How to Use Stellarium

Stellarium is an open-source software planetarium that generates an interactive display of the night sky. Users can set their viewing location, date, and time. The proper stars, galaxies, planets, moons, etc. will then be displayed correctly for the observer. 

Important Note: The menus and controls in Stellarium are in slide-out menus that only appear when hovering the mouse pointer near the left-hand or bottom edge of the screen. Hovering over menu options will reveal their names and shortcut keys. Looking around in the sky is accomplished by dragging the mouse, and the view can be zoomed in or out using the PgDn and PgUp keys or by scrolling right or left with the scroll wheel on the mouse. The backslash [\] key will always return to the default zoom level. Stellarium will open in full-screen mode by default; however, this can be changed by toggling F11.

How to Set the Location

The Location window can be found in the left-hand menu, or by pressing F6. Type the name of the city in the search box, then select it.  The main display should reflect the new location details at the bottom left corner of the screen.

How to Set the Date/Time

The Date/Time window can be found in the left-hand menu or by pressing F5. Use the up/down arrows to change the date and time or double click on a number to highlight it.  This will allow you to type in a custom number. (Hint: this can be extremely useful when trying to move forwards or backwards many years).

How to Search for Objects

The Search Tool can be found in the left-hand menu, or by pressing F3 or ctrl + F. Type an object name in the Object tab or enter coordinates in the Position tab and press Enter to center on that position.

Constellation Lines, Labels, and Art

Constellation Lines, Labels, and Art can all be toggled on and off using buttons available in the bottom menu.  Alternatively, Constellation Lines can be toggled on and off using the "c" key, Constellation Labels with the "v" key, and Constellation Art with the "r" key.

Equatorial Grid

The Equatorial Grid can be toggled on and off using a button in the bottom menu, or by using the "e" key.

How to Change Sky Cultures

On the left menu, select Sky and Viewing Options, or press F4.  Then select the "Sky Culture" tab (with the campfire symbol).  By default, the Sky Culture should be set to "modern"; however, you can select different cultures here to view their names for common constellations and asterisms.