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0001 <chapter id="config"> 0002 <title>Configuring &kstars;</title> 0003 0004 <sect1 id="setgeo"> 0005 <title>Setting the Geographic Location</title> 0006 0007 <para> 0008 Here is a screenshot of the <guilabel>Set Geographic Location</guilabel> 0009 window: 0010 <screenshot> 0011 <screeninfo>Changing the Geographic Location</screeninfo> 0012 <mediaobject> 0013 <imageobject> 0014 <imagedata fileref="geolocator.png" format="PNG"/> 0015 </imageobject> 0016 <textobject> 0017 <phrase>Set Location Window</phrase> 0018 </textobject> 0019 </mediaobject> 0020 </screenshot> 0021 </para> 0022 0023 <para> 0024 There is a list of over 3400 predefined cities available to choose from. 0025 You set your location by highlighting a city from this list. Each 0026 city is represented in the world map as a small dot, and when a city 0027 is highlighted in the list, a red crosshairs appears on its location 0028 in the map. 0029 </para> 0030 0031 <para> 0032 <indexterm><primary>Geographic Location Tool</primary> 0033 <secondary>Filtering</secondary></indexterm> 0034 It is not practical to scroll through the full list of 3400 locations, 0035 looking for a specific city. To make searches easier, the list can be 0036 filtered by entering text in the boxes below the map. For example, in 0037 the screenshot, the text <userinput>A</userinput> appears in the 0038 <guilabel>City filter:</guilabel> box, while <userinput>Te</userinput> has been 0039 entered in the <guilabel>Province filter:</guilabel> box, and 0040 <userinput>USA</userinput> is in the <guilabel>Country filter:</guilabel> 0041 box. Note that all of the cities displayed in the list have city, 0042 province, and country names that begin with the entered filter 0043 strings, and that the message below the filter boxes indicates that 6 0044 cities are matched by the filters. Also notice that the dots 0045 representing these six cities in the map have been colored white, 0046 while the unmatched cities remain gray. 0047 </para><para> 0048 The list can also be filtered by location in the map. Clicking anywhere 0049 in the world map will show only those cities within two degrees of the 0050 clicked location. At this time, you can search by name, or by location, 0051 but not both at once. In other words, when you click on the map, the 0052 name filters are ignored, and vice versa. 0053 </para><para> 0054 <indexterm><primary>Geographic Location Tool</primary> 0055 <secondary>Custom locations</secondary></indexterm> 0056 The <link linkend="ai-geocoords">longitude, latitude</link> and 0057 <link linkend="ai-timezones">time zone</link> information for the 0058 currently-selected location are displayed in the boxes at the bottom of 0059 the window. If you feel that any of these values are inaccurate, you 0060 can modify them and press the <guibutton>+</guibutton> (Add City) button 0061 to record your custom version of the location. You can also define a 0062 completely new location by pressing the 0063 <guibutton>Clear Fields</guibutton> button, and entering the data for 0064 the new location. Note that all fields except the optional 0065 <guilabel>Province:</guilabel>/<guilabel>Country:</guilabel> must be filled before the new 0066 location can be added to the list. &kstars; will automatically load 0067 your custom locations for all future sessions. Please note, at this 0068 point, the only way to remove a custom location is to remove the 0069 appropriate line from the file <filename>kstars/mycities.dat</filename> 0070 in your folder <userinput><command>qtpaths</command> <option>--paths GenericDataLocation</option></userinput> . 0071 </para><para> 0072 If you add custom locations (or modify existing ones), please send us 0073 your <filename>mycities.dat</filename> file so that we can add your 0074 locations to the master list. 0075 </para> 0076 </sect1> 0077 0078 <sect1 id="settime"> 0079 <title>Setting the Time</title> 0080 <para> 0081 <indexterm><primary>Date and Time</primary> 0082 <secondary>The simulation clock</secondary></indexterm> 0083 When &kstars; starts up, the time is set to your computer's system 0084 clock, and the &kstars; clock is running to keep up with the real time. 0085 If you want to stop the clock, select the <menuchoice><guimenu>Time</guimenu> 0086 <guimenuitem>Stop Clock</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item, or simply 0087 click on the <guiicon>Stop Clock</guiicon> icon in the toolbar. You can 0088 make the clock run slower or faster than normal, or even make it run 0089 backward, using the time-step spinbox in the toolbar. This spinbox 0090 has two sets of up/down buttons. The first one will step through all 0091 83 available time steps, one by one. The second one will skip to the 0092 next higher (or lower) unit of time, which allows you to make large 0093 timestep changes more quickly. 0094 </para> 0095 <para> 0096 <indexterm><primary>Date and Time</primary> 0097 <secondary>Setting</secondary></indexterm> 0098 You can set the time and date by selecting the <menuchoice><guimenu>Time</guimenu> 0099 <guimenuitem>Set Time...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item, or by 0100 pressing the <guiicon>Time</guiicon> icon in the toolbar. The 0101 <guilabel>Set Time</guilabel> window uses a standard &kde; Date Picker 0102 widget, coupled with a spinbox for setting the hours and minutes. 0103 If you want to re-synchronize the simulation clock back to the 0104 current CPU time, just select the <menuchoice><guimenu>Time</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Set 0105 Time to Now</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item.</para> 0106 0107 <note><para> 0108 <indexterm><primary>Date and Time</primary> 0109 <secondary>Extended range of dates</secondary></indexterm> 0110 &kstars; can accept very remote dates beyond the usual limits imposed by 0111 QDate. Currently, you can set the date between the years -100000 and +100000. 0112 We may extend this range even further in future releases. However, please 0113 be aware that the accuracy of the simulation becomes more and more degraded 0114 as more remote dates are examined. This is especially true for the positions 0115 of solar system bodies. 0116 </para></note> 0117 </sect1> 0118 0119 <sect1 id="viewops"> 0120 <title>The Configure &kstars; Window</title> 0121 <para> 0122 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary></indexterm> 0123 The <guilabel>Configure - &kstars;</guilabel> window allows you to modify 0124 a wide range of display options. You can access the window with the 0125 <guiicon>Configure</guiicon> toolbar icon, or by selecting the 0126 <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Configure 0127 &kstars;...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item. 0128 The window is depicted below: 0129 0130 <screenshot> 0131 <screeninfo>Configure - &kstars; Window</screeninfo> 0132 <mediaobject> 0133 <imageobject> 0134 <imagedata fileref="viewops.png" format="PNG"/> 0135 </imageobject> 0136 <textobject> 0137 <phrase>Configure - &kstars; Window</phrase> 0138 </textobject> 0139 </mediaobject> 0140 </screenshot> 0141 </para> 0142 0143 <para> 0144 The <guilabel>Configure - &kstars;</guilabel> window is divided into fourteen pages: 0145 <guilabel>Catalogs</guilabel>, <guilabel>Solar System</guilabel>, <guilabel>Satellites</guilabel>, 0146 <guilabel>Supernovae</guilabel>, <guilabel>Guides</guilabel>, <guilabel>Terrain</guilabel>, 0147 <guilabel>Image Overlays</guilabel>, <guilabel>Colors</guilabel>, <guilabel>FITS</guilabel>, 0148 <guilabel>INDI</guilabel>, <guilabel>Ekos</guilabel>, <guilabel>Xplanet</guilabel>, 0149 <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> and <guilabel>Developer</guilabel>. 0150 </para> 0151 0152 <!-- Catalogs page: --> 0153 <para> 0154 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 0155 <secondary>Catalogs page</secondary></indexterm> In 0156 the <guilabel>Catalogs</guilabel> page, you determine several 0157 properties concerning the display of the star and deep sky object catalogs. 0158 </para> 0159 0160 <!-- Solar System page: --> 0161 <para> 0162 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 0163 <secondary>Solar System page</secondary></indexterm> 0164 In the <guilabel>Solar System</guilabel> page, you can specify whether 0165 the Sun, Moon, planets, comets and asteroids are displayed. 0166 </para> 0167 0168 <!-- Satellites page: --> 0169 <para> 0170 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 0171 <secondary>Satellites page</secondary></indexterm> 0172 The <guilabel>Satellites</guilabel> page allows you to set the satellites view options. 0173 </para> 0174 0175 <!-- Supernovae page: --> 0176 <para> 0177 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 0178 <secondary>Supernovae page</secondary></indexterm> 0179 The <guilabel>Supernovae</guilabel> page allows you to manage how supernovae are displayed by &kstars;. 0180 </para> 0181 0182 <!-- Guides page: --> 0183 <para> 0184 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 0185 <secondary>Guides page</secondary></indexterm> 0186 The <guilabel>Guides</guilabel> page lets you toggle whether non-objects 0187 are displayed (&ie;, constellation lines, constellation names, the 0188 Milky Way contour). 0189 </para> 0190 0191 <variablelist> 0192 <varlistentry> 0193 <term></term><listitem><para><indexterm><primary>Sky culture</primary></indexterm> 0194 It is possible to choose a <guilabel>Sky culture:</guilabel> for the constellation lines and names on this page. The current version of &kstars; includes data for more than a dozen sky cultures. 0195 </para></listitem> 0196 </varlistentry> 0197 </variablelist> 0198 0199 <!-- Terrain page: --> 0200 <para> 0201 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 0202 <secondary>Terrain page</secondary></indexterm> 0203 <indexterm><primary>Terrain image</primary> 0204 <secondary>Customizing</secondary></indexterm> 0205 The <guilabel>Terrain</guilabel> page allows you to set the terrain or landscape image 0206 and configure its speedup options. 