User`s guide

Appearance of the Sky 35
Most of the object classes listed in the
Options pane have special options
associated with them. Clicking on the
object name in the pane will open a dialog
box with options for that object class. For
example, clicking on the word “Comets”
in the Options pane (“Solar System”
layer) will open a dialog box with options
for altering the appearance of comets.
Tip: Use the brightness slider to the right
of an object class name to control how
bright these objects appear onscreen.
Brightness Slider
Light
Many celestial objects are only visible
during certain times of the year. At other
times in the year, they are above the
horizon only during the daytime, when
they are washed out by the Sun’s light.
With Starry Night, you can get around this
problem by selecting View->Hide
Daylight from the menu, or unchecking
“Daylight” in the Options pane (Local
View). This turns on or off the effects of a
planet’s atmosphere, including the
scattering of light which makes our sky
appear blue. If it is daytime and you turn
daylight off, you will be able to see the
stars which are normally hidden.
Tip: This feature works on any planet
which has an atmosphere. On Mars, the
atmosphere scatters sunlight and makes
the sky look pink. Turning off daylight
eliminates this effect. Our Moon has no
atmosphere, so turning daylight off on its
surface has no effect.
Light Pollution: There may be times when
you want to add light, instead of
eliminating it. This is because the default
night view in Starry Night assumes the
observer is far from bright lights, under
dark skies. As a result, many stars are
visible, perhaps too many for the urban
stargazer.
Even on a perfectly cloudless and
moonless night, an observer in a big city
will not see anywhere near the number of