Viewing the Planetarium
Contents
Any calculated chart in Solar Fire may be viewed in a planetarium style display showing planets and asteroids against the fixed stars and constellations, from a variety of perspectives. It is possible to get textual and technical information on the fixed stars in so far as it has been entered with Solar Fire’s Fixed Star Editor.
>> To display the planetarium for any calculated chart
1.Select the required chart from the list of "Calculated Charts" on the Main Screen
2.Select the Planetarium option from the View menu
This will cause the planetarium screen to be displayed, displaying the currently selected set of Displayed Points, and the currently selected set of Fixed Stars.
It is also possible to start up the planetarium directly, without running Solar Fire, by double-clicking on its icon in the Solar Fire Group window. However, in this case no planets or asteroids are displayed, and the star file that is used is whatever was last saved as the default Fixed Star file in Solar Fire. See Selecting a File for instructions on selecting another star file.
Whilst you are in the planetarium screen, it is possible to explore the celestial sphere in various ways which are explained below.
Choosing the Coordinate System