# Command Reference

## Menu Commands

### File Menu

&Ctrl;N File New Window

- Open another &kstars; window

&Ctrl;W File Close Window

- Close &kstars; window

&Ctrl;I File Save Sky Image...

- Create image on disk from current display

&Ctrl;R File Run Script...

- Run the specified KStars script

&Ctrl;P File Print...

- Send the current sky map to the printer (or to a PostScript/PDF file)

&Ctrl;Q File Quit

- Quit &kstars;

### Time Menu

&Ctrl;E Time Set Time to Now

- Sync time to system clock

&Ctrl;S Time Set Time...

- Set time and date

Time Start/Stop Clock

- Toggle whether time passes

### Focus Menu

Z Focus Zenith

- Center at the Zenith point (straight up)

N Focus North

- Center above the North point on the horizon

E Focus East

- Center above the East point on the horizon

S Focus South

- Center above the South point on the horizon

W Focus West

- Center above the West point on the horizon

&Ctrl;F Focus Find Object

- Locate an object by name using the Find Object Window

&Ctrl;T Focus Track Object

- Toggle tracking on/off. While tracking, the display will remain centered on the current position or object.

&Ctrl;M Focus Set Focus Manually...

- Opens a dialog in which you can enter specific RA/Dec coordinates to center on.

### View Menu

+ View Zoom in

- Zooms view in

- View Zoom out

- Zooms view out

&Ctrl;Z View Default Zoom

- Restore the default Zoom setting

&Ctrl;&Shift;Z View Zoom to Angular Size...

- Zoom to specified field-of-view angle

Space View Horizontal/Equatorial Coordinates

- Toggle between the Horizontal and Equatorial Coordinate Systems

### Settings Menu

Settings Info Boxes Show Info Boxes

- Toggle display of all three Info Boxes on/off

Settings Info Boxes Show Time

- Toggle display of the Time Info Box on/off

Settings Info Boxes Show Focus

- Toggle display of the Focus Info Box on/off

Settings Info Boxes Show Location

- Toggle display of the Location Info Box on/off

Settings Toolbars Show Main Toolbar

- Toggle display of the Main Toolbar on/off

Settings Toolbars Show View Toolbar

- Toggle display of the View Toolbar on/off

Settings Color Schemes

- This submenu contains all of the defined color schemes, including your custom schemes. Selecting an item sets the scheme automatically.

Settings FOV Symbols

- This submenu lists the available field-of-view (FOV) Symbols. The FOV Symbol is drawn at the center of the display. You may choose from the list of predefined symbols (No symbol, 7x35 Binoculars, One degree, or HST WFPC2), or you may define your own symbols (or modify existing symbols) using the Edit FOV symbols... item.

&Ctrl;G Settings Set Geographic Location...

- Select a new geographic location

&Ctrl;O Settings Configure &kstars;...

- Modify view options

### Tools Menu

&Ctrl;C Tools Calculator...

- Opens the AstroCalculator Tool, which provides full access to many of the mathematical functions used by &kstars;.

&Ctrl;V Tools AAVSO Light Curves...

- Opens the AAVSO Light Curve Generator Tool, which allows you to download a light curve for any variable star from the American Association of Variable Star Observers.

&Ctrl;A Tools Altitude vs. Time...

- Opens the Altitude vs. Time Tool, which can plot curves representing the altitude of any object as a function of time. This is useful for planning observing sessions.

&Ctrl;U Tools What's Up Tonight...

- Opens the What's Up Tonight Tool, which presents a summary of the objects which are observable from your location on a given date.

&Ctrl;B Tools Script Builder...

- Opens the Script Builder Tool, which provides a GUI interface for building &kstars; DCOP scripts.

&Ctrl;Y Tools Solar System...

- Opens the Solar System Viewer, which displays an overhead view of the solar system on the current simulation date.

&Ctrl;J Tools Jupiter's Moons...

- Opens the Jupiter Moons Tool, which displays the positions of Jupiter's four brightest moons as a function of time.

### Devices Menu

Devices Telescope Wizard

- Opens up the Telescope Setup Wizard, which provides a step by step guide to help you connect to your telescope and control it from &kstars;.

Devices Device Manager

- Opens up the device manager, which allows you to start/shutdown device drivers and connect to remote INDI servers.

Devices INDI Control Panel

- Opens up INDI Control Panel, which allows you to control all the features supported by a device.

Devices Configure INDI

- Opens up a dialog to configure INDI-related features such as automatic device updates.

### Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

### Popup Menu

The right click popup menu is context-sensitive, meaning it is different depending on what kind of object you click on. We list all possible popup menu items here, with the object type [in brackets].

[All]

- Identification and type: The top one to three lines are devoted to the name(s) of the object, and its type. For stars, the Spectral Type is also shown here.

