Sky View

Screen layout

The screen is divided vertically into several sections.

• At the top there is the title bar. Besides that, the grid spacing is shown and at the right there is the zoom pulldown.
• Just above the map there is the tool bar with various buttons.
• The sky map
• Below the map at the bottom there is the info area. It shows the location, the time and the view direction or – if an object is selected – the name, the constellation, the magnitude and the position of the object.

In full screen mode the title bar and the info area are removed to make more space for the sky map.

Setting the view direction

There are several methods how you can set the view direction or the part of the sky that is shown:

• Drag the sky: Place the pen somewhere into the sky map and keep it down. Move it a little and a four arrows symbol will be shown. Hold the pen down and drag it where you want to move your starting point to, then lift it again.
• View direction dials: If no object is selected, the view direction dials appear at the lower right. They two circles have the same meaning as in compass view. The left semicircle shows the view altitude and the right circle shows the view azimuth. You can tap on the circles to open a popup list with a few general directions to choose from. You can also tap on the small arrows next to the circles to move the view direction stepwise horizontally or vertically.
• Alt/Az and RA/Dec buttons. On the tool bar there are two buttons and . The RA button opens a screen where you can enter the right ascension and the declination where you want the screen centered to. The AZ button lets you enter the azimuth and altitude of the screen center.
• Center the selected object. If an object is selected the center button appears on the tool bar. This button moves the selected object to the centre of the screen.
• Search an object: With the find button you can search for any object. If the object is not visible on the current map, the view direction is changed so that the object gets to the centre of the screen.
• Graffiti strokes: Write the letters "N", "E", "S" or "W" to set the view direction to north, east, south or west respectively. Write the numbers "0", "1", ..., "9" to set the view altitude to 0°, 10°, ..., 90°.

Zooming in and out

The popup list on the right can be used to set the zoom factor. The number indicates the field of view from the left to the right border of the screen. There are three customizeable zoom factors at the end of the list.

If you select 180° as zoom factor and change the view direction to "straight up" you get an overhead view of the full sky with the zenith in the middle of the screen.

The controls

There are several pen-sensitive regions in sky view. Let's start with the buttons on the tool bar:

Uses the Palm's current time when activated.
Toggles full screen mode on and off.
Select what will be drawn on the sky map.
Switches the constellation lines on and off.
Search for a star or an object.
Set the center of the map to a given right ascension and declination.
Set the center of the map to a given azimuth and altitude.
Mirrors left/right and up/down. This allows to simulate the view through some telescopes.
Open the telescope commands popup list (only available if you have installed a telescope driver. Read more about this on the page "Connecting a Telescope".
Go to compass view
Go to the Observation Log

The following three buttons are only avaliable when an object is selected:

Center the selected object.
Show information about the selected object
Unselect the selected object

The Zoom selector at the upper right is used to select the size of the field of view. The last three entries of the list can be customized by selecting the entry "Customize...".

The location, date and time texts can be tapped to set another time or location.

The view direction dials at the lower right open a popup list with a few general directions to choose from. You can also tap on the small arrows next to the circles to move the view direction stepwise horizontally or vertically. Please note that the view direction dials are only visible when no object is selected.

Sky View Settings

When you tap the button on the tool bar, you get to the Sky View Settings screen.

Here you can select what should be drawn on the sky map:

• Grids: You can choose whether an RA/dec grid or an Alt/Az grid or no grid at all should be drawn.
• Constellation lines and names
• Ecliptic and Horizon
• Planets: this also includes the Sun and the Moon
• Objects: Whatever is selected in the objects list
• Comets: Whatever is selected in the comets and asteroids list. Please note that comets and asteroids use a lot of computational power. If you don't need them, turn them off to make the screen redraw faster.
• Telrad circles. A Telrad finder is an optical device that superimposes three circles on your field of view. You can use these circles to measure distances between objects. Enter the diameters of the three circles of your Telrad finder into the three entry fields to display circles of that size in the sky view.

The Magnitude Filter lets you specify how many stars and objects are drawn in the sky map. This is depending on the zoom level. For view fields above 60 degrees, the uppermost line applies, for view fields from 20 to 60 degrees the middle line applies and for high zoom views the lower line applies. You enter the limiting magnitude. Only stars and objects that are brighter than this limit will be drawn.

The Tap info determines what kind of coordinates should be drawn on the two bottom lines in sky view when you tap on the map with the pen. You can select from RA/Dec, Az/Alt, and HA/Dec (HA = Hour Angle) or no info at all. Choose the one that fits your telescope mount. You can select HA to be either from 0h to 24h or ascending to 12h on both sides of 0h with indication of E or W.

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