Milky Way Help

The Milky Way is the visible concentration of stars, star clusters, bright gas clouds, and dark dust lanes that lie along the plane of our galaxy in the sky. The settings in this view control how the Milky Way is displayed.

Milky Way Display

• Show Milky Way: Turns the Milky Way off or on.
• as Framed Outline: Shows the Milky Way's boundaries as a thin outline.
• as Filled Area: Shows the Milky Way region filled with a solid gray color.
• as Realistic Image: Shows a digital all-sky panorama of the Milky Way in visible light.

Advanced Milky Way Views (Pro only)

• as Hydrogen Alpha Image: Shows glowing ionized hydrogen gas clouds.
• as 2MASS Infrared Image: Shows the sky at near-infrared wavelengths.
• as WISE Infrared Image: Shows the sky in mid-infrared wavelengths.
• as IRAS Infrared Image: Shows the sky at far-infrared wavelength of 100 microns.
• as Planck Microwave Image: Shows cosmic microwave background radiation.
• as 408 MHz Radio Image: Shows the sky at 408 MHz radio frequency.
• as 1420 MHz (21 cm) Radio Image: Shows neutral hydrogen distribution.
• as ROSAT X-Ray Image: Shows the sky at soft X-ray wavelengths.
• as Fermi Gamma-Ray Image: Shows the sky at gamma ray frequencies.

Milky Way Intensity

• Intensity: Sets the brightness level of the Milky Way.
• Fade in Small Fields: Milky Way intensity fades as field of view decreases below 10 degrees.