0207 </para> 0208 0209 <!-- Image Overlays page: --> 0210 <para> 0211 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 0212 <secondary>Image Overlays page</secondary></indexterm> 0213 <indexterm><primary>Image Overlays</primary> 0214 <secondary>Customizing</secondary></indexterm> 0215 The <guilabel>Image Overlays</guilabel> page allows you to add and manage your own images 0216 that will be displayed in the skymap. 0217 </para> 0218 0219 <!-- Colors page: --> 0220 <para> 0221 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 0222 <secondary>Colors page</secondary></indexterm> 0223 <indexterm><primary>Color Schemes</primary> 0224 <secondary>Customizing</secondary></indexterm> 0225 The <guilabel>Colors</guilabel> page allows you to set the color scheme, 0226 and to define new custom color schemes. 0227 </para> 0228 0229 <!-- FITS page: --> 0230 <para>For detailed explanation of the options on the <guilabel>FITS</guilabel> 0231 page see the <link linkend="fits-configure">Configure FITS</link> section. 0232 </para> 0233 0234 <!-- INDI page: --> 0235 <para>For detailed explanation of the options on the <guilabel>INDI</guilabel> 0236 page see the <link linkend="indi-configure">Configure INDI</link> section. 0237 </para> 0238 0239 <!-- Ekos page: --> 0240 <para>For detailed explanation of <guilabel>Ekos</guilabel> astrophotography suite, 0241 see the <link linkend="ekos">Ekos section of this manual</link>. 0242 </para> 0243 0244 <!-- Xplanet page: --> 0245 <para> 0246 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 0247 <secondary>Xplanet page</secondary></indexterm> 0248 The <guilabel>Xplanet</guilabel> page provides fine-grained control 0249 over <ulink url="http://xplanet.sourceforge.net/">Solar system planet surface renderer Xplanet</ulink> (should be installed separately). 0250 </para> 0251 0252 <!-- Advanced page: --> 0253 <para> 0254 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 0255 <secondary>Advanced page</secondary></indexterm> 0256 The <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> page provides fine-grained control 0257 over the more subtle behaviors of &kstars;. 0258 </para> 0259 0260 <!-- Developer page: --> 0261 <para> 0262 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 0263 <secondary>Advanced page</secondary></indexterm> 0264 The <guilabel>Developer</guilabel> page allows you to enable or disable a few options mostly useful for developers or for folks looking to 0265 help debug issues. Currently these are enabling the saving of images during Ekos's autofocus, guiding and alignment. 0266 </para> 0267 </sect1> 0268 0269 <sect1 id="catalogs"> 0270 <title>Catalogs</title> 0271 <para> 0272 <indexterm><primary>Catalogs</primary></indexterm> 0273 <screenshot> 0274 <screeninfo>Catalogs Window</screeninfo> 0275 <mediaobject> 0276 <imageobject> 0277 <imagedata fileref="viewops.png" format="PNG"/> 0278 </imageobject> 0279 <textobject> 0280 <phrase>Catalogs Window</phrase> 0281 </textobject> 0282 </mediaobject> 0283 </screenshot> 0284 </para> 0285 0286 <para> 0287 <indexterm><primary>Catalogs page</primary> 0288 <secondary>Short overview</secondary></indexterm> In the 0289 <guilabel>Catalogs</guilabel> page, you can configure which object 0290 catalogs are displayed by &kstars;, as well as how much information 0291 you would like to be included on the Sky Map. By default, &kstars; 0292 includes ~300,000 named and unnamed stars up to magnitude 8. For Deep 0293 Sky Objects, the included catalog is the New General Catalog 0294 (<quote>NGC</quote>) including the Index Catalog (<quote>IC</quote>) 0295 and the Messier Catalog. 0296 </para> 0297 0298 <para> 0299 The New General Catalog of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars 0300 (abbreviated as NGC) is a catalog of ca 7,840 deep-sky objects. 0301 </para> 0302 0303 <para> 0304 The Index Catalog of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated as 0305 IC) serves as a supplement to the NGC, and contains an additional 0306 5,386 objects, collectively known as the IC objects. 0307 </para> 0308 0309 <para> 0310 You can install new catalogs using &kstars; <quote>Add-On Installer</quote>. You can open it 0311 via the <menuchoice><guimenu>Data</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Download New Data...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item. 0312 You can choose from a list of catalogs, including (but not limited to): 0313 <itemizedlist> 0314 0315 <listitem><para> 0316 Steinicke NGC/IC Catalog: is a more complete NGC/IC catalog. 0317 </para></listitem> 0318 0319 <listitem><para> 0320 Abell Planetary Nebulae Catalog: is a catalog of 86 planetary nebulae. The 0321 maximum magnitude is represented by Abell 47's value of 19.5. 0322 </para></listitem> 0323 0324 <listitem><para> 0325 Sharpless HII region Catalog: is the Sharpless (Sh2) catalog of HII regions (diffuse nebulae). 0326 </para></listitem> 0327 0328 <listitem><para> 0329 Hickson Compact Groups: is a catalog consisting of 99 compact groups of galaxies. 0330 </para></listitem> 0331 0332 <listitem><para> 0333 Tycho-2 Star Catalog: is a catalog of more than 2.5 million of the brightest stars. It contains 0334 stars with a magnitude value from 8.0 to 12.5. 0335 </para></listitem> 0336 0337 <listitem><para> 0338 USNO NOMAD Catalog: is a catalog of about 100 million stars with magnitude from 12.5 to 16.5. 0339 Note that is requires Tycho-2 to be installed. 0340 </para></listitem> 0341 0342 </itemizedlist> 0343 </para> 0344 0345 <para> 0346 The following is a summary of catalogs in &kstars;: 0347 0348 <table frame="top"><title>Stars Catalogs</title> 0349 <tgroup cols="4" colsep="1" rowsep="1"> 0350 <thead> 0351 <row> 0352 <entry>Name</entry> 0353 <entry>Abbreviation</entry> 0354 <entry>Number of objects</entry> 0355 <entry>Magnitude</entry> 0356 <entry>Add-On</entry> 0357 <entry>Default</entry> 0358 </row> 0359 </thead> 0360 <tbody> 0361 <row> 0362 <entry>Default Catalog</entry> 0363 <entry>Default</entry> 0364 <entry>~300,000</entry> 0365 <entry>Up to 8 magnitude</entry> 0366 <entry>No</entry> 0367 <entry>Yes</entry> 0368 </row> 0369 <row> 0370 <entry>Tycho-2</entry> 0371 <entry>Tycho2</entry> 0372 <entry>more than 2.5 million</entry> 0373 <entry>8.0-12.5 </entry> 0374 <entry>Yes</entry> 0375 <entry>No</entry> 0376 </row> 0377 <row> 0378 <entry>Naval Observatory Merged Astronomic Dataset</entry> 0379 <entry>USNO NOMAD</entry> 0380 <entry>100 million</entry> 0381 <entry>12.5-16.5</entry> 0382 <entry>Yes</entry> 0383 <entry>No</entry> 0384 </row> 0385 </tbody> 0386 </tgroup> 0387 </table> 0388 0389 <table frame="top"><title>Deep-sky objects Catalogs</title> 0390 <tgroup cols="4" colsep="1" rowsep="1"> 0391 <thead> 0392 <row> 0393 <entry>Name</entry> 0394 <entry>Abbreviation</entry> 0395 <entry>Number of objects</entry> 0396 <entry>Magnitude</entry> 0397 <entry>Add-On</entry> 0398 <entry>Default</entry> 0399 </row> 0400 </thead> 0401 <tbody> 0402 <row> 0403 <entry>New General Catalog of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (OpenNGC)</entry> 0404 <entry>NGC</entry> 0405 <entry>7,840</entry> 0406 <entry>-</entry> 0407 <entry>No</entry> 0408 <entry>Yes</entry> 0409 </row> 0410 <row> 0411 0412 <entry>Steinicke NGC/IC</entry> 0413 <entry>-</entry> 0414 <entry>-</entry> 0415 <entry>-</entry> 0416 <entry>Yes</entry> 0417 <entry>No</entry> 0418 </row> 0419 0420 <row> 0421 <entry>Abell Planetary Nebulae Catalog</entry> 0422 <entry>-</entry> 0423 <entry>86</entry> 0424 <entry>Up to 19.5 magnitude</entry> 0425 <entry>Yes</entry> 0426 <entry>No</entry> 0427 </row> 0428 0429 <row> 0430 <entry>Sharpless HII region Catalog</entry> 0431 <entry>Sh2</entry> 0432 <entry>-</entry> 0433 <entry>-</entry> 0434 <entry>Yes</entry> 0435 <entry>No</entry> 0436 </row> 0437 0438 <row> 0439 <entry>Hickson Compact Groups</entry> 0440 <entry>-</entry> 0441 <entry>99</entry> 0442 <entry>-</entry> 0443 <entry>Yes</entry> 0444 <entry>No</entry> 0445 </row> 0446 0447 </tbody> 0448 </tgroup> 0449 </table> 0450 <note> 0451 <para>A potentially more up-to-date listing can be found in 0452 the <ulink url="https://protagon.space/catalogs/pages/catalogs.html">catalog 0453 repository documentation</ulink>. 0454 </para> 0455 </note> 0456 </para> 0457 0458 <para> 0459 <indexterm><primary>Catalogs</primary> 0460 <secondary>Star catalogs</secondary></indexterm> 0461 The <guilabel>Stars</guilabel> section allows you to manage how stars are 0462 displayed in &kstars;. You can choose to see the stars or not by checking the 0463 <guilabel>Star catalogs</guilabel> checkbox. If you check it, then multiple 0464 options will be enabled. Thus, you can set how many stars are drawn on the map 0465 using the <guilabel>Star density:</guilabel> slider. You can also customize 0466 &kstars; to toggle star name and <link linkend="ai-magnitude">magnitudes</link>. 0467 Star names are drawn next to bright stars. To display labels of fainter stars, 0468 increase the <guilabel>Label density:</guilabel> slider. 0469 </para> 0470 0471 <para> 0472 <indexterm><primary>Catalogs</primary> 0473 <secondary>Deep-Sky Catalogs</secondary></indexterm> 0474 Below the stars section, the <guilabel>Deep-Sky Objects</guilabel> section controls 0475 the display of several non-stellar object catalogs. You can toggle the display of 0476 Deep Sky Objects and control the display of their names and magnitudes. By default, 0477 the list of deep-sky objects includes the Messier, NGC and IC catalogs. 0478 Addons catalogs are available via the 0479 <menuchoice><guimenu>Data</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Download New Data...