Welcome to Night Vision

a "planetarium" program for Java.

Night Vision opens with a view of the heavens looking straight up from the user's preferred location. (Or, until a preferred location has been selected, a default location of Niwot, Colorado, the author's favorite small town. See Setting up Night Vision to change to your preferred location.)

Two scrollbars control the direction of view:

Altitude and azimuth are indicated in the information window at the top.
Interpret altitude as follows:
Alt View
0 Along the horizon
90 Straight up (zenith)
-90 Straight down (nadir)
 
Interpret azimuth as follows:
Az View
0 and 360 North
90 East
180 South
270 West

A third scrollbar, at the left side of the window, controls the zoom (or magnification) of the view. To zoom in, move the scroll up. To zoom out, move the scroll down. You can also zoom in and out by pressing 'z' and 'Shift-z'. Additional keys are described on the Keys Help page. By pressing 'Shift-z' and/or enlarging the window an entire 180° view can be seen. (I.e. 90° in all directions from center of window.)

A fourth scrollbar can be added to the top of the window via the Window preferences window. This scroll rotates the view around its center.

Night Vision is designed for ease of use with the mouse. The mouse can be used to center an object, identify an object, or to zoom towards an object. For example, to move an object to the center of the window, left click on that object. To zoom towards an object, draw a rectangle around that object by pressing the left mouse button and then 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.)

Objects can be identified with the right mouse button. Right click an object to bring up the Object identification window.

Be sure to check out Command line options for addition program control.

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