Use this window to select which objects and options to display.
There are three ways of identifying stars. Common names, such as "Sirius", "Polaris" and "Vega", are shown by selecting "Star names". Many of these names are Arabic in origin. The other two ways of identification are "Bayer" and "Flamsteed" star labels. "Bayer" refers to the lower-case Greek letters assigned to stars within each constellation by German astronomer Johann Bayer (1572-1625; some sources list 1564-1617), and "Flamsteed" refers to numbers attributed to English astronomer John Flamsteed (1646-1719). If both "Bayer" and "Flamsteed" are selected, and both labels are available for a star, then both labels will appear with a hyphen ("-") between them.
"Deep sky" refers to objects outside the solar system, such as galaxies, nebulas, and star clusters.
"Milky Way" will display our galaxy as a shaded background. The outline is derived from the work of Dutch astronomer Antonie Pannekoek. This selection will also display the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (which are satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way galaxy), and the Coalsack (a dark cloud in our galaxy).
"Constellation names" can either be full length, or the standard 3 character abbreviation.
"Celestial grid" refers to a grid of celestial longitude and latitude, which astronomers term as right ascension and declination, respectively.
"Altitude/Azimuth grid" refers to a grid based on the user's perspective. Altitude is latitude based on the horizon. Azimuth is longitude referenced from North.
"Ecliptic" is the path the sun follows through the heavens.
"Horizon" refers to a tinting that is used to represent that part of the view that is blocked by the earth. This selection also displays compass directions ("N", "NE", "E", ...).
Pressing "OK" accepts new values.
Pressing "Cancel" rejects any changes.