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> 0480 menu item where you can download catalogs provided by &kstars; team and the community through 0481 the <ulink url="https://invent.kde.org/vboettcher/kstars-catalogs">catalog 0482 packaging repository</ulink>. The <guilabel>DSO minimal zoom:</guilabel> 0483 slider controls the minimal zoom level for which the 0484 DSOs are shown. Increasing the minimal zoom level can lead to 0485 performance improvements when panning the skymap zoomed-out. 0486 The <guilabel>DSO cache percentage:</guilabel> slider regulates how 0487 much of the DSO master catalog is being kept in memory. If you 0488 experience memory issues with large catalogs, try lowering the 0489 percentage. The <guilabel>Label density:</guilabel> slider controls 0490 the perceived density of labels for the DSOs. If labels start to 0491 overlap and the skymap begins to look too crowded, try tuning this 0492 option. The <guilabel>Faint limit zoomed in/out:</guilabel> regulates up to which 0493 magnitude objects are shown on the skymap (higher magnitude is 0494 fainter). If <guilabel>Show objects of unknown magnitude</guilabel> is 0495 ticked, objects of unknown magnitude are always shown. 0496 </para> 0497 <para>The following sections will detail how DSO catalogs work in 0498 &kstars; and how they're managed.</para> 0499 0500 <sect2 id="catalog_general"> 0501 <title>The DSO Catalog Database</title> 0502 <indexterm><primary>Deep-Sky Catalogs</primary> 0503 <secondary>Database</secondary></indexterm> 0504 <indexterm><primary>Deep-Sky Catalogs</primary> 0505 <secondary>Database System</secondary></indexterm> 0506 <note> 0507 <para> 0508 This section aims at introducing the catalog database of &kstars; in 0509 simple but technical terms. It can be skipped without missing anything 0510 essential but helps understanding how to deal with and create (custom) 0511 catalogs. 0512 </para> 0513 </note> 0514 <para> 0515 DSO catalogs in &kstars; are just SQL (sqlite3) database tables. Each 0516 catalog is represented by its own table which contains all its objects 0517 and an entry in a catalog metadata table. Additionally, catalogs may be 0518 imported or exported from and into stand-alone database files. 0519 </para> 0520 0521 <para> 0522 Each object has the usual properties like name and coordinates but 0523 additionally features two IDs. The first ID is the unique identifier 0524 for the specific object and is calculated by hashing all the object fields 0525 along with the catalog id. Because objects can be contained in several 0526 catalogs each object has an additional object id (OID) that identifies 0527 the physical object and may be shared by several objects of different 0528 catalogs. 0529 </para> 0530 0531 <para> 0532 To speed up object lookup all enabled catalogs are merged into a 0533 master table. Each catalog has a priority number and if several 0534 objects with the same OID occur the one from the catalog with the 0535 highest priority is loaded. The objects from the master catalog are 0536 then drawn on the sky and generally available in &kstars;. 0537 </para> 0538 0539 <para> 0540 Currently, deduplication (the assignment of OIDs) is only supported by 0541 the tooling of 0542 the <ulink url="https://invent.kde.org/vboettcher/kstars-catalogs">catalog 0543 packaging repository</ulink>. The aim of this tool-chain is to 0544 reproducibly build catalogs in a homogeneous environment. Every 0545 catalog is 0546 implemented <ulink url="https://invent.kde.org/vboettcher/kstars-catalogs/-/blob/master/catalogs/sharpless_2.py"> 0547 as a python module</ulink> and provides standard methods to acquire 0548 data, parse it and find duplicates in other catalogs. All 0549 downloadable catalogs are implemented this way. If you'd like to make 0550 a catalog of your own available for &kstars;, it is recommended that you 0551 implement it as a package in the repository. The tooling provided 0552 there is so flexible, that it should work for you. For more 0553 information on how to do that see 0554 the <ulink url="https://protagon.space/catalogs/">catalog repository 0555 documentation</ulink>. If you are not familiar with python programming 0556 you can request the addition of a catalog by opening a ticket in the 0557 repository or 0558 contacting <ulink url="https://invent.kde.org/vboettcher/kstars-catalogs/-/project_members">the 0559 maintainers</ulink>. &kstars; provides also provides means to create 0560 custom catalogs by manually entering data or importing CSV tables, but 0561 those are less flexible and offer no deduplication. 0562 </para> 0563 </sect2> 0564 <sect2 id="catalog_gui"> 0565 <title>The Catalog Management &GUI;</title> 0566 <indexterm><primary>Deep-Sky Catalogs</primary> 0567 <secondary>GUI</secondary></indexterm> 0568 <para> 0569 The catalog management &GUI; is reached via the <menuchoice><guimenu>Data</guimenu> 0570 <guimenuitem>Manage DSO Catalogs...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item and is displayed 0571 <link linkend="dso_manager">below</link>. 0572 0573 <screenshot> 0574 <screeninfo>DSO Manager</screeninfo> 0575 <mediaobject id="dso_manager"> 0576 <imageobject> 0577 <imagedata fileref="dso_manager.png" format="PNG"/> 0578 </imageobject> 0579 <textobject> 0580 <phrase>The DSO catalog management interface.</phrase> 0581 </textobject> 0582 <caption>The DSO catalog management interface.</caption> 0583 </mediaobject> 0584 </screenshot> 0585 </para> 0586 <para> 0587 On the left, a list of catalogs is displayed. In this list, you can 0588 read off key catalog properties, including whether a catalog is 0589 enabled, what its ID is and what its name 0590 is. The <guilabel>Mutable</guilabel> column signifies whether the catalog 0591 can be edited or not. Catalogs which have been downloaded from the 0592 catalog repository via the <menuchoice><guimenu>Data</guimenu> 0593 <guimenuitem>Download New Data...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item are 0594 usually immutable whereas user-created catalogs aren't. You can 0595 always <guilabel>Clone</guilabel> a catalog to make it mutable. 0596 </para> 0597 <para> 0598 The buttons in the upper right corner allow you to add catalogs to the 0599 database. 0600 </para> 0601 <variablelist> 0602 <varlistentry id="import"> 0603 <term><guibutton>Import Catalog...</guibutton></term> 0604 <listitem> 0605 <para>Import a catalog in the <literal role="extension">.kscat</literal> format 0606 from a file.</para> 0607 <para>This is usually done to try out new versions of catalogs that 0608 haven't yet been picked up by the usual download server.</para> 0609 </listitem> 0610 </varlistentry> 0611 </variablelist> 0612 <para> 0613 With the buttons in the lower right corner, you can add, remove, modify 0614 and explore catalogs. Their actions always refer to the currently 0615 selected catalog (the highlighted row on the left). 0616 0617 <variablelist> 0618 <varlistentry> 0619 <term><guibutton>Create Catalog...</guibutton></term> 0620 <listitem> 0621 <para>Create a new catalog. See <xref linkend="create_catalog"/>. 0622 </para> 0623 </listitem> 0624 </varlistentry> 0625 0626 <varlistentry> 0627 <term><guibutton>Enable / Disable</guibutton></term> 0628 <listitem> 0629 <para>Enable or disable a catalog.</para> 0630 <para>This is reflected in the skymap upon closing the 0631 catalog management &GUI;.</para> 0632 </listitem> 0633 </varlistentry> 0634 0635 <varlistentry> 0636 <term><guibutton>Remove</guibutton></term> 0637 <listitem> 0638 <para>Remove a catalog from the catalog database.</para> 0639 <para>This is reflected in the skymap upon closing the 0640 catalog management &GUI;.</para> 0641 </listitem> 0642 </varlistentry> 0643 0644 <varlistentry> 0645 <term><guibutton>Export...</guibutton></term> 0646 <listitem> 0647 <para>Export a catalog into a <literal role="extension">.kscat</literal> file.</para> 0648 <para>The resulting file can be imported with 0649 <link linkend="import"><guibutton>Import Catalog...</guibutton></link> button. 0650 </para> 0651 </listitem> 0652 </varlistentry> 0653 0654 <varlistentry> 0655 <term><guibutton>Clone...</guibutton></term> 0656 <listitem> 0657 <para>Make an exact copy of the catalog and insert it into the database.</para> 0658 <para>This is useful if you wish to make modifications to an 0659 immutable catalog. 0660 <note><para>Note however that this is not the recommended way to 0661 alter catalogs that are provided by 0662 the <ulink url="https://invent.kde.org/vboettcher/kstars-catalogs">catalog 0663 packaging repository</ulink> &ie; the catalogs downloaded via the 0664 <menuchoice><guimenu>Data</guimenu><guimenuitem>Download New 0665 Data...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item. 0666 </para> 0667 </note> 0668 </para> 0669 </listitem> 0670 </varlistentry> 0671 0672 <varlistentry> 0673 <term><guibutton>Colors</guibutton></term> 0674 <listitem> 0675 <para>Open the catalog color editor (See <xref linkend="catalog_colors"/>.). 0676 </para> 0677 <para>This will open a dialog which allows you to set the colors in 0678 which objects from the selected catalog will be displayed for each 0679 color scheme. 0680 </para> 0681 </listitem> 0682 </varlistentry> 0683 0684 <varlistentry> 0685 <term><guibutton>More...</guibutton></term> 0686 <listitem> 0687 <para>Open the catalog details dialog. (See <xref linkend="catalog_details"/>.) 0688 </para> 0689 <para>In there, you can see the contents of the catalog, as well as 0690 some more meta information. Amongst other things, you can also edit 0691 its contents (if it is mutable). 0692 </para> 0693 </listitem> 0694 </varlistentry> 0695 </variablelist> 0696 </para> 0697 </sect2> 0698 0699 <sect2 id="create_catalog"> 0700 <title>Creating a new Catalog</title> 0701 <screenshot> 0702 <screeninfo>Catalog creation dialog</screeninfo> 0703 <mediaobject> 0704 <imageobject> 0705 <imagedata fileref="create_catalog.png" format="PNG"/> 0706 </imageobject> 0707 <textobject> 0708 <phrase>Catalog creation dialog.