Usermanual for Skyimage

Skyimage Usermanual

With SkyServer you can arrange and request your personal view of the Starlit Sky as a Skyimage. There are 2.500.000 stars, 8.000 deep sky objects, the constellations, the planets, local horizon and registered comets available. With various functions and settings i.e. observer location, date, eyepiece etc. you can adjust the Skyimage to your individual needs.

Skyimage

The Skyimage represents a view of the NightSky, which is calculated and drawn based on your current individual settings. Constellations are connected with lines and are marked with latin names. Deep Sky Objects, as for example galaxies or star cluster are represented as box. Planets, the sun or the moon are drawn as circles. If planets, sun, moon or Deep Sky Objects are zoomed out, they are represented as cross. The cross of a planet is drawn larger than the cross of a Deep Sky Object. The amount of drawn objects depends on the various settings you can set for your Skyimage, for instance location, date, zoom, chart settings, visible limits ...

Settings for the current Skyimage

Field Name:

Assign a unique name for a new Skyimage. For stored Skyimages the name is displayed and not editable.

Combobox Imagesize:

Select here the imagesize for your current Skyimage from your list of imagesizes.

Combobox Eyepiece:

Select here the eyepiece for your current Skyimage from your list of eyepieces.

Combobox Observation location:

Select here the observation location for your current Skyimage from the list of observation locations.

Your private locations are shown with prefix '*' at the beginnig of a location combobox in SkyServer - followed by the Common SkyServer locations.

Checkbox / Combobox Special Date:

Here you decide, if the actual calling date or a special date should apply for the calculation of your current Skyimage. Choose here your special date.

Field Equat. Coordinates:

The equatorial coordinates for your current Skyimage are displayed.

Additional settings

Combobox Star Magnitude change

Here you can lessen or increase the (visible) brightness of stars for the current Skyimage. Each star will be adapted to the selected brightness.

Combobox Star color

Select here the star color for your current Skyimage from the list of colors.

Combobox Line color

Select here the line color for your current Skyimage from the list of colors.

Combobox Text color

Select here the text color for your current Skyimage from the list of colors.

Combobox Object color

Select here the object color for your current Skyimage from the list of colors.

Combobox Color intentensity

The brightness for the current Skyimage can be adapted here.

Combobox Grey scale quality

Here you can adapt the grey Scale Quality. With higher Quality the Byte Size of the Skyimage gets larger.

Checkbox Invert star and background color

You can invert the star and the background color for your current Skyimage.

Checkbox Show horizon

With this setting the local horizon is displayed for the current Skyimage.

Checkbox Show constellation borders

You can show the constellation borders in your current Skyimage.

Checkbox Show eyepiece

To display the eyepiece in the Skyimage set this setting. A circle with a cross is drawn to specify which part of the image you would see through the selected eyepiece.

Checkbox Mirror vertical

When looking through a Newton Telescope it is often very helpful to mirror the Skyimage vertically.

Checkbox Mirror horizontal

When looking through a Newton Telescope it is often very helpful to mirror the Skyimage horizontal.

Checkbox Show only selected object

If this setting is set, only the selected object is drawn, and all other objects stay hidden.

Checkbox Show all objects

Whether or not Deep Sky objects are displayed in your current Skyimage depends on this setting.

Combobox Objekt Magnitude limit

You can here limit the number of drawn objects for the current Skyimage to the selected brightness.

Button Save settings and redraw Skyimage

With this Button you can save your specified settings and redraw the current Skyimage.

Button Confirm delete

The current Skyimage will be deleted.

Navigation, search and display of Objects and constellations

Link Skyimage in real size

With this link you can view your current Skyimage in real size in a seperate window. This make special sense, if the selected imagesize for your current Skyimage is greater than the preview-size of 500 * 300 Pixel.

Mouse-click Center mouse-position

If you click with your mouse anywhere in the displayed Skyimage, then the current Skyimage settings are saved and the Skyimage centered around the mouse-position is recalculated and redrawn.

Field / Button View angle:

Here is the view angle for your current Skyimage displayed. To zoom in or zoom out click in the bar below. If you choose an other eyepiece, the view angle will be set to the derived angle of the eyepiece.

Listbox Brightest objects in Skyimage

Depending on the field of view this list is filled with the most bright visible deep sky objects.The description of the selected object is displayed in the field beside.

Listbox Solarsystem objects

The solarsystem objects are displayed in this list, you can select one to center.

Listbox Constellations

The constellations are displayed in this list, you can select one to center.

Button Center

If you select an object or constellation and press this button, then the current Skyimage settings are saved and the Skyimage centered around the selected object or constellation is recalculated and redrawn.

Button Recenter

If you press this button, then the current Skyimage settings are saved and the Skyimage centered around your last selected object is recalculated and redrawn.

Search object in starcatalog

Here you can search an object from the catalogs Messier, NGC oder IC.

Radiobutton Catalog:

Choose here a catalog.

Field Objectnumber:

Insert the objectnumber you want to search in your chosen Catalog.

Button Search and center

If you choose the catalog, insert the Objektnummer and press this button, then the object will be searched in the specified catalog. Your current Skyimage settings are saved and the Skyimage centered around the selected object or constellation is recalculated and redrawn.

Links

Link to your Skyimages

This link leads you to the Administration-Site for your Skyimages. There you can create, edit and delete your Skyimages. The Skyimage 'Mobile_1' is reserved for MicroSky and can only be edited.

Link to your Imagesizes

This link leads you to the Administration-Site for your Imagesizes.

Link to your Eyepieces

This link leads you to the Administration-Site for your Eyepieces.

Link to your Locations

This link leads you to the Administration-Site for your Locations.

Link to your Animations

This link leads you to the Administration-Site for your Animations. There you can create, edit and delete your Animations.

Link Logoff

This link logs you off from Skyserver.