What the Sky window initially presents you with is the entire celestial sphere for the preset location, with South at the bottom, East at the left. Vega will be the initial focus for northern observers and Canopus for the southern hemisphere. Stars plotted in dark grey lie below your horizon: they have set, not yet risen, or may never rise at your position.

Display the time bar by pressing [t] Now hide it again using the right-click menu entry |Clock|Bar|. It is worth noting here that enabling the timebar prevents the use of single keypresses in the sky window, unless the timebar itself was invoked with keypress [t] and not accessed with the mouse. So during intensive manipulation of the display it is as well to avail yourself of the Viewbar's comprehensive functions while the Clock bar is present..

AstroTray's virtual Earth revolves in real time, and the apparent motion of the stars is from left to right when facing south. AstroTray's basic population is around 3500 stars, over 5000 in QuikSky Enhanced, AstroTray's full color elder sibling, resulting in a realtime display update every minute or so. Zooming will be smooth all the way down to the magnitude limit of approximately 6.5.

AstroTray's default celestial projection is an azimuthal Equal Area, [F3], centered on your zenith. It is of the type used by planetaria the world over, so it is in good company, but if you happen to desire a change, there are three more to experiment with: Equidistant [F2], Stereographic [F4], and Orthographic [F5]. When you gain a little more experience using AstroTray, you'll want to begin experimenting with contrasting viewpoints too.

Start by pressing [H] for a horizon view of the southern sky. To traverse through the 360 degrees of the compass, access the traverse and elevation tools with [ctrl][D] or [ctrl][E]. Alternatively, you may prefer to enable auto-centering at the outset with |Viewpoint|Projection|Auto-center| thus doing the job of the traverse and elevation tools automatically each time you click on a new object. With its often abrupt switching of view, this setting can prove disorienting on occasion, especially if you have not yet attained full familiarity with your local celestial geography! As with all things AstroTray, it will therefore pay to experiment a little.

[Z] will return you to a zenith view, but at the new line of sight you traversed with the tools.

It is worth stressing that after any operations which somehow change AstroTray's viewpoint, pressing [F12] immediately is the safest way to ensure an accurate display of all stars visible at the current magnification. For extra responsiveness, some operations do not incorporate this process.

By default, [a]uto-resolution of stars is switched on. What this means is that you only begin to see the dimmer stars as you increase your resolving power (change to binoculars/telescope), in imitation of reality. AstroTray's initial magnification is negative in order to encompass the entire sky. Zoom down to zero magnification to receive an impression of the sky as seen on a clear night by the naked eye. To adjust the number of stars visible at any given magnification, press [+] or [-]. Auto-resolution will need to be disabled with [a] if you wish your changes to survive any zooming or unzooming operations you might perform subsequently.

AstroTray itself provides these keys for tampering with colors: [B] , [D] , and [R].

[B] brightens (lightens) the palette uniformly, giving a washed-out effect, and finally washes color out completely. [D] achieves exactly the opposite, darkening - and thereby deepening - all the colors. Unrealistic, as if seen through sunglasses, but you may find it a change. It at least reveals a star's underlying 'character', subleties that the brightness may have hidden.

Payment may be in the form of a personal cheque (made out to R. Hughes), major credit card, International Money Order, or even the equivalent (check/cash) at present rates in your own hard currency.

Ordering by CREDIT CARD is by far the fastest way to obtain your registered copy of AstroTray. Turnaround times are typically between 12 and 24 hours. You may order online or by phone/fax anytime and from anywhere in the world.