</phrase> 0709 </textobject> 0710 </mediaobject> 0711 </screenshot> 0712 <para> 0713 This dialog reached through the catalog management &GUI; (see 0714 <xref linkend="catalog_gui"/>). The <guilabel>ID:</guilabel> 0715 field will be automatically chosen but can be 0716 changed. The <guilabel>Color:</guilabel> field configures in which 0717 color the objects of the catalog will be displayed. All the other 0718 values are optional or have sensible defaults. You can, of 0719 course, change these values at a later point. 0720 </para> 0721 0722 <para>Upon clicking <guilabel>Ok</guilabel> an empty catalog with the 0723 meta data entered into the dialog will be added to the database and 0724 can then be filled with 0725 objects. (See <xref linkend="catalog_details"/> and <xref linkend="csv_import"/>.) 0726 </para> 0727 </sect2> 0728 0729 <sect2 id="catalog_colors"> 0730 <title>Catalog Color Editor</title> 0731 <indexterm><primary>Deep-Sky Catalogs</primary> 0732 <secondary>Catalog Color Editor</secondary></indexterm> 0733 0734 <screenshot> 0735 <screeninfo>Catalog color editor</screeninfo> 0736 <mediaobject> 0737 <imageobject> 0738 <imagedata fileref="color_editor.png" format="PNG"/> 0739 </imageobject> 0740 <textobject> 0741 <phrase>The catalog color editor.</phrase> 0742 </textobject> 0743 </mediaobject> 0744 </screenshot> 0745 <para> 0746 This dialog reached through the catalog management &GUI; (see 0747 <xref linkend="catalog_gui"/>). Each button represents the color that 0748 objects will be drawn in for a specific color scheme. Clicking on a 0749 button will allow you to choose a color with a color picker. The 0750 button colors are initialized with the default colors from the catalog 0751 specification. The color "default" is the color which will be chosen 0752 for the catalog if there is no color set for a color scheme. 0753 </para> 0754 </sect2> 0755 0756 <sect2 id="catalog_details"> 0757 <title>Catalog Details Dialog</title> 0758 <indexterm><primary>Deep-Sky Catalogs</primary> 0759 <secondary>Catalog Details Dialog</secondary></indexterm> 0760 0761 <screenshot> 0762 <screeninfo>Catalog details dialog</screeninfo> 0763 <mediaobject> 0764 <imageobject> 0765 <imagedata fileref="catalog_details.png" format="PNG"/> 0766 </imageobject> 0767 <textobject> 0768 <phrase>The catalog details dialog.</phrase> 0769 </textobject> 0770 </mediaobject> 0771 </screenshot> 0772 <para> 0773 This dialog reached through the catalog management &GUI; (see 0774 <xref linkend="catalog_gui"/>). In the top left corner, the catalog 0775 metadata is being displayed. On the right, a table of all objects in 0776 the catalog is being shown. The search line above the table filters 0777 objects by name. Double-clicking a row opens the object details dialog 0778 (see <xref linkend="tool-details"/>). 0779 </para> 0780 <para> 0781 Selecting a row enables 0782 the <guilabel>Object</guilabel> menu on the left. 0783 Selecting multiple rows performs the single-object action for each 0784 selected object. 0785 0786 <variablelist> 0787 <varlistentry> 0788 <term><guibutton>Edit...</guibutton></term> 0789 <listitem> 0790 <para>Edit the catalog object. (See <xref linkend="add_object"/>). 0791 </para> 0792 </listitem> 0793 </varlistentry> 0794 0795 <varlistentry> 0796 <term><guibutton>Remove</guibutton></term> 0797 <listitem> 0798 <para>Removes the object from the catalog. 0799 </para> 0800 </listitem> 0801 </varlistentry> 0802 </variablelist> 0803 </para> 0804 0805 <para> 0806 Below the <guilabel>Object</guilabel> section, the general catalog 0807 options are situated. 0808 0809 <variablelist> 0810 <varlistentry> 0811 <term><menuchoice> 0812 <guimenu>Edit Catalog Meta...</guimenu> 0813 </menuchoice></term> 0814 <listitem> 0815 <para>Edit the catalog metadata displayed in the top left. This 0816 opens the dialog described in <xref linkend="create_catalog"/>. 0817 </para> 0818 </listitem> 0819 </varlistentry> 0820 0821 <varlistentry> 0822 <term><guibutton>Add Object...</guibutton></term> 0823 <listitem> 0824 <para>Add an object to the catalog. (See <xref linkend="add_object"/>.) 0825 </para> 0826 </listitem> 0827 </varlistentry> 0828 0829 <varlistentry> 0830 <term><guibutton>Import CSV...</guibutton></term> 0831 <listitem> 0832 <para>Import objects from a tabular text format (csv, tsv, 0833 &etc;) into the catalog. (See <xref linkend="csv_import"/>.) 0834 </para> 0835 </listitem> 0836 </varlistentry> 0837 </variablelist> 0838 </para> 0839 <sect3 id="add_object"> 0840 <title>Adding/Editing Objects</title> 0841 <indexterm><primary>Deep-Sky Catalogs</primary> 0842 <secondary>Adding/Editing Objects</secondary></indexterm> 0843 0844 <screenshot> 0845 <screeninfo>Add/Edit DSO Dialog</screeninfo> 0846 <mediaobject> 0847 <imageobject> 0848 <imagedata fileref="add_object.png" format="PNG"/> 0849 </imageobject> 0850 <textobject> 0851 <phrase>Add/Edit DSO Dialog</phrase> 0852 </textobject> 0853 </mediaobject> 0854 </screenshot> 0855 <para> 0856 This dialog allows to create or edit a deep sky object 0857 (DSO). The <guilabel>Basics</guilabel> section contains fields that 0858 have to be filled in. 0859 </para> 0860 0861 <variablelist> 0862 <varlistentry> 0863 <term><guilabel>Name:</guilabel></term> 0864 <listitem><para>The name of the object which will be displayed in the sky.</para></listitem> 0865 </varlistentry> 0866 0867 <varlistentry> 0868 <term><guilabel>Type:</guilabel></term> 0869 <listitem><para>The type of the object.</para></listitem> 0870 </varlistentry> 0871 0872 <varlistentry> 0873 <term><guilabel>RA / Dec (°, J2000):</guilabel></term> 0874 <listitem><para>The coordinates of the object in degrees and with respect to the J2000 epoch.</para></listitem> 0875 </varlistentry> 0876 0877 <varlistentry> 0878 <term><guilabel>Apparent magnitude:</guilabel></term> 0879 <listitem><para>The apparent magnitude of the object.</para></listitem> 0880 </varlistentry> 0881 </variablelist> 0882 0883 <para> 0884 The <guilabel>Optional</guilabel> section contains data fields that 0885 are optional, is divided into two subsections. They are set to and can be left at their defaults. 0886 </para> 0887 0888 <para> 0889 The <guilabel>Size Info in Arcminutes</guilabel> subsection. The object is modeled as an ellipse which is described by its major and minor axis. 0890 </para> 0891 0892 <para> 0893 The <guilabel>Misc</guilabel> subsection. 0894 </para> 0895 0896 <variablelist> 0897 <varlistentry> 0898 <term><guilabel>Long name:</guilabel></term> 0899 <listitem><para>A longer, more descriptive name.</para> 0900 <para>Usually, the long name is something like <quote>Andromeda Galaxy</quote> for the object M31. It can contain alternative designations and names in other catalogs as well.</para></listitem> 0901 </varlistentry> 0902 0903 <varlistentry> 0904 <term><guilabel>Catalog identifier:</guilabel></term> 0905 <listitem><para>A catalog internal identifier.</para> 0906 <para>For example the screenshot above, the object originates from the OpenNGC catalog where each row is identified by <quote>NGCXXXX</quote>.</para></listitem> 0907 </varlistentry> 0908 0909 <varlistentry> 0910 <term><guilabel>Flux:</guilabel></term> 0911 <listitem><para>The flux of the object. Only applies for radio sources.</para></listitem> 0912 </varlistentry> 0913 0914 <varlistentry> 0915 <term><guilabel>Position angle (°):</guilabel></term> 0916 <listitem><para>If the object is extended, it must have some orientation in the sky. The position angle is the angle between its major axis and a straight line to the north pole.</para></listitem> 0917 </varlistentry> 0918 </variablelist> 0919 0920 </sect3> 0921 <sect3 id="csv_import"> 0922 <title>Importing CSV (and similar formats)</title> 0923 <screenshot> 0924 <screeninfo>Importing CSV Catalogs</screeninfo> 0925 <mediaobject> 0926 <imageobject> 0927 <imagedata fileref="csv_import.png" format="PNG"/> 0928 </imageobject> 0929 <textobject> 0930 <phrase>Importing CSV Catalogs</phrase> 0931 </textobject> 0932 </mediaobject> 0933 </screenshot> 0934 <para>The screenshot above shows the CSV import dialog in its default 0935 state. In the <guilabel>Input</guilabel> section, you can 0936 configure the csv parser. The <guilabel>Comment prefix:</guilabel> is 0937 the character that signals commented-out lines in the 0938 input. The <guilabel>Separator:</guilabel> should be adjusted to fit 0939 your input. Usually, it is <quote>,</quote> or <quote>;</quote> but other separators can 0940 occur. Finally, you can choose to skip a number of lines at the 0941 beginning of the file. <guibutton>Select/Read</guibutton> button lets you 0942 choose a csv file to read with the above configuration. After that, 0943 the dialog will look as in the screenshot below. 0944 </para> 0945 <screenshot> 0946 <screeninfo>Importing CSV Catalogs, Populated</screeninfo> 0947 <mediaobject> 0948 <imageobject> 0949 <imagedata fileref="csv_import_populated.png" format="PNG"/> 0950 </imageobject> 0951 <textobject> 0952 <phrase>Importing CSV Catalogs</phrase> 0953 </textobject> 0954 </mediaobject> 0955 </screenshot> 0956 <para> 0957 In the top right you can choose whether coordinates are being 0958 expressed in degrees or 0959 hours/minutes/seconds. The <guilabel>Mapping</guilabel> section lets 0960 you map columns in the CSV file to data fields in 0961 &kstars;. Selecting <guilabel>Ignore</guilabel> assigns the default 0962 value for this field. Entering your own text will use this as the 0963 value for every object being read. The <guilabel>Type 0964 Mapping</guilabel> section maps strings to object types. You can add 0965 and remove mappings by clicking <guilabel>+</guilabel> 0966 or <guilabel>-</guilabel>. When you're done mapping, you can test 0967 your settings by clicking <guilabel>Preview</guilabel> to read the 0968 first few objects from the csv. If you are satisfied you can 0969 click <guilabel>OK</guilabel> to import the whole catalog or adjust 0970 your settings and preview again. As a reference, a mapping for the 0971 OpenNGC catalog is shown in the below screenshot. 