# Configuring &kstars;

&kstars; has many configuration options, which you can access by opening the Display Options window, either with the wrench toolbar icon, or selecting Configure &kstars;... from the Settings menu. The window is depicted below:

Display Options Window Display Options Window

The Display Options window is divided into five tabs: Catalogs, Guides, Solar System, Colors, and Advanced. Below the tabs, you can choose between Equatorial and Horizontal coordinate systems. Note that changes you make in this window are reflected immediately in the map, but that the changes are not committed until you press the Ok button.

In the Catalogs tab, you determine which object catalogs are displayed in the map. The SAO star catalog also allows you to set the "faint limit" for stars, and the magnitude (brightness) limit for displaying the names and/or magnitudes of stars. Below the stars section, there is a box containing a list of checkboxes for the available deep-sky object catalogs. You can add your own custom object catalogs by pressing the Add Custom Catalog button, which will open a File Dialog, so that you can point it to your catalog data file. For detailed instructions on preparing a catalog data file, see the `README.customize` file that ships with &kstars;.

In the Solar System tab, you can specify whether the Sun, Moon and Planets are displayed, whether these objects are drawn as circles or images, and whether name labels should be attached to the Planets.

The Guides tab lets you toggle whether non-objects are displayed (i.e., constellation lines, constellation names, Milky Way contour, celestial equator, ecliptic, horizon line, and opaque ground). You can also choose whether you would like to see Latin constellation names, IAU-standard three-letter abbreviations, or names using your local language.

The Colors tab allows you to set the color scheme, and to define custom color schemes. The tab is split into two panels:

The left panel shows a list of all display items with adjustable colors. Click on any item to bring up a color selection window to adjust the color. Below the list is the Star Color Mode selection box. By default, &kstars; draws stars with a realistic color tint according to the spectral type of the star. However, you may also choose to draw the stars as solid white, black or red circles. If you are using the realistic star colors, you can choose the saturation level of the star colors with the Star Color Intensity spinbox.

The right panel lists the defined color schemes. There are three predefined schemes: the Default scheme, a Star Chart scheme with black stars on a white background, and Night Vision, which uses only shades of red in order to protect your dark-adapted vision. Additionally, you can save the current color settings as a custom scheme by clicking the Save Current Colors button. It will prompt you for a name for the new