Welcome to Night Vision

A "planetarium" for your computer

Night Vision opens (when in the default Alt-Az mode) with a view of the heavens looking straight up (the zenith) from the user's preferred location. (Or, until a preferred location has been selected, a default location of Niwot, Colorado, a small town where this program started. See Setting up Night Vision to change to your preferred location.)

Within the main star window the mouse can be used to manipulate the view. Simply click and hold the left mouse button, then drag it where desired. (Tip: It is best to click on the bottom half of the window when at the zenith to avoid a rapid change in azimuth.) To zoom in or out use the mouse wheel. Objects can be identified by clicking with the right mouse button, which brings up the Object identification window.

Four Scrollbars can be added if desired by clicking "Set" on the menubar, then "Window..." to bring up the Window preferences window. The scrollbars can be used to control the azimuth and altitude (or right ascension and declination if in RA-Dec mode), the zoom, and rotation around the center of the window.

Additionally the view can be manipulated via the keyboard, e.g. pressing 'z' to zoom in, or 'Shift-z' to zoom out. See Keys help for further details.

Zooming in can also be accomplished by drawing a rectangle on the screen. This is done by holding down the 'Shift' key, then pressing the left mouse button and dragging the mouse. When the button is released the center of the rectangle is moved to the center of the window at a zoom level based on the area of the rectangle. (Press 'p' to return to the previous view.)

An entire 180° view can be seen (i.e. 90° in all directions from the center of the window) by zooming out and/or enlarging the window.

The toolbar allows easy manipulation of viewable items and other program functions. Hovering the mouse over each button will trigger a popup that provides a brief description of its function.

Star charts may be printed by clicking on the toolbar's print button (or via the "File" pull down menu).

Explore these and other options and enjoy the view of Night Vision !