KStars displays thousands of objects: stars, planets, clusters, nebulae and galaxies. By default, stars are drawn as white circles with a colored border that simulates the star's real color. Planets are drawn as colored dots at low zoom levels, but as an actual image of the planet as you zoom in. Deep-sky objects (clusters, nebulae and galaxies) are drawn with symbols color-coded to indicate the catalog to which they belong (Messier, NGC or IC). Most Messier objects are drawn as real images on the map at higher zoom levels. Deep-sky objects with extra image or information links available are drawn with a special color (red by default). Clicking on an object will identify it in the status bar. Double clicking will recenter the display on the object and begin tracking the object (so that it will remain centered as time passes). Right clicking an object opens a popup menu with more options.
Here is an example of the right click popup menu, for the Orion Nebula:
The appearance of the popup menu depends somewhat on the kind of object you right click on, but the basic structure is the following:
The top section contains information labels, which are not selectable. The top one to three labels display the object's name(s) and object type. The next three labels show the object's rise, transit, and set times. The next section contains two selectable items. First, a Center and Track item, which will recenter the display on the object, and keep it centered as time passes (you can also center and track an object by simply double clicking on it). Next, a Details... item, which will show a window with more detailed information about the object. The bottom section contains links to images and/or informative webpages about the selected object.
If you know of an additional URL with information or an image of the object, you can add a custom link to the object's popup menu using the Add Link... item at the bottom of the menu. This opens a window in which you can enter the URL and the text that should appear in the popup menu. You can make sure the URL is correct with the Check URL button, which will test the URL in your web browser. Please specify whether the URL points to an Image, or to an HTML document! If you specify Image here, the new menu item will open the Image Viewer, not the web browser. You can also point to files on your local disk, so this feature could be used to attach observing logs or other custom information to objects in KStars. Your custom links are automatically loaded whenever KStars starts up, and they are stored in the directory ~/.kde/share/apps/kstars/, in files myimage_url.dat and myinfo_url.dat. If you build an extensive list of custom links, consider submitting them to us, we would like to include them in the next version of KStars!
You can search for named objects by clicking on the search icon in the toolbar, by selecting Find Object... from the Focus menu, or by pressing Ctrl+F. The Find Object window lists all the named objects in the KStars database. Many objects are listed only by their catalog name (for example, NGC 3077), but some are also listed by their common name (for example, Whirlpool Galaxy). You can filter the list by name, or by object type. Highlight the desired object in the list, and press Ok. The display will center on the object and begin tracking it. Note that if the object is below the horizon, the program will warn you that you may not see anything except the ground (you can make the ground invisible in the Display Options window, or by pressing the Ground button in the View toolbar).
Object Tracking is automatically engaged whenever an object is centered in the display, either by using the Find Object window, by double-clicking on an object, or by selecting Center and Track from the right-click popup menu. You can disengage tracking by panning the display, pressing the Lock icon in the Main toolbar, or selecting Track Object from the Focus menu.