Planetarium and the 3D Styles Designer

To view the currently opened chart in the 3D Planetarium format, use the View/3D Planetarium... menu option.
To manage 3D Styles, go to the Utilities/3D Styles Designer... menu.

Overview

The Planetarium window allows switching between the View and the Designer modes. In the View mode you can use Planetarium, find objects, planets and house cusps.
In the Designer  mode, you can edit the way the Planetarium is drawn and create your own 3D presentation styles.

3D Planetarium: the View mode

• Use your mouse to rotate the Sky.
• Use the Controls/Search form to search for specific locations in the Sky. Enter the Longitude (and optionally Latitude) and the Sky will be rotated to place the point corresponding to those coordinates in the center.
• Clicking on the objects, planets and house cusps in the Planes and Houses tables will have the same effect as the Search - the Sky will be rotated to place the selected object in the center of the screen.
• When the Sun is visible, the Sky will lit up indicating the day time (this is configurable in the Designer mode).
• Planets are shown according to their true latitude so they may appear above or below the Ecliptic line.

3D Planetarium: Styles Designer

To open an existing 3D Style:

1. Expand the File menu and select Open...
2. Select a Style and click Open.

    The Style will be opened in the Designer window.

Editing 3D Styles

The following properties can be modified:

• Constellation Figures and their colors. The following types of constellation figures are supported:
1. Western - traditional constellations
2. Indian - constellations according to Vedic tradition
3. Egyptian
4. Arabic
5. Chinese
6. Aztec
7. Navajo
8. Lakota
9. Polynesian
• Constellation Names
• Constellation Boundaries
• RA Grid
• RA Degrees
• Ecliptic line
• Degrees of Ecliptic
• Fixed stars. Fixed stars can also be restricted by their magnitude
• Aspects
• Aspect Line Width. This is a factor by which the width of aspect lines should be increased.
• Planets glyphs and planets names
• Day and Night Sky colors
• Zodiac Types:
1. Tropical
2. Sidereal
3. Galactic
4. 13 Signs
5. Tropical Lunar Mansions
6. Nakshatras
• Line width and color for Zodiac boundaries and Signs boundaries
• Houses:
• Location and width of the Houses sectors
• Colors of house numbers
• Line width and line colors of the House boundaries and house sector divisions.

Note 1: Please make sure that pop-ups from astroapp.com are not blocked in your browser.
Note 2: If you are using IE, ActiveX must be enabled in your browser settings.
Note 3: To disable the daylight / nighttime feature, set the Day and Night colors to the same value.

Additional Features____________________________________________

• If you are using Firefox or Chrome browsers, you can also save the 3D view as a png image: simply right-mouse click anywhere in the Sky area and select the Save as Image context menu option.

Editions

• The 3D Planetarium and 3D Styles Designer are available in AstroApp Pro and AstroApp Financial Gold Editions.