Chapter 4. Command Reference

Menu Commands

File Menu

File->New Window (Ctrl+N)

Open another KStars window

File->Close Window (Ctrl+W)

Close KStars window

File->Save Sky Image... (Ctrl+I)

Create image on disk from current display

File->Run Script... (Ctrl+R)

Run the specified KStars script

File->Print... (Ctrl+P)

Send the current sky map to the printer (or to a PostScript/PDF file)

File->Quit (Ctrl+Q)

Quit KStars

Time Menu

Time->Set Time to Now (Ctrl+E)

Sync time to system clock

Time->Set Time... (Ctrl+S)

Set time and date

Time->Start/Stop Clock

Toggle whether time passes

Focus Menu

Focus->Zenith (Z)

Center at the Zenith point (straight up)

Focus->North (N)

Center above the North point on the horizon

Focus->East (E)

Center above the East point on the horizon

Focus->South (S)

Center above the South point on the horizon

Focus->West (W)

Center above the West point on the horizon

Focus->Find Object (Ctrl+F)

Locate an object by name using the Find Object Window

Focus->Track Object (Ctrl+T)

Toggle tracking on/off. While tracking, the display will remain centered on the current position or object.

Focus->Set Focus Manually... (Ctrl+M)

Opens a dialog in which you can enter specific RA/Dec coordinates to center on.

View Menu

View->Zoom in (+)

Zooms view in

View->Zoom out (-)

Zooms view out

View->Default Zoom (Ctrl+Z)

Restore the default Zoom setting

View->Zoom to Angular Size... (Ctrl+Shift+Z)

Zoom to specified field-of-view angle

View->Horizontal/Equatorial Coordinates (Space)

Toggle between the Horizontal and Equatorial Coordinate Systems

Settings Menu

Settings->Info Boxes->Show Info Boxes

Toggle display of all three Info Boxes on/off

Settings->Info Boxes->Show Time

Toggle display of the Time Info Box on/off

Settings->Info Boxes->Show Focus

Toggle display of the Focus Info Box on/off

Settings->Info Boxes->Show Location

Toggle display of the Location Info Box on/off

Settings->Toolbars->Show Main Toolbar

Toggle display of the Main Toolbar on/off

Settings->Toolbars->Show View Toolbar

Toggle display of the View Toolbar on/off

Settings->Color Schemes

This submenu contains all of the defined color schemes, including your custom schemes. Selecting an item sets the scheme automatically.

Settings->FOV Symbols

This submenu lists the available field-of-view (FOV) Symbols. The FOV Symbol is drawn at the center of the display. You may choose from the list of predefined symbols (No symbol, 7x35 Binoculars, One degree, or HST WFPC2), or you may define your own symbols (or modify existing symbols) using the Edit FOV symbols... item.

Settings->Set Geographic Location... (Ctrl+G)

Select a new geographic location

Settings->Configure KStars... (Ctrl+O)

Modify view options

Tools Menu

Tools->Calculator... (Ctrl+C)

Opens the AstroCalculator Tool, which provides full access to many of the mathematical functions used by KStars.

Tools->AAVSO Light Curves... (Ctrl+V)

Opens the AAVSO Light Curve Generator Tool, which allows you to download a light curve for any variable star from the American Association of Variable Star Observers.

Tools->Altitude vs. Time... (Ctrl+A)

Opens the Altitude vs. Time Tool, which can plot curves representing the altitude of any object as a function of time. This is useful for planning observing sessions.

Tools->What's Up Tonight... (Ctrl+U)

Opens the What's Up Tonight Tool, which presents a summary of the objects which are observable from your location on a given date.

Tools->Script Builder... (Ctrl+B)

Opens the Script Builder Tool, which provides a GUI interface for building KStars DCOP scripts.

Tools->Solar System... (Ctrl+Y)

Opens the Solar System Viewer, which displays an overhead view of the solar system on the current simulation date.

Tools->Jupiter's Moons... (Ctrl+J)

Opens the Jupiter Moons Tool, which displays the positions of Jupiter's four brightest moons as a function of time.

Devices Menu

Devices->Telescope Wizard

Opens up the Telescope Setup Wizard, which provides a step by step guide to help you connect to your telescope and control it from KStars.

Devices->Device Manager

Opens up the device manager, which allows you to start/shutdown device drivers and connect to remote INDI servers.

Devices->INDI Control Panel

Opens up INDI Control Panel, which allows you to control all the features supported by a device.

Devices->Configure INDI

Opens up a dialog to configure INDI-related features such as automatic device updates.

Help Menu

Help->KStars Handbook (F1)

Invokes the KDE Help system starting at the KStars help pages. (this document).

Help->What's This? (Shift+F1)

Changes the mouse cursor to a combination arrow and question mark. Clicking on items within KStars will open a help window (if one exists for the particular item) explaining the item's function.

Help->Report Bug...

Opens the Bug report dialog where you can report a bug or request a “wishlist” feature.

Help->About KStars

This will display version and author information.

Help->About KDE

This displays the KDE version and other basic information.

Popup Menu

The right click popup menu is context-sensitive, meaning it is different depending on what kind of object you click on. We list all possible popup menu items here, with the object type [in brackets].

[All]

Identification and type: The top one to three lines are devoted to the name(s) of the object, and its type. For stars, the Spectral Type is also shown here.

[All]

Rise/Set/Transit times are shown on the next three lines.

[All]

Center and Track: Center the display on this location, and engage tracking. Equivalent to double-clicking.

[All except Solar System]

Show 1st/2nd Gen DSS Image: The Digitized Sky Survey is an incredible resource: a photographic atlas of the entire sky. Through the miracle of the internet, you can download a photograph of any patch of sky. KStars provides one-click access to this database. There are two generations of the Survey; the second generation is not yet complete, so you may get an error when requesting a “2nd Gen DSS” image. Note that the image files are large, and may not be very esthetic. If other images are available for your object, you should try them first.

[Messier, Solar System]

Show SEDS Information Page: The Students For the Exploration and Development of Space have a wonderful website, which includes very extensive information on the Solar System and on Messier objects. KStars provides links to these pages in the popup menu.

[Messier]

Show SEDS Image: The main image of this Messier object from the SEDS.org information page.

[Some Deep-Sky objects]

Show HST Image: Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope periodically publish beautiful images from the HST as press releases. Some of these are pretty famous, and have become cultural icons. You can access them all through KStars.

[Some Deep-Sky objects]

Show KPNO AOP Image: The Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona has a public outreach program called the Advanced Observing Program, which allows anyone to “rent” a 16-inch telescope located on Kitt Peak for a night. This program has been producing some of the finest amateur astronomy images ever taken, and we include over 100 of them in our database of links.

[All Named Objects]

Add Link...: This allows you to add your own custom links to the popup menu of any object. It opens a small window in which you enter the URL of the link, and the text you want to appear in the popup menu. There is also a pair of radio buttons which allow you to specify whether the URL is an image or an HTML document, so KStars knows whether to launch the web browser or the image viewer. You can use this to add links to files on your local disk, so this feature could be used to attach observing logs or other custom information to objects in KStars. Your custom links are automatically loaded whenever KStars starts up, and they are stored in the folder ~/.kde/share/apps/kstars/, in files myimage_url.dat and myinfo_url.dat. If you build an extensive list of custom links, consider submitting them to us, we would like to include them in the next version of KStars!