MozusystemsMozusystemsDeveloper of Unique Visualization and Graphics Editing Apps

Manual

Finding an Object

Search, the navigator lists, and how the lists change with the view.

AstroPlotorium User Manual

Navigator search with a star result

Press Space. The navigator opens if it was closed, and the search box is ready. Type a name or a catalog id and pick a row. Esc leaves the search box.

You can search for a common name (Moon, Vega, Orion), a Bayer name, a planet or moon, a Messier or Caldwell id, and many deep-sky names. If several places share a name, pick the row that shows the country or the catalog id you meant.

  • (1) Show/Hide the navigator panel
  • (2) search text box
  • (3) The pin at the top of the navigator keeps the list open after you select an object. Unpin it and the list closes when you pick a target, which leaves more of the sky visible.
  • (4) The Navigator panel

These lists appear in 2D Celestial Sphere, 2D Planetarium, Ephemeris, 2D Planisphere, 2D Solar System, and 3D Orbit:

  • Solar System. Sun, planets, major moons, a short list of asteroids and comets, and dwarf planets.
  • Nearby Stars. Bright nearby stars with distance and spectral type.
  • Bright Stars. Grouped by magnitude.
  • Asterisms. Named figures such as the Big Dipper. Each row has an eye to show or hide that one figure. View All and Hide All set the whole list.
  • Constellations. The 88 IAU constellations, plus View All, Hide All, and Zodiac. The eye on a row shows or hides that constellation’s figure without leaving the list.
  • Messier, Caldwell, and Deep Space Objects. Deep-sky catalogs. The deep-sky list keeps the brighter and the named objects.

The sky lists above are replaced by space lists:

  • Local Celestial Sphere and Current Location.
  • 3D Solar System. Inner and outer planets, each as a body, an orbit, or a whole system. Major moons. Major asteroids and comets. Minor planets by a broad type list. Dwarf planets. The whole solar system, or the inner system only.
  • Solar System Beyond. Kuiper belt, scattered disc, heliopause, Hills cloud, and the inner and outer Oort cloud. These are region models, not a plot of every known object.
  • Nearby Stars Chart 3D. Shells from 5 light-years out to 10,000 light-years, including a few shells limited to stars larger than 1.2 solar radii.
  • Open Clusters in 3D. A selected set of clusters drawn with member stars.
  • Milky Way Galaxy. The galaxy alone, with Messier objects, with globular clusters, or with stellar streams.

Bright stars and the nearby-star name list stay available so you can still jump to a star.

Only the simulation catalog is listed: globular-cluster classes, open-cluster classes, nebula types, a black hole, and galaxy Hubble types. See Simulations.