User`s guide

Bending Space & Time 101
lunar month), again due to the revolution
of Earth around the Sun.
Lunar month: This is the time interval
between two full moons, as seen on Earth.
It is about 29 1/2 days.
Customizing Time Steps:
You are not limited to
the choice of time steps
that appear in the time
step pull-down menu. If
you click on the
numerical part of the current time step, it
will light up and you can type in a
numerical value. This will let you change
the time step from 1 day to 7 days, for
example.
In Starry Night Pro and Pro Plus, you can
also create entirely new discrete time
steps. To do this, choose Edit from the
bottom of the time flow pull-down menu.
This opens a new dialog box, which lists
the existing time steps and their values.
Double-click on any of the existing time
steps to change their values, or click the
“+” sign in the bottom left corner of this
dialog box to define a new time step. For
example, you could create a “Martian
day”, the average time between sunrise
and sunset as seen from Mars!
Time Flow Modes
In the above section, you learned how to
change the rate of time flow, but not the
mode of time flow. Time simply flowed
forward continuously, advancing every
time the screen updated. This is known as
the “Forward” mode and is one of 5
different time flow modes in Starry Night.
You change the time mode using the VCR-
like controls in the toolbar.
Single Step Backward: Moves the
time backwards by one time step and
then freezes time.
Backward: Runs time backwards
continuously. Each time the screen is
updated, the time moves backward one
time step.
Stop: Freezes time at the current
value.
Forward (Play): Runs time forward
continuously. Each time the screen is
updated, time moves forward one time
step. This is the default time flow mode.
Single Step Forward: Moves the time
forward by one time step and then
freezes time.
Tip: If you want to view the sky at a
precise time, first press the “Stop” button,
and then type in the viewing time. If you
type in the viewing time first, the time
shown onscreen may update before you
can press the “Stop” button.