HOW TO FLY THE ORRERY

A true-scale Solar System and galactic neighbourhood. Everything sits at its real position and distance.

GETTING AROUND

Drag / one finger

Orbit the camera around what you are following.

Wheel / pinch

Zoom in and out.

Click / tap

Select a body — its details appear in the TARGET panel.

Double-click / double-tap

Warp to that body.

⟶ Warp

Fly smoothly to the destination chosen in the NAV COMPUTER list (search box: type a name, Enter warps).

⚡ Teleport

Jump there instantly.

◎ Follow

Keep the camera locked on the chosen body as it moves.

Reset

Reload everything back to the start.

TIME DRIVE

❚❚ Hold / ▶ Resume

Pause or restart time.

◀ REV

Run time backwards (only in KEPLER mode).

Slider & presets

How fast time runs: from real time up to 30,000 years per second.

Set date / Now

Jump to any date, or to the present moment.

Chips

Current speed (CAPPED = the computer can’t keep up), energy drift in N-body mode, number of bodies.

PANELS

Drag a title

Move that panel anywhere; the place is remembered on this device.

– / +

Minimise a panel to its title bar, or open it again.

×

Put a panel away.

NAV · TIME · TARGET · OPS · LOG

Buttons in the top bar: bring a panel back or put it away.

⟲

Reset every panel to its default place.

➤ EARTH / ➤ SUN

Arrows at the screen edge pointing to Earth or the Sun when they are out of view (amber = behind you).

TARGET (after you select something)

Mass multiplier

Make the body ×0.01 to ×1000 heavier — switches to full N-body gravity.

Follow / Warp

Lock onto or fly to the selected body.

Freeze → Kepler

Stop the N-body simulation and fit clean orbits to the current state.

OPERATIONS (desktop)

Scenarios → Run

Presets: a rogue star flies through, Earth ×100, Sun ×2, Jupiter ×50.

Scenario editor

Spawn your own star or planet, kick a body’s speed (Kick ×v), remove it, save / load / export your scenario.

MODES & READOUTS

KEPLER · ANALYTIC

Exact orbit formulas — fast, can run backwards.

N-BODY · LEAPFROG

Every body pulls on every other — needed after you change masses.

SURVEY / WARP / PERTURBED / IMPACT

What the ship is doing right now.

KEYBOARD

Space

Hold / resume time

[ and ]

Slower / faster time

R

Reverse time

1 – 9, 0

Warp to Mercury … Pluto, 0 = Sun

T / F

Teleport to / follow the selected body

Tab

Free flight: W A S D move, R F up/down, Q E roll, drag to look, − / = change speed gear

O / L

Show or hide orbits / labels

H

Hide or show all panels for a clean view

P

Show or hide the Earth / Sun arrows

Esc

Clear the selection

WELCOME ABOARD

You are looking at Earth from space. Everything here — planets, moons, satellites, stars and galaxies — is at its real position and real distance.

• Drag (or one finger) to look around · scroll / pinch to zoom
• Tap or click any planet or label to learn about it · double-tap to fly there
• Pick a place in DESTINATION and press ⟶ Warp — try Saturn, Andromeda or Voyager 1
• Speed up time with the TIME DRIVE slider and watch the planets move

Panels can be moved by their title, minimised with – and brought back from the buttons at the top. ? explains every control.

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3-D NOT AVAILABLE

This device or browser can’t run the 3-D view (it needs WebGL 2).

Try the latest Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari, and make sure hardware acceleration is switched on. Most phones and computers from the last few years work.