0972 </para> 0973 <screenshot> 0974 <screeninfo>Importing CSV Catalogs, OpenNGC</screeninfo> 0975 <mediaobject> 0976 <imageobject> 0977 <imagedata fileref="csv_openngc.png" format="PNG"/> 0978 </imageobject> 0979 <textobject> 0980 <phrase>Importing CSV Catalogs</phrase> 0981 </textobject> 0982 </mediaobject> 0983 </screenshot> 0984 </sect3> 0985 </sect2> 0986 </sect1> 0987 0988 <sect1 id="solar_system"> 0989 <title>Solar System</title> 0990 <screenshot> 0991 <screeninfo>Solar System Window</screeninfo> 0992 <mediaobject> 0993 <imageobject> 0994 <imagedata fileref="solarsystem_page.png" format="PNG"/> 0995 </imageobject> 0996 <textobject> 0997 <phrase>Solar System Window</phrase> 0998 </textobject> 0999 </mediaobject> 1000 </screenshot> 1001 <para> 1002 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 1003 <secondary>Solar System page</secondary></indexterm> 1004 In the <guilabel>Solar System</guilabel> page, you can specify whether 1005 the Sun, Moon, planets, comets and asteroids are displayed, and 1006 whether the major bodies are drawn as colored circles or actual images. 1007 You can also toggle whether solar system bodies have name labels attached, 1008 and control how many of the comets and asteroids get name labels. 1009 There is an option to automatically attach a temporary <quote>orbit 1010 trail</quote> whenever a solar system body is tracked, and another to 1011 toggle whether the color of the orbit trail fades into the background 1012 sky color. 1013 </para> 1014 </sect1> 1015 1016 <sect1 id="satellites"> 1017 <title>Satellites</title> 1018 <screenshot> 1019 <screeninfo>Satellites Window</screeninfo> 1020 <mediaobject> 1021 <imageobject> 1022 <imagedata fileref="satellites_page.png" format="PNG"/> 1023 </imageobject> 1024 <textobject> 1025 <phrase>Satellites Window</phrase> 1026 </textobject> 1027 </mediaobject> 1028 </screenshot> 1029 <para> 1030 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 1031 <secondary>Satellites page</secondary></indexterm> 1032 The <guilabel>Satellites</guilabel> page allows you to set the satellites view options. Firstly, 1033 you can see or hide the satellites on the skymap using <guilabel>Show satellites</guilabel> checkbox 1034 from the top <guilabel>View Options</guilabel> section. By default, satellites are drawn as small 1035 light red filled circles with an optional dark red name label next to them. You can enable or disable 1036 these labels by checking or not the <guilabel>Show labels</guilabel> checkbox. It is located below 1037 the <guilabel>Show satellites</guilabel> checkbox, within the <guilabel>View Options</guilabel> section. 1038 </para> 1039 <para> 1040 The colors of the dots representing satellites and their name labels can be easily customized using 1041 the <guilabel>Colors</guilabel> page from the same <guilabel>Configure - &kstars;</guilabel> window. 1042 In addition, satellites can be drawn just like regular stars by checking the <guilabel>Draw satellites 1043 like stars</guilabel> checkbox. To display only the visible satellites from your current geographic location 1044 and time, select <guilabel>Show only visible satellites</guilabel>. 1045 </para> 1046 <para> 1047 &kstars; can draw artificial satellites from many predefined groups. Thus, you can select to display a particular 1048 group, multiple groups or partially select subgroups. Under each group, a list of individual satellites is 1049 presented. To select all satellites from a group, you need to check the group checkbox. You can also select 1050 only the satellites of interest in each group. 1051 The satellites orbital elements can be updated via the internet by pressing the <guibutton>Update TLEs</guibutton> 1052 button. Another way for updating the satellites orbital elements is to use the <menuchoice><guimenu>Data</guimenu> 1053 <guisubmenu>Updates</guisubmenu> <guimenuitem>Update Satellites Orbital Elements</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu 1054 item. If you know the name of a desired satellite then you can use the search satellites method that &kstars; 1055 provides. You need to enter the name of satellite in the <guilabel>Search satellites</guilabel> text box and the 1056 list will be reduced only to its best matches. 1057 </para> 1058 <para> 1059 You can add new satellites to &kstars; default satellites set by editing the 1060 <filename>kstars/data/satellites.dat</filename> file. As each line of this file is a group of 1061 satellites, you need to add a new entry for your desired satellites group. 1062 An entry should have the following format: <userinput>Group Name;local_filename;url</userinput>. 1063 For example: <userinput>Iridium;iridium.tle;https://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/iridium.txt</userinput>. 1064 </para> 1065 </sect1> 1066 1067 <sect1 id="supernovae"> 1068 <title>Supernovae</title> 1069 <screenshot> 1070 <screeninfo>Supernovae Window</screeninfo> 1071 <mediaobject> 1072 <imageobject> 1073 <imagedata fileref="supernovae_page.png" format="PNG"/> 1074 </imageobject> 1075 <textobject> 1076 <phrase>Supernovae Window</phrase> 1077 </textobject> 1078 </mediaobject> 1079 </screenshot> 1080 <para> 1081 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 1082 <secondary>Supernovae page</secondary></indexterm> 1083 The <guilabel>Supernovae</guilabel> page allows you to decide if the supernovae are displayed or not by checking 1084 the <guilabel>Show supernovae</guilabel> checkbox. By default, supernovae are drawn as small light orange <quote>+</quote> mark. 1085 As for satellites, the color of supernovae can be easily customized using the <guilabel>Colors</guilabel> page. 1086 </para> 1087 <para> 1088 You can set the magnitude limit for showing a supernova as well as magnitude limit for supernova alerts using 1089 the spin boxes control. The limiting magnitude is the faintest apparent magnitude of an skyobject that is 1090 visible with the naked-eye or a telescope. 1091 </para> 1092 <para> 1093 The list of recent supernovae can be updated via the <menuchoice><guimenu>Data</guimenu> 1094 <guisubmenu>Updates</guisubmenu> <guimenuitem>Update Recent Supernovae data</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item. 1095 </para> 1096 </sect1> 1097 1098 <sect1 id="guides"> 1099 <title>Guides</title> 1100 <screenshot> 1101 <screeninfo>Guides Window</screeninfo> 1102 <mediaobject> 1103 <imageobject> 1104 <imagedata fileref="guides_page.png" format="PNG"/> 1105 </imageobject> 1106 <textobject> 1107 <phrase>Guides Window</phrase> 1108 </textobject> 1109 </mediaobject> 1110 </screenshot> 1111 <para> 1112 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 1113 <secondary>Guides page</secondary></indexterm> 1114 The <guilabel>Guides</guilabel> page lets you toggle whether non-objects 1115 are displayed (&ie;, constellation lines, constellation names, the 1116 Milky Way contour, the <link linkend="ai-cequator">celestial 1117 equator</link>, <link linkend="ai-ecliptic">the ecliptic</link>, <link 1118 linkend="ai-horizon">the horizon line</link>, and the opaque ground). 1119 You can also choose a sky culture, whether you would like to see Latin constellation 1120 names, <acronym>IAU</acronym>-standard three-letter abbreviations, or 1121 constellation names using your local language. 1122 </para> 1123 </sect1> 1124 1125 <sect1 id="terrain"> 1126 <title>Terrain</title> 1127 <screenshot> 1128 <screeninfo>Terrain Window</screeninfo> 1129 <mediaobject> 1130 <imageobject> 1131 <imagedata fileref="terrain_page.png" format="PNG"/> 1132 </imageobject> 1133 <textobject> 1134 <phrase>Terrain Window</phrase> 1135 </textobject> 1136 </mediaobject> 1137 </screenshot> 1138 <para> 1139 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 1140 <secondary>Terrain page</secondary></indexterm> 1141 The <guilabel>Terrain</guilabel> page lets you configure whether the terrain (landscape) image will be shown on the skymap. 1142 </para> 1143 <para> 1144 The user is responsible for creating a partially-transparent image, that is overlayed onto the sky map. This image should have transparent regions that the user creates to let the skymap show through, and opaque regions representing the trees, buildings, the landscape around the telescope. There is a particular format required, and this is a significant effort. There are many resources on the web that explain how this is done for <ulink url="https://stellarium.org/landscapes.html">Stellarium</ulink>. The details of image creation are the same. 1145 </para> 1146 <para> 1147 Initially, the user captures a full sphere equirectangular projection image from approximately the same point-of-view as his/her telescope. This kind of image can be captured with the Google Camera App, or the Google YouTube App on iPhone, or likely many other camera apps. The user then needs to edit the resulting image so that the sky is erased/transparent, and save it as a PNG. Finally, the user needs to determine where North is in the image, so it can eventually be aligned with the skymap. Once all that is done, the sky map can simulate the local sky view including the local terrain. 1148 </para> 1149 <para> 1150 Once the image is created, it is possible to upload it via the <guilabel>Terrain</guilabel> page and configure the azimuth correction value (in degrees) that allows the user to rotate the view so north in the sky map is aligned with the north in the image. 