must be recomputed as rapidly as possible, which can put a large load on the CPU. If the CPU cannot keep up with the demand, then the display will seem sluggish or jerky. To mitigate this, &kstars; will hide certain objects during these rapid-redraw situations, as long as the Hide objects while moving checkbox is selected. The timestep threshold above which objects will be hidden is determined by the Also hide if time step larger than: timestep-spinbox. You can specify the objects that should be hidden in the Configure Hidden Objects group box. Customizing the Display There are several ways to modify the display to your liking. Color SchemesSelecting Select a different color scheme in the SettingsColor Schemes menu. There are four predefined color schemes, and you can define your own in the Configure &kstars; window. Toolbars Customizing Toggle whether the Toolbars are drawn in the SettingsToolbars Shown menu. Like most KDE toolbars, they can also be dragged around and anchored on any window edge, or even detached from the window completely if they are unlocked. Info BoxesCustomizing Info BoxesShading Toggle whether the Info Boxes are drawn in the SettingsInfo Boxes menu. In addition, you can manipulate the three Info Boxes with the mouse. Each box has additional lines of data that are hidden by default. You can toggle whether these additional lines are visible by double-clicking a box to shade it. Also, you can reposition a box by dragging it with the mouse. When a box hits a window edge, it will stick to the edge when the window is resized. Field-of-View SymbolsDescription Choose an FOV Symbol using the SettingsFOV Symbols menu. FOV is an acronym for field-of-view. An FOV symbol is drawn at the center of the window to indicate where the display is pointing. Different symbols have different angular sizes; you can use a symbol to show what the view through a particular telescope would look like. For example, if you choose the 7x35 Binoculars FOV symbol, then a circle is drawn on the display that is 9.2 degrees in diameter; this is the field-of-view for 7x35 binoculars. Field-of-View SymbolsCustomizing You can define your own FOV symbols (or modify the existing symbols) using the Edit FOV Symbols... menu item, which launches the FOV Editor: Field-of-View Symbols Editor FOV Symbol Editor The list of defined FOV symbols is displayed on the left. On the right are buttons for adding a new symbol, editing the highlighted symbol's properties, and removing the highlighted symbol from the list. Note that you can even modify or remove the four predefined symbols (if you remove all symbols, the four defaults will be restored the next time you start &kstars;). Below these three buttons is a graphical preview display showing the highlighted symbol from the list. When the New... or Edit... button is pressed, the New FOV Indicator window is opened: New Field-of-View Symbol New FOV Symbol Field-of-View SymbolsDefining New This window lets you modify the four properties that define a FOV symbol: name, size, shape, and color. The angular size for the symbol can either be entered directly in the Field of View edit box, or you can use the Eyepiece/Camera Tabs to calculate the field-of-view angle, given parameters of your telescope/eyepiece or telescope/camera setup. The five available shapes are: Square, Circle, Crosshairs, Bullseye and Semitransparent circle. Once you have specified all four parameters, press Ok, and the symbol will appear in the list of defined symbols. It will also be available from the SettingsFOV Symbols menu. +&hips; +