Distance Spheres

Distance Spheres allows you to display translucent spheres at custom distance milestones from a selected object.

Tip: An example of a distance sphere to show the boundaries of our solar system can be found in the Favourites side pane under Simulations->Other->Distance Spheres->Sun distance spheres.  Use the Increase Elevation button in the Toolbar to view the distance spheres.  Hold down the SHIFT key and click-drag your mouse cursor around a distance sphere to change your perspective.

To add a new distance sphere, right-click or ctrl-click on a solar system object and select Distance Spheres... from the contextual menu that pops up.  Alternatively, you can open the Find pane and click on an objects contextual menu button (first button located on the left of the object’s name) to view the contextual menu.




Click the (+) button in the dialog window that opens to add a new distance sphere.  




Name your distance sphere and set the radius of the sphere.  In the example below, the Sun will be at the center of the distance sphere. Press the Ok button when finished.



To display the distance sphere, make sure the box to the left of the sphere’s name is checked.




To view the distance sphere, use the Increase Elevation button to increase your distance from the Earth.  In this example, we added a distance light sphere with a radius of 1 light year and would have to increase the elevation to at least 1 light year to view the sphere.