1151 </para> 1152 <para> 1153 Moreover, some speedup options can be configured to achieve the best user experience when rendering the terrain on the sky map. 1154 </para> 1155 <tip> 1156 <para> 1157 You can toggle the terrain overlay on and off using a keyboard shortcut <keycombo>&Ctrl;&Shift;<keycap>T</keycap></keycombo> and the <menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu><guimenuitem>Show Terrain</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item. 1158 </para> 1159 </tip> 1160 </sect1> 1161 1162 <sect1 id="imageOverlays"> 1163 <title>Image Overlays</title> 1164 <screenshot> 1165 <screeninfo>Image Overlays on SkyMap</screeninfo> 1166 <mediaobject> 1167 <imageobject> 1168 <imagedata fileref="imageOverlays2.png" format="PNG"/> 1169 </imageobject> 1170 <textobject> 1171 <phrase>Image Overlays on SkyMap</phrase> 1172 </textobject> 1173 </mediaobject> 1174 </screenshot> 1175 <para> 1176 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 1177 <secondary>Image Overlays page</secondary></indexterm> 1178 Image overlays are custom images (typically <literal role="extension">.jpg</literal>) that are rendered onto the 1179 skymap over stars and other skymap items, but below the terrain. These images are added by you, the user, a sort 1180 of personal sky catalog. If configured properly, these personal images can be displayed almost perfectly aligned 1181 with other objects in the sky. 1182 </para> 1183 <screenshot> 1184 <screeninfo>Image Overlays Window</screeninfo> 1185 <mediaobject> 1186 <imageobject> 1187 <imagedata fileref="imageOverlays1.png" format="PNG"/> 1188 </imageobject> 1189 <textobject> 1190 <phrase>Image Overlays Window</phrase> 1191 </textobject> 1192 </mediaobject> 1193 </screenshot> 1194 <para> 1195 The <guilabel>Image Overlays</guilabel> page lets you configure whether image overlays will be shown on the skymap, 1196 and helps you add them to the system. The image at the start of this section shows the skymap with image overlays 1197 enabled and some image overlays loaded. 1198 </para> 1199 <para> 1200 Each time it starts up, &kstars; looks for new image overlay images in a special directory, parallel to the logs 1201 directory, named <literal>imageOverlays</literal>. On Linux this can be found in 1202 <filename class="directory">~/.local/share/kstars/imageOverlays</filename>. The exact location for your system can 1203 be found by clicking the <guibutton>Overlay Directory</guibutton> button near the top of the 1204 <guilabel>Image Overlays</guilabel> config page shown at the top of this section. To start, add your images to that 1205 directory. Ideally, for performance reasons these aren't massive files, but probably images with widths 1000 or 2000 1206 should be fine. To add additional images in the future, add them to the same directory and click the refresh button 1207 or restart &kstars;. To remove overlays, remove them from the directory and click the refresh button or restart &kstars;. 1208 </para> 1209 <para> 1210 Start &kstars; once you have images in the <literal>imageOverlays</literal> directory. If you then go to the 1211 <guilabel>Image Overlays</guilabel> config page, you should see the new files listed in the table. The new images 1212 will show their status as <guilabel>Unprocessed</guilabel>. Only images whose status is <guilabel>OK</guilabel> 1213 are displayed on the SkyMap. That is because &kstars; needs to know the sky location, size, and orientation for 1214 these images before it can display them. To change the status to <guilabel>OK</guilabel> you need to plate-solve 1215 the images or add the required information manually--see below. 1216 </para> 1217 <para> 1218 To prepare your images for display, you need to plate-solve the images (one time only). To do this, find an image 1219 in the table, click on its filename, and then click <guibutton>Solve</guibutton> below the table. 1220 The <guibutton>Solve</guibutton> button's label should switch to <guibutton>Cancel</guibutton> during the solve, 1221 and then when completed successfully, the solved parameters are displayed in the table and the status is changed 1222 to <guilabel>OK</guilabel>. A successful plate-solve's information is stored in the user database so that solving 1223 doesn't need to be repeated. The solved image should from then on appear in its proper position in the SkyMap. You 1224 can plate-solve multiple images in a single operation by clicking on the first image's filename, then holding down 1225 the &Shift; key and clicking on another filename. All the image files between the filenames should be selected. 1226 Then clicking <guibutton>Solve</guibutton> will attempt to solve them all. However, &kstars; will not attempt to 1227 plate-solve images whose status is <guilabel>OK</guilabel>, it will skip those images. (If you wish to re-plate-solve 1228 images with status <guilabel>OK</guilabel>, then manually change their status to <guilabel>Unprocessed</guilabel> and 1229 click <guibutton>Solve</guibutton>). It is possible that if you select several images, a few of them will not be 1230 successfully solved. 1231 </para> 1232 <para> 1233 Plate solving these images can sometimes be difficult. That is because at this point the system has no information as 1234 to the scale or position to look, and thus it is a blind solve. To improve your chance for success, you can enter an 1235 approximate RA/DEC center sky position into the <guilabel>RA</guilabel> and <guilabel>DEC</guilabel> columns for the 1236 row you are trying to solve. You can also add an image scale, in arcseconds-per-pixel. You can add a default scale to 1237 the right of the <guibutton>Solve</guibutton> button in the box labeled <guilabel>Default a-s/px</guilabel> so that 1238 all solving attempts use this scale by default. You can also add a scale directly into the table-row-column, which 1239 would override the default. You can choose which StellarSolver profile the solver uses (these profiles can be edited 1240 in Ekos' <guilabel>Align</guilabel> tab). Finally, you can adjust the solver's <guilabel>Timeout</guilabel> in seconds. 1241 </para> 1242 <para> 1243 If you have problematic images that won't solve, you can still display them by manually entering the values (that the 1244 solver didn't find) into the table. They are the RA, DEC, arcsecond-per-pixel, orientation angle, and east-to-the-right 1245 (or West-to-the-right) settings. Once you have done that, you can then change the status to <guilabel>OK</guilabel> and 1246 &kstars; will save these values to the user database as if they had been automatically solved. 1247 </para> 1248 <para> 1249 There are a few more controls on the <guilabel>Image Overlays</guilabel> settings page. 1250 The <guilabel>Show image overlays</guilabel> checkbox at the top of the page enables or disables this feature--that is, 1251 toggles whether any image overlays are display on the SkyMap or not. 1252 </para> 1253 <para> 1254 The <guilabel>Maximum image dimension:</guilabel> spinbox allows you to vary the maximum image dimension used for images. 1255 That is, if you place images that are, for example, 5000 pixels wide into the <literal>imageOverlays</literal> directory, 1256 but this input box's value is 1000, then the 5000-pixel-images will be read in, but then downsampled to 1000-pixels-wide 1257 before display. This is done to reduce the memory footprint and cpu usage of this feature. It would be more efficient to 1258 add image files with the desired image width. 1259 </para> 1260 <para> 1261 The <guilabel>Center SkyMap on selection</guilabel> checkbox allows you to easily navigate to the overlay images without 1262 directly manipulating the SkyMap. With this enabled, you select a row in the overlay table (&ie;, by clicking on the 1263 filename field) and the skymap is moved to that image if the image's status is <guilabel>OK</guilabel>. At that point 1264 you can move from one image to the next with &Up; and &Down; arrow keyboard commands. 1265 </para> 1266 </sect1> 1267 1268 <sect1 id="colors"> 1269 <title>Colors</title> 1270 <screenshot> 1271 <screeninfo>Colors Window</screeninfo> 1272 <mediaobject> 1273 <imageobject> 1274 <imagedata fileref="colors_page.png" format="PNG"/> 1275 </imageobject> 1276 <textobject> 1277 <phrase>Colors Window</phrase> 1278 </textobject> 1279 </mediaobject> 1280 </screenshot> 1281 <para> 1282 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 1283 <secondary>Colors page</secondary></indexterm> 1284 <indexterm><primary>Color Schemes</primary> 1285 <secondary>Customizing</secondary></indexterm> 1286 The <guilabel>Colors</guilabel> page allows you to set the color scheme, 1287 and to define custom color schemes. The tab is split into two panels: 1288 </para> 1289 <para> 1290 The left panel shows a list of all display items with adjustable 1291 colors. Click on any item to bring up a color selection window to 1292 adjust its color. Below the list is the <guilabel>Star color 1293 mode:</guilabel> dropdown box. By default, &kstars; draws stars with 1294 a <link linkend="ai-colorandtemp">realistic color</link> tint according 1295 to the spectral type of the star. However, you may also choose to draw 1296 the stars as solid white, black or red circles. If you are using the 1297 realistic star colors, you can set the saturation level of the star 1298 colors with the <guilabel>Star color intensity:</guilabel> spinbox. 1299 </para> 1300 <para> 1301 The right panel lists the defined color schemes. There are four 1302 predefined schemes: the <guilabel>Default Colors</guilabel> scheme, 1303 <guilabel>Star Chart</guilabel>, which uses black stars on a white 1304 background, <guilabel>Night Vision</guilabel>, which uses only shades 1305 of red in order to protect dark-adapted vision, and <guilabel>Moonless 1306 Night</guilabel>, a more realistic, dark theme. Additionally, 1307 you can save the current color settings as a custom scheme by clicking 1308 the <guibutton>Save As...</guibutton> button. It will prompt 1309 you for a name for the new scheme, and then your scheme will appear in 1310 the list in all future &kstars; sessions. To remove a custom scheme, 1311 simply highlight it in the list, and press the <guibutton>Remove</guibutton> button. 