Earth Centered Universe

Introduction

Nova Astronomics' Earth Centered Universe (ECU) is a planetarium and telescope control program built for amateur astronomers. It is capable of simulating many of the features visible in the Earth's night sky. You only need to enter your geographic location plus the time and the local sky will then be shown. The ECU includes a large database of stars, the planets, Sun, Moon, comets, minor planets, and "deep sky" objects.

Display

The map is in Local Horizon Mode by default. This shows the sky as it would appear relative to the horizon as seen from Durham.

A status bar along the bottom of the screen displays information such as the current time, centre of the display, current field size and the magnitude of the faintest stars displayed.

Displayed in the window by default are solar system objects, the Sun, Moon, stars, deep sky objects such as galaxies, lines showing constellations and the ecliptic, as well as labels of constellations and brighter stars.

Using the mouse

    Left mouse button:

• Select an object - press and release button. This shows the Identify Object dialog box which describes the object. If objects overlap, press once more for information about the next one. Click on quit or the background to close box.
  
• Zoom a window - press, hold and mark out a rectangle. This zooms in on that area and centres it in the display.

    Right mouse button:

• Centre a position - press and release. Displays that position in the centre of the screen.
  
• Calculate angular separation of objects - press, hold and move cursor to new position. A dialog box appears when the button is released.

Toolbar

The important toolbar button functions are:

• Zoom out / Zoom in
  
• Undo: redraws the previous sky display
  
• Stars
  
  • Left button: display of stars toggled on and off
    
  • Right button: shows dialog box controlling magnitude of stars in display
    
• Deep sky
  
  • Left button: display of deep sky objects toggled on and off
    
  • Right button: dialog box controlling deep sky object parameters displayed
    
• Solar system
  
  • Left button: display of solar system objects toggled on and off
    
  • Right button: shows dialog box controlling solar system objects in display
    
• Grid: toggles co-ordinate grid on and off
  
• Lines
  
  • Left button: display of lines toggled on and off
    
  • Right button: shows dialog box controlling lines and points shown in display
    
• Labels
  
  • Left button: display of labels toggled on and off
    
  • Right button: dialog box controlling label settings displayed
    

• Enable/Disable telescope interface - establishes contact with the telescope

Important Menu Items

• Set/Time - should have 'Use System Time' checked and Daylight Saving ticked if required.
  
• Field - allows you to choose which objects are to be shown in the sky display
  
  • Chart Mode can be set to either 'Local Horizon' or 'Star Atlas' mode
    
  • the Targets sub-menu allows a CCD view-size box to be displayed & tracked on the screen
    
• Centre - include a search through the object database option

Back to the AstroLab Home Page

jrl

2013-Dec-22 23:30:48 UTC