[All]

- Rise/Set/Transit times are shown on the next three lines.

[All]

- Center and Track: Center the display on this location, and engage tracking. Equivalent to double-clicking.

[All except Solar System]

- Show 1st/2nd Gen DSS Image: The Digitized Sky Survey is an incredible resource: a photographic atlas of the entire sky. Through the miracle of the internet, you can download a photograph of any patch of sky. &kstars; provides one-click access to this database. There are two generations of the Survey; the second generation is not yet complete, so you may get an error when requesting a 2nd Gen DSS image. Note that the image files are large, and may not be very esthetic. If other images are available for your object, you should try them first.

[Messier, Solar System]

- Show SEDS Information Page: The Students For the Exploration and Development of Space have a wonderful website, which includes very extensive information on the Solar System and on Messier objects. &kstars; provides links to these pages in the popup menu.

[Messier]

- Show SEDS Image: The main image of this Messier object from the SEDS.org information page.

[Some Deep-Sky objects]

- Show HST Image: Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope periodically publish beautiful images from the HST as press releases. Some of these are pretty famous, and have become cultural icons. You can access them all through &kstars;.

[Some Deep-Sky objects]

- Show KPNO AOP Image: The Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona has a public outreach program called the Advanced Observing Program, which allows anyone to rent a 16-inch telescope located on Kitt Peak for a night. This program has been producing some of the finest amateur astronomy images ever taken, and we include over 100 of them in our database of links.

[All Named Objects]

- Add Link...: This allows you to add your own custom links to the popup menu of any object. It opens a small window in which you enter the &URL; of the link, and the text you want to appear in the popup menu. There is also a pair of radio buttons which allow you to specify whether the &URL; is an image or an HTML document, so &kstars; knows whether to launch the web browser or the image viewer. You can use this to add links to files on your local disk, so this feature could be used to attach observing logs or other custom information to objects in &kstars;. Your custom links are automatically loaded whenever &kstars; starts up, and they are stored in the folder `~/.kde/share/apps/kstars/`, in files `myimage_url.dat` and `myinfo_url.dat`. If you build an extensive list of custom links, consider submitting them to us, we would like to include them in the next version of &kstars;!

## Keyboard Commands

Arrow Keys

- Use the arrow keys to pan the display. Holding down the &Shift; key doubles the scrolling speed.

+ / -

- Zoom In/Out

0–9

- Center Display on a Solar System object.

  - 0: Sun

  - 1: Mercury

  - 2: Venus

  - 3: Moon

  - 4: Mars

  - 5: Jupiter

  - 6: Saturn

  - 7: Uranus

  - 8: Neptune

  - 9: Pluto

Z

- Center on the Zenith Point (straight up).

N

- Center above North horizon.

E

- Center above East horizon.

S

- Center above South horizon.

W

- Center above West horizon.

F1

- Open the &kstars; Handbook.

&Ctrl;F

- Open Find Object Window.

&Ctrl;M

- Specify RA/Dec coordinates to center on.

Space

- Toggle between the Horizontal and Equatorial Coordinate Systems

&Ctrl;G

- Open Set Geographic Location window.

&Ctrl;O

- Open the Display Options window

&Ctrl;E

- Set time to the CPU clock.

&Ctrl;S

- Open Set Time window.

&Ctrl;T

- Toggle tracking.

&Ctrl;C

- Open the astro calculator.

&Ctrl;A

- Open the altitude vs. time tool.

&Ctrl;V

- Open the variable-star lightcurve tool.

&Ctrl;U

- Open the what's up tonight tool

&Ctrl;N

- Open another &kstars; window.

&Ctrl;W

- Close a &kstars; window.

&Ctrl;P

- Print the current sky map.

&Ctrl;Q

- Quit &kstars;.

## Mouse Commands

Moving the mouse

- The Equatorial (RA, Dec) coordinates of the mouse cursor are updated in the status bar.

Clicking

- Identify the object nearest the mouse cursor in the status bar.

Double-clicking

- Center and track on the clicked location or object nearest the mouse cursor. Double-clicking on an Info Box will shade it to reveal/hide extra information.

Right-clicking

- Open the popup menu for the location or object nearest the mouse cursor.

Scrolling the mouse wheel

- Zoom the display in or out. If you don't have a mouse wheel, you can hold the middle mouse button and drag vertically.

Click-and-dragging

- Dragging the sky map

- Pan the display, following the drag motion.

&Ctrl;+dragging the sky map

- Define a rectangle in the map. When the mouse button is released, the display is zoomed in to match the field-of-view to the bounds of the rectangle.

Dragging an Info Box

- The Info Box is repositioned in the map. Info Boxes will stick to window edges, so that they remain on the edge when the window is resized.