1312 </para> 1313 </sect1> 1314 1315 <sect1 id="fits-configure"> 1316 <title>FITS</title> 1317 <screenshot> 1318 <screeninfo>FITS Window</screeninfo> 1319 <mediaobject> 1320 <imageobject> 1321 <imagedata fileref="fits_page.png" format="PNG"/> 1322 </imageobject> 1323 <textobject> 1324 <phrase>FITS Window</phrase> 1325 </textobject> 1326 </mediaobject> 1327 </screenshot> 1328 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 1329 <secondary>FITS page</secondary></indexterm> 1330 <para><abbrev>FITS</abbrev> (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 <ulink url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FITS">corresponding Wikipedia article</ulink>. This page allows you to configure presentation and processing of FITS data in &kstars;. 1331 </para> 1332 <para> 1333 The left panel is for configuring FITS viewer itself. 1334 </para> 1335 <para> 1336 Check the <guilabel>Use FITS viewer</guilabel> item if you want automatically display received images in the FITS Viewer. 1337 </para> 1338 <para>The <guilabel>Single preview tab</guilabel> item is to display all captured FITS images in a single tab instead of multiple tabs 1339 per image. The <guilabel>Single window capture</guilabel> item is to display captured FITS images from all cameras in a single FITS Viewer window 1340 instead of a dedicated window to each camera. The <guilabel>Single window open</guilabel> item is to display opened FITS images in a single FITS Viewer window instead of a 1341 dedicated window to each file and the <guilabel>Independent window</guilabel> item is to make FITS Viewer window independent from &kstars;. 1342 </para> 1343 <para> 1344 The right panel lists processing options. The <guilabel>Auto stretch</guilabel> item is to always apply auto stretch to images in FITS Viewer, <guilabel>Limited resources mode</guilabel> is to enable limited resource mode to turn off any resource-intensive operations, namely: <guilabel>Auto debayer</guilabel> (bayered images will not be debayered; only grayscale images are shown), <guilabel>Auto WCS</guilabel> (World Coordinate System data 1345 will not be processed; WCS maps sky coordinates to image coordinates; 1346 equatorial grid lines, object identification, and telescope slew within an 1347 image are disabled), and <guilabel>3D cube</guilabel> (RGB images will not be 1348 processed; only grayscale images are shown). You can switch off some of these resource-greedy operations separately as well. 1349 </para> 1350 </sect1> 1351 1352 <sect1 id="indi_page"> 1353 <title>INDI</title> 1354 <screenshot> 1355 <screeninfo>INDI Window</screeninfo> 1356 <mediaobject> 1357 <imageobject> 1358 <imagedata fileref="indi_page.png" format="PNG"/> 1359 </imageobject> 1360 <textobject> 1361 <phrase>INDI Window</phrase> 1362 </textobject> 1363 </mediaobject> 1364 </screenshot> 1365 <para>For detailed explanation of the options on the <guilabel>INDI</guilabel> 1366 page see the <link linkend="indi-configure">Configure INDI</link> section. 1367 </para> 1368 </sect1> 1369 1370 <sect1 id="ekos-window"> 1371 <title>Ekos</title> 1372 <screenshot> 1373 <screeninfo>Ekos Window</screeninfo> 1374 <mediaobject> 1375 <imageobject> 1376 <imagedata fileref="ekos_page.png" format="PNG"/> 1377 </imageobject> 1378 <textobject> 1379 <phrase>Ekos Window</phrase> 1380 </textobject> 1381 </mediaobject> 1382 </screenshot> 1383 <para> 1384 Ekos is an astrophotography suite, a complete astrophotography solution that can control 1385 all INDI devices including numerous telescopes, CCDs, DSLRs, focusers, filters, and a lot more. 1386 Ekos supports highly accurate tracking using online and offline astrometry solver, autofocus 1387 and autoguiding capabilities, and capture of single or multiple images using the powerful 1388 built in sequence manager. For detailed explanation of <guilabel>Ekos</guilabel>, 1389 see the <link linkend="ekos">Ekos section of this manual</link>. 1390 </para> 1391 </sect1> 1392 1393 <sect1 id="xplanet-configure"> 1394 <title>Xplanet</title> 1395 <screenshot> 1396 <screeninfo>Xplanet Window</screeninfo> 1397 <mediaobject> 1398 <imageobject> 1399 <imagedata fileref="xplanet_page.png" format="PNG"/> 1400 </imageobject> 1401 <textobject> 1402 <phrase>Xplanet Window</phrase> 1403 </textobject> 1404 </mediaobject> 1405 </screenshot> 1406 <para> 1407 <ulink url="http://xplanet.sourceforge.net/">Xplanet</ulink> (should be installed separately) is 1408 a solar system planet surface renderer. This page allows you to configure presentation and 1409 processing of <application>Xplanet</application> data in &kstars;. 1410 </para> 1411 </sect1> 1412 1413 <sect1 id="advanced"> 1414 <title>Advanced</title> 1415 <screenshot> 1416 <screeninfo>Advanced Window</screeninfo> 1417 <mediaobject> 1418 <imageobject> 1419 <imagedata fileref="advanced_page.png" format="PNG"/> 1420 </imageobject> 1421 <textobject> 1422 <phrase>Advanced Window</phrase> 1423 </textobject> 1424 </mediaobject> 1425 </screenshot> 1426 <para> 1427 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 1428 <secondary>Advanced page</secondary></indexterm> 1429 The <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> page provides fine-grained control 1430 over the more subtle behaviors of &kstars;. 1431 </para><para> 1432 <indexterm><primary>Atmospheric Refraction</primary></indexterm> 1433 The <guilabel>Correct for atmospheric refraction</guilabel> checkbox 1434 controls whether the positions of objects are corrected for the effects 1435 of the atmosphere. Because the atmosphere is a spherical shell, light from 1436 outer space is <quote>bent</quote> as it passes through the atmosphere to 1437 our telescopes or eyes on the Earth's surface. The effect is largest for 1438 objects near the horizon, and actually changes the predicted rise or set 1439 times of objects by a few minutes. In fact, when you <quote>see</quote> a 1440 sunset, the Sun's actual position is already well below the horizon; 1441 atmospheric refraction makes it seem as if the Sun is still in the sky. 1442 Note that atmospheric refraction is never applied if you are using 1443 <guilabel>Equatorial coordinates</guilabel>. 1444 </para><para> 1445 <indexterm><primary>Animated Slewing</primary></indexterm> 1446 The <guilabel>Use animated slewing</guilabel> checkbox controls how the 1447 display changes when a new focus position is selected in the map. By 1448 default, you will see the sky drift or <quote>slew</quote> to the new 1449 position; if you uncheck this option, then the display will instead 1450 <quote>snap</quote> immediately to the new focus position. 1451 </para><para> 1452 <indexterm><primary>Objects in the Sky</primary> 1453 <secondary>Labeling</secondary> 1454 <tertiary>Automatic</tertiary> 1455 </indexterm> 1456 If the <guilabel>Attach label to centered object</guilabel> checkbox is 1457 selected, then a name label will automatically be attached to an object 1458 when it is being tracked by the program. The label will be removed when 1459 the object is no longer being tracked. Note that you can also manually 1460 attach a persistent name label to any object with its <link 1461 linkend="popup-menu">popup menu</link>. 1462 </para><para> 1463 <indexterm><primary>Objects in the Sky</primary> 1464 <secondary>Hiding</secondary></indexterm> 1465 There are three situations when &kstars; must redraw the sky display very 1466 rapidly: when a new focus position is selected (and <guilabel>Use 1467 animated slewing</guilabel> is checked), when the sky is dragged with the 1468 mouse, and when the time step is large. In these situations, the positions 1469 of all objects must be recomputed as rapidly as possible, which can put 1470 a large load on the <abbrev>CPU</abbrev>. If the <abbrev>CPU</abbrev> 1471 cannot keep up with the demand, then the display will seem sluggish or jerky. 1472 To mitigate this, &kstars; will hide certain objects during these rapid-redraw 1473 situations, as long as the <guilabel>Hide objects while moving</guilabel> 1474 checkbox is selected. The timestep threshold above which objects will be 1475 hidden is determined by the <guilabel>Also hide if time step larger 1476 than:</guilabel> timestep-spinbox. You can specify the objects that should 1477 be hidden in the <guilabel>Configure Hidden Objects</guilabel> section. 1478 </para> 1479 </sect1> 1480 1481 <sect1 id="developer"> 1482 <title>Developer</title> 1483 <screenshot> 1484 <screeninfo>Developer Window</screeninfo> 1485 <mediaobject> 1486 <imageobject> 1487 <imagedata fileref="developer_page.png" format="PNG"/> 1488 </imageobject> 1489 <textobject> 1490 <phrase>Developer Window</phrase> 1491 </textobject> 1492 </mediaobject> 1493 </screenshot> 1494 <para> 1495 <indexterm><primary>Configure &kstars; window</primary> 1496 <secondary>Developer page</secondary></indexterm> 1497 The <guilabel>Developer</guilabel> page provides a few checkboxes that can help 1498 debug issues with &kstars;. There are checkboxes for saving images 1499 in logging directories that might help debug issues. Of course, saving images 1500 can take up disk space and should be used judiciously. 1501 </para><para> 1502 The images that can be saved are</para> 1503 <itemizedlist> 1504 <listitem><para> 1505 all focus images, 1506 </para></listitem> 1507 <listitem><para> 1508 all guider images, 1509 </para></listitem> 1510 <listitem><para> 1511 all align images, and 1512 </para></listitem> 1513 <listitem><para> 1514 align images where the plate-solving failed. 1515 </para></listitem> 1516 </itemizedlist><para> 1517 The images are all saved in folders parallel to the main 1518 logging directory. They are in folders named guide, autofocus, align, and align/failed. 1519 </para> 1520 </sect1> 1521 1522 <sect1 id="customize"> 1523 <title>Customizing the Display</title> 1524 1525 <para> 1526 There are several ways to modify the display to your liking.