The user interface#

The user interface of Gaia Sky consists of several panes, buttons, and windows. The most important of these are the control panes, which are accessible via a series of buttons anchored to the top-left of the screen.

Gaia Sky user interface

The Gaia Sky interface showing its most useful functions.#

Docs

See the user interface section of the user manual for more information.

Control panes#

The control panes are made up of seven different panes. Note that these were called the control panel in the older UI; that version is still available but is disabled by default.

  • time Time (shortcut: t)

  • camera Camera (shortcut: c)

  • eye Type visibility (shortcut: v)

  • bolt Visual settings (shortcut: l)

  • datasets Datasets (shortcut: d)

  • log Location log

  • bookmark Bookmarks (shortcut: b)

You can expand and collapse each pane by clicking the button or by using the respective keyboard shortcut.

The bottom-left corner of the screen contains six buttons for special actions:

  • minimap Toggle the mini-map (shortcut: Tab)

  • dsload Load a dataset (shortcut: Ctrl + o)

  • prefsicon Open the preferences window (shortcut: p)

  • logicon Show the session log (shortcut: Alt + l)

  • helpicon Show the help dialog (shortcut: h or F1)

  • quiticon Exit Gaia Sky (shortcut: Esc)

Camera info panel#

The camera info panel, also known as the focus info pane, is anchored to the bottom-right of the main window.

../_images/camera-info-pane-focusmode.jpg

The camera info pane in focus mode. It displays information on the focus (top), the mouse pointer (middle), and the camera state (bottom).#

Docs

See the camera info panel section of the user manual.

Quick info bar#

The quick info bar at the top of the screen provides information on the current time and your primary targets. It displays the current focus object, the current closest object to your location, and the current home object. The colors of these labels correspond to the crosshairs in the center of the view. You can enable or disable these crosshairs in the interface tab of the preferences window (p).

../_images/quick-info-bar.jpg

The quick info bar provides useful simulation information at a glance.#

Docs

See the quick info bar section for more information.

System info panel#

Gaia Sky includes a built-in system information panel that is hidden by default. You can bring it up with ctrl + d or by checking the Show debug info box in the terminal System tab of the preferences window.

Collapsed debug panel

The system info panel in its collapsed state.#

You can expand the panel using the + symbol to see information on your graphics device, memory usage, the number of objects loaded, and the SAMP status. Additional debug details are also available in the system tab of the help dialog (? or h).

Expanded debug panel

Expanded system info panel#

Docs

See the system info panel section for a full description.

Time controls#

Tip

Open the time pane by clicking the clock time button or by pressing t.

Gaia Sky simulates the passage of time. You can play and pause the simulation using the play-icon and pause-icon buttons or by pressing Space.

The Time warp slider allows you to modify the simulation speed. Use , or bwd-icon to halve the speed and . or fwd-icon to double it. If you hold either key, the warp factor will increase or decrease steadily. The Reset time and warp button returns the simulation to real-world time (UTC) and resets the warp to x1.

../_images/pane-time.jpg

The time pane in the Gaia Sky controls.#

To test this, press Home to return to Earth and start the simulation with Space. As you drag the slider to the right, the Earth will rotate faster. Dragging it to the left will eventually reverse time, making the Earth rotate in the opposite direction. If you set the warp high enough, you can even observe the stars moving as Gaia Sky simulates their proper motions.