CyberSky™

The Winter Triangle is an asterism made up of three stars in different constellations: Procyon in Canis Minor, Betelgeuse in Orion, and Sirius in Canis Major. This screenshot also shows the outlines of several deep-sky objects as well as the outlines of the Milky Way.

CyberSky can print beautiful, high-quality maps on any printer supported by Windows, in black and white or in full color. You can choose whether or not printed maps include title, legend, and information boxes. The program’s print preview feature lets you see what a printed map will look like, giving you a chance to make adjustments before you print it.

Sample maps printed by CyberSky, in the form of Adobe PDF files:
Area Around Antares
Winter Triangle
Proper Motion of the Hyades
Analemma
Path of Mars

When you turn on the program’s night-vision mode, the user interface and map are drawn in several shades of red on a black background. Dim red light has the least effect on your ability to see faint objects. By using night-vision mode, you can preserve the dark adaptation of your eyes while using the program outdoors as you observe the night sky.

The Hyades open star cluster lies just over 150 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Short lines, called proper-motion vectors, show the direction and speed that each star is moving. The members of the cluster move as a group and therefore have similar vectors. Aldebaran lies about half-way between us and the Hyades and isn’t a member of the cluster.

You can search for an object by selecting it from a list in a dialog box, or by typing its name, abbreviation, or catalog number in the search box. You can sort the list to find an object in a specific constellation or to find which objects are brightest. The search box gives you more options. For example, you can find the star Rigel by typing any of the following: Rigel, Beta Orionis, β Orionis, 19 Orionis, TYC 5331-1752-1, HIP 24436, HD 34085, or ASCC 1275925.

CyberSky can display detailed information about an object: its name and other designations, catalog numbers, coordinates, magnitude, and other properties of the object. The object’s rise, transit, and set times are also displayed. The button next to each time allows you to quickly set the time and redraw the map with the object at the center.

The analemma is the figure-eight traced out by the Sun when it’s viewed at the same location and time of day over the course of a year. You can use the program’s animation feature to see how the Sun traces out the analemma, and can even add the path of the Sun to the map.

The path of the planet Mars through the constellation Leo during late 2011 and well into 2012. Over this period of time the planet undergoes retrograde motion, appearing to move backwards with respect to the background stars. The small crosses along the path mark the positions of Mars at 10-day intervals.

CyberSky can display a view of the planets and their orbits around the Sun. This view appears in a separate window and is synchronized with the main window, so you can watch the planets move across the sky and see them revolve around the Sun at the same time. The position and orbit of periodic comet 9P/Tempel has been included in this view.