</para> 1527 <itemizedlist> 1528 <listitem><para> 1529 <indexterm><primary>Info Boxes</primary><secondary>Customizing</secondary></indexterm> 1530 <indexterm><primary>Info Boxes</primary><secondary>Shading</secondary></indexterm> 1531 Toggle whether the Info Boxes are drawn in the <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu> 1532 <guisubmenu>Info Boxes</guisubmenu></menuchoice> submenu. In addition, you can 1533 manipulate the three Info Boxes with the mouse. Each box has additional lines of data 1534 that are hidden by default. You can toggle whether these additional lines are visible 1535 by double-clicking a box to <quote>shade</quote> it. Also, you can reposition a box by 1536 dragging it with the mouse. When a box hits a window edge, it will 1537 <quote>stick</quote> to the edge when the window is resized. 1538 </para></listitem> 1539 <listitem><para> 1540 <indexterm><primary>Toolbars</primary><secondary>Customizing</secondary></indexterm> 1541 Toggle whether the Toolbars are drawn in the <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu> 1542 <guisubmenu>Toolbars Shown</guisubmenu></menuchoice> submenu. Like most &kde; toolbars, 1543 they can also be dragged around and anchored on any window edge, or even detached from 1544 the window completely if they are unlocked. 1545 </para></listitem> 1546 <listitem><para> 1547 <indexterm><primary>Color Schemes</primary><secondary>Selecting</secondary></indexterm> 1548 Select a different color scheme in the <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu> 1549 <guisubmenu>Color Schemes</guisubmenu></menuchoice> submenu. There are four predefined 1550 color schemes, and you can define your own in the 1551 <link linkend="config"><guilabel>Configure - &kstars;</guilabel></link> window. 1552 </para></listitem> 1553 <listitem> 1554 <para> 1555 <indexterm><primary>Field-of-View Symbols</primary><secondary>Description</secondary></indexterm> 1556 Choose an <quote>FOV Symbol</quote> using the 1557 <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guisubmenu>FOV Symbols</guisubmenu></menuchoice> 1558 submenu. <firstterm>FOV</firstterm> is an acronym for <quote>field-of-view</quote>. 1559 An FOV symbol is drawn at the center of the window to indicate where the display 1560 is pointing. Different symbols have different angular sizes; you can use a symbol to show 1561 what the view through a particular telescope would look like. For example, if you choose 1562 the <quote>7x35 Binoculars</quote> FOV symbol, then a circle is drawn on the display that is 1563 9.2 degrees in diameter; this is the field-of-view for 7x35 binoculars. 1564 </para> 1565 <para> 1566 <indexterm><primary>Field-of-View Symbols</primary><secondary>Customizing</secondary></indexterm> 1567 You can define your own FOV symbols (or modify the existing symbols) using the 1568 <guimenuitem>Edit FOV Symbols...</guimenuitem> menu item, which launches the FOV Editor: 1569 </para> 1570 <screenshot> 1571 <screeninfo>Field-of-View Symbols Editor</screeninfo> 1572 <mediaobject> 1573 <imageobject> 1574 <imagedata fileref="fovdialog.png" format="PNG"/> 1575 </imageobject> 1576 <textobject> 1577 <phrase>FOV Symbol Editor</phrase> 1578 </textobject> 1579 </mediaobject> 1580 </screenshot> 1581 1582 <para> 1583 The list of defined FOV symbols is displayed on the left. On the right are buttons for 1584 adding a new symbol, editing the highlighted symbol's properties, and removing the 1585 highlighted symbol from the list. Note that you can even modify or remove the four 1586 predefined symbols (if you remove all symbols, the four defaults will be restored the 1587 next time you start &kstars;). Below these three buttons is a graphical preview display 1588 showing the highlighted symbol from the list. When the <guibutton>New...</guibutton> or 1589 <guibutton>Edit...</guibutton> button is pressed, the <guilabel>New FOV Indicator</guilabel> 1590 window is opened: 1591 </para> 1592 1593 <screenshot> 1594 <screeninfo>New Field-of-View Symbol</screeninfo> 1595 <mediaobject> 1596 <imageobject> 1597 <imagedata fileref="newfov.png" format="PNG"/> 1598 </imageobject> 1599 <textobject> 1600 <phrase>New FOV Symbol</phrase> 1601 </textobject> 1602 </mediaobject> 1603 </screenshot> 1604 1605 <para> 1606 <indexterm><primary>Field-of-View Symbols</primary><secondary>Defining New</secondary></indexterm> 1607 This window lets you modify the four properties that define a FOV symbol: name, size, 1608 shape, and color. The angular size for the symbol can either be entered directly in the 1609 <guilabel>Field of View</guilabel> edit box, or you can use the Eyepiece/Camera Tabs to 1610 calculate the field-of-view angle, given parameters of your telescope/eyepiece or 1611 telescope/camera setup. The five available shapes are: Square, Circle, Crosshairs, Bullseye and Semitransparent circle. 1612 Once you have specified all four parameters, press <guibutton>Ok</guibutton>, 1613 and the symbol will appear in the list of defined symbols. It will also be available 1614 from the <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guisubmenu>FOV Symbols</guisubmenu></menuchoice> submenu. 1615 </para> 1616 </listitem> 1617 </itemizedlist> 1618 1619 </sect1> 1620 1621 <sect1 id="skymap_orientation"> 1622 <title>Adjusting orientation of the sky map</title> 1623 <para> 1624 You can tweak various settings to make the orientation of the sky map match the view through your optical instrument, provided (as of this version) the instrument does not mirror the field-of-view (as is done by prisms used with SCTs and refractors). 1625 </para> 1626 <para> 1627 First, pick the coordinate system that matches your mount. For an equatorially mounted instrument, switch to the Equatorial Coordinate mode in the <guimenu>View</guimenu> menu. The option to toggle the coordinate system should read <guilabel>Switch to Horizontal View (Horizontal Coordinates)</guilabel> when the current mode is Equatorial Coordinates. For an altazimuth-mounted instrument or naked-eye viewing, switch to Horizontal Coordinates, so that the option in the <guimenu>View</guimenu> menu reads <guilabel>Switch to Star Globe View (Equatorial Coordinates)</guilabel>. This sets the base coordinate system used to render the sky map, and also sets the reference for the orientation of the skymap: zenith or north. 1628 </para> 1629 <para> 1630 To rotate the sky map freely, you can hold down the &Shift; key and drag the mouse on the sky map. A temporary overlay will appear showing the direction of north and zenith at the point, and displaying the angle they make with the vertical in a counterclockwise sense. The orientations of zenith and north will update as you rotate the sky map. Letting go of &Shift; or the mouse button will stop the rotation operation. As you pan the sky map or focus it on different objects, the rotation you set is retained as an offset from the reference direction. The reference direction is north when using Equatorial Coordinates and zenith when using Horizontal Coordinates. As a reminder, the reference direction is solid and brighter in the temporary overlay. For the two common orientations of erect and inverted, the rotation can be set / reset using the <menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu><guisubmenu>Skymap Orientation</guisubmenu></menuchoice> submenu. Select "North Down" or "Zenith Down" as is applicable to set an orientation of 180 degrees. 1631 </para> 1632 <para> 1633 If you are visually observing through an eyepiece of an instrument, you may need to do some more correction. For the common case of a large Dobsonian telescope (or more generally a Newtonian design mounted on an altazimuth mount), a systematic additional correction is of help. This correction applies because we stand erect while using the telescope irrespective of the angle the telescope tube is making with the ground. So as we move the telescope in altitude, an additional correction depending on the altitude of the object needs to be applied to make the sky map match the view through the eyepiece. This correction is enabled by checking the <guilabel>Erect observer correction</guilabel> checkbox in the <menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu><guisubmenu>Skymap Orientation</guisubmenu></menuchoice> submenu. This correction only makes sense in Horizontal Coordinate mode and is disabled when using equatorial coordinates. 1634 </para> 1635 <para> 1636 Finally we provide some examples of how to use these settings for various instruments: 1637 <itemizedlist> 1638 <listitem><para>Naked-eye observing: Choose Horizontal Coordinates and a <guilabel>Zenith Up</guilabel> orientation under <menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu><guisubmenu>Skymap Orientation</guisubmenu></menuchoice>.</para></listitem> 1639 <listitem><para>Camera on an equatorially mounted telescope: Choose Equatorial Coordinates and adjust the orientation of the sky map so that it matches your camera. As your mount points to different regions of the sky, the orientation should be rendered correctly.</para></listitem> 1640 <listitem><para>Using binoculars: Same settings as Naked-eye observing</para></listitem> 1641 <listitem><para>Using a RACI finder scope on an altazimuth mounted telescope: Same settings as Naked-eye observing, except you may need to tweak the orientation manually once if you have it mounted at an angle</para></listitem> 1642 <listitem><para>Using a straight-through (inverted view) finder scope on an altazimuth mounted telescope: Choose Horizontal Coordinates and a sky-map orientation of <guilabel>Zenith Down</guilabel> in <menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu><guisubmenu>Skymap Orientation</guisubmenu></menuchoice> submenu</para></listitem> 1643 <listitem><para>Eyepiece of a Dobsonian telescope: Choose Horizontal Coordinates, and in the <menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu><guisubmenu>Skymap Orientation</guisubmenu></menuchoice> submenu, select <guilabel>Zenith Down</guilabel> and check the <guilabel>Erect observer correction</guilabel> option. Then adjust the orientation manually once to match your telescope eyepiece view, and it should henceforth track it correctly.</para></listitem> 1644 </itemizedlist> 1645 </para> 1646 </sect1> 1647 1648 &hips; 1649 1650 </chapter>