The Naked-Eye list of charts contains some wide-field views of the sky with fairly bright stars. As with other views, the Location is the star (or other point) you're viewing from, and the Target is the star (or other point) you are looking towards. The navigation tool is active, so you can "step" the chart up, down, left, and right about half a chart's width at a time.
Chart | Description |
---|---|
City Skies | This is the sky as it might be seen from a typical city area, close to but not right in downtown. Stars with well-known proper names are identified, as are constellations and celestial coordinates. |
Dark Skies | The sky as it would be seen from a fairly (but not unusually) dark location -- several dozen miles from any nearby cities or large towns. As with City Skies, stars are identified by name, and constellation and coordinate information is available. |
Dark Skies - Unlabeled | This is the same as Dark Skies, but without any of the stars' names, constellations, or coordinates identified. Pick this view when you want to see the sky from your usual dark site, but can't quite make it there. |
Pristine Skies | The sky as it is meant to be seen. This is what the sky looks like from a truly remote location, more than 100 miles from the nearest large city. If you've been to someplace like the Texas or Nebraska Star Party, you know this sky -- and love it. |
Nearby Star Navigator | This is a little different -- this is almost the entire sky, centered on the selected target, with the same brightness cutoff as Dark Skies mode. All the nearby stars (within 40 light years) visible from your target are labeled. If you want to explore the universe from nearby stars, this is your jumping-off point. Be aware that this chart projection is a "fisheye lens"-like view that distorts the edges quite a bit. It's meant to show almost all visible stars on one chart, not to be representative of how the constellations actually look. If you want to see how the sky actually looks from one of the nearby stars on this chart, select it, "Go To" it, and then pick another chart such as City Skies, Dark Skies, or one of the Atlas charts. |