1 User Interface
1.1 The projection grid is labeled, showing 24 hours x (left to right) and +90 to -90 degrees y (top to bottom) in 15 degree increments. By default, this refers specifically to the Equirectangular mode (described at 1.4). The projection grid does not scale if the projection window is stretched, and the grid cannot be completely offscreen.
1.2 Major stars are those that display name labels, up to a user-defined maximum. A small text box labeled “Max Labels” with a number input and "Update" button allows you to change the number of name labels appear on screen; this is located in the bottom left, to the right of the zoom feature (described at 1.6) allows the user to change the number of shown name labels.
1.2.1 If a labeled star moves off the visible area or the label limit is reached, its name label is removed and the next brightest star still on screen gains its name label. To maximize performance, offscreen stars are cached until they’re visible again.
1.3 To the right of the projection window (to the right of where where the stars are displayed, plotted on the projection mode grid Mode as described at 1.4), there is a UI that allows you to input a star’s name, right-ascension, declination, magnitude, type, and description before plotting it to the grid. Description, type, and name can be blank; magnitude defaults at 2; and right-ascension and declination must be inserted by either method described at 1.5.
1.4 The projection window has two modes via the Mode button located at the top left of the window to the right of the Undo button: Equirectangular mode (a standard Euclidean plane, where 24 hours are labeled from left to right [the x plane] and +90 to -90 degrees are labeled from top to bottom [the y plane], keeping a perfectly equidistant plane) and Circular mode (+90 in the center and -90 as the edge of the circle [the y plane], with 24 hours labeled around the circle [the x plane]) with the labels always close to the edge of the projection window.
1.5 It is possible to add stars both estimately and specifically, allowing either to left-click where the star should be. You may also input the declination and right-ascension in the UI beside the projection window, if you have the information of where the star is (as described at 1.3). Right-ascension should be input in the standard hhmmss.ss format; hours, minutes, and seconds. Declination should be input in its standard ddmmss.ss format; degrees north or south (denoted by a + or -), minutes, and seconds.
1.6 The user can pan and zoom within the projection window. To do so, right-click and hold to pan. Zooming is operated via the mouse wheel or with “+” and “-” buttons. These two buttons are located to the left of the Mode button, at the bottom left of the program’s window.
1.6.1 When zooming, both the grid and the stars should scale up and down relative to the magnification of the zoom, such that the stars only slightly increase in size while staying in the same spot.
1.6.2 If multiple stars are overlapping one another, the one with the smallest magnitude is favored and the others are hidden until the user zooms in enough to where they no longer overlap each other.
1.7 The user can delete stars by left-clicking a star and clicking the Delete button. The Delete button highlights red when it’s possible to delete something. The delete button is located at the bottom right of the program window, so as to not accidentally be miss-clicked when editing a star. To prevent accidental deletion nearly absolutely, there’s also a preventative pop-up window that confirms if you wish to delete a star.
1.8 The user can save and load star charts to and from JSON files via the Save and Load buttons located at the top left of the window. The save files are named by the user and placed into the Chart Saves directory (which is generated upon runtime if it cannot be found within the directory of the main application). When loading files, the program switches UI and shows the names of all the projects and a miniaturized projection window view in the form of buttons, which can be left-clicked to open a project.
1.9 The user can undo previous actions. The last action the user made is captioned* in the top right corner, and the Undo button is in the top left corner to the right of the Save and Load buttons, which would undo the previous action when left-clicked.
1.10 Each star may be edited as needed. If a star is left-clicked, show the information pertaining the star in the UI described in 1.3 and it may be edited or deleted. Note:
1.11 Color coding is used on plotted stars to show the type of star it is without actively having clicked on it. The star color coding is a small menu button called Color, located in the top left corner to the right of the Mode button.
1.12 Magnitude grading is described as the following: to effect the overall size and priority of a given star relative to its magnitude (given in apparent luminosity), meaning smaller magnitude stars are brighter and are given viewing priority (described at 1.2) when describing Major stars.
1.12.1 Magnitude grading is adjustable via the slider located to the right of the Max Labels Update button (described at 1.2), allowing the user to resize stars as they wish from as small as 0.01 to 5 times the size.
*features not yet added but are mentioned as an importance.