Location & eclipse

Coordinates

Lat Lon Elev (m)

Any point on Earth, not just the presets above — the ephemeris does not care where you stand either. Overrides the preset's location; picking a preset again puts it back. The scene keeps whatever it is set to, so a mountaintop at the coordinates of a beach is a real thing you can build.

Date & time (UTC)

Any instant, not just the ones above — the ephemeris does not care. Move a fortnight and you get the other half of the lunation; move a few hours and you get the night sky over the same landscape.

Scene

Tools

Sun size 1.00×

The Sun is half a degree across and is drawn at exactly that. Your monitor magnifies it about twice over; a headset does not, which is why it looks smaller in VR. Raise this to compensate.

Ambience volume 70%

Controls and instruments

Everything here is an object with light going through it. Nothing is a mode.

Keyboard and mouse

W A S D	walk
Mouse	look — click the view first
Shift	move faster
Space	pause / resume time
1 – 5	1× · 10× · 60× · 300× · 1800×
T	telescope
F	solar filter
C	camera
B	compass
Wheel	zoom the telescope, 12× to 200×
Enter	take a photograph
G	photo gallery
H	this screen
Esc	release the mouse

On a touchscreen

Left half	thumb down anywhere, then steer — push it far to run
Right half	drag to look around
Pinch	zoom the telescope, while it is in use
⋯	time, place, scene and settings
Top strip	tap for the rest of the readout

In VR

Left stick	walk — click it to run
Right stick	snap turn — or aim the tripod, while you are standing at it in Manual
Trigger	reach for a tool, press a slate; hold it pointed at the sky to name what is there
Grip	let go — with one hand, leaving the other holding
A / X	the held tool's second control: the telescope's zoom, the camera's shutter
Hands	tracked where the headset offers them. A pinch grabs and presses; walking still wants a stick.

The instruments

Telescope	a real render down the tube, 12× to 200×, with its own eye at the eyepiece. Lean into it on the stand, or take it in both hands.
Solar filter	ND-5, passing 1/100,000 of the light. The only safe way to watch the partial phases, and the only way to point the telescope at them.
Camera	one fixed exposure, so a photograph of the corona looks like a photograph rather than like what your eye saw.
Compass	hold it level — the bubble says when — and turn until the card reads the bearing you want. Its markings are luminous, so they appear as your eyes adapt.
Tripod	set the telescope on the head and a slate appears: a target to track, Manual to take the stick, setting circles for both, and the magnification. Grab the centre column to raise the head — the eyepiece sinks as the tube rises.

Reading the sky

What is that?	the crosshair names whatever is under it, in the corner of the readout. In VR, hold the right trigger and point.
Where is it?	the compass, or the horizon scale in Settings. The tripod's slate gives azimuth and altitude for the tube and for its target.
Totality	the countdown is under the readout; C1 and C2−30s jump to the eclipse's own moments.
At night	real star positions to sixth magnitude, the Milky Way, and planets that become disks once the view can resolve them. Night drops you into the middle of one.
The air	at high magnification it moves the image, worse low down and worse over hot ground. Stars twinkle at any magnification; planets do not.
Your eyes	adapt, and lag. Coming out of daylight the sky is empty for a few seconds before it fills.

A telescope or a naked eye on a partly eclipsed Sun would blind you instantly. Only during totality is it safe to look unfiltered — the notice at the top of the screen says so whenever you are doing it.