Your Sky: Sky Map Custom Settings


By filling out the form below (presented in the same form as the Your Sky Sky Map control panel) you can make a custom request with parameters preset. Then, after pressing the “Update” button to display the requested image, you can save the result on your “Hotlist” or “Bookmark” (or whatever your browser calls it). Then you can immediately show a custom Your Sky display just by selecting that item.

This is particularly handy for specifying the latitude and longitude of your observing site, but you can use it to preset any parameter given below, including specifying orbital elements to track a comet or asteroid.

If you're not happy with the result when you press “Update”, come back to this page by pressing “Back” and adjust the parameters until you obtain the desired result, then save the request in your browser's hotlist or bookmark table. Each item in the following request form is linked to its description in the help file for the control panel.

Date and Time
Now
Universal time:
Julian day:
Observing Site
Display Options Ecliptic and equator
Moon and planets
Deep sky objects of magnitude and brighter
Constellations:
         Outlines
         Names
         Boundaries
Stars:
        Show stars brighter than magnitude
         Names for magnitude and brighter
         Bayer/Flamsteed codes for mag. and brighter
Invert North and South
Image size: pixels    Dynamic image request
Font scale:
Colour scheme:
Asteroid and
Comet Tracking

Paste orbital elements below:

Dynamic Image Requests

Normally, Your Sky generates an HTML page containing the requested view as an embedded image along with a control panel showing the parameters used to produce the image and permitting further requests. Suppose, instead, you wish to embed a custom image from Your Sky in a Web page of your own. To include custom, up-to-date images in a Web page, first use the form above to compose a Dynamic image request with the desired parameters. Enter the specifics of the image you require in the form, then press “Update” to preview the image. If you wish to further refine the image, return to this page with your browser's “Back” button (do not use the “Update” button in the result page, as that won't update the fields in the custom request), adjust the parameters, and repeat until you obtain the image you're looking for.

Then, return once again to this form with the “Back” button, check the “Dynamic image request” box, then press the “Update” button. You should obtain a page showing just the image, without the usual HTML page and control panel. More importantly, the URL or Address field in your browser's control panel will show a request which will reproduce the image on demand. You can copy the contents of this field and paste it into an <img> tag in your page to embed the requested image therein.

The request is dynamic in the sense that every time your page is displayed, Your Sky will supply an up-to-date image with the given parameters. (Obviously, this applies only if the “Now” box is checked in the Date and Time section of the form. If you specify a specific date and time, the image will be dynamically generated but invariant. If you prefer such an image, it's kinder on Your Sky and the Internet, not to mention much faster for visitors to your page, to simply save the image on your computer and embed it in your Web page as a regular local image.)

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