Overview

This website hosts an online planetarium program. It draws a draggable, interactive sky map using the specified location and time.
- uses Tycho 2, BSC, HIP catalogs (over 1.2 million stars up to magnitude 12)
- works on a large selection of browsers, including on mobile devices
- provides simple sky map navigation support targeted at amateur astronomers
- has location support (determines user's location by IP or by specified address, city or zip code)
- various features like print, zoom, pan, drag, object information, object search, etc
- planetary data is based on formulae provided by Paul Schlyter on his website
- star distances are based on HYG catalog developed by David Nash
- HTML5 sky map is currently under development

Instructions

- left click on a star or planet to get object information (magnitude, full name, rise/set times, etc) or, for HTML5 sky map, hover on a sky object to get its info
- zoom to see a higher level of details (the sky map renders dimmer stars for smaller field of views - magnitude level adjusts based on the zoom level)
- drag the sky map for navigation (the center of the map can't be dragged outside the borders of the map)
- use the menu entries to set your location, time, sky map options, etc
- Auto/IP Locate - automatically determines the location based on your computer IP address
- Location - manually add a location or pick a city from the combo box; also used to determine the latitude/longitude of a manually specified address
- click Go! after changing any editable fields (text boxes)
- use navigational buttons to zoom and pan or drag sky map
- use Options to change map size, display telrad finder, hide constellation names and constellation lines or draw AltAz grid

New features to be added soon:

- recognize the constellation / star online game
- higher level of customization
- additional star the deep space object catalogues (NGC)
- mobile friendly page
- planets and DSO displayed based on their size
- Spica Sky Map freeware application download
- check the Details page for more information about this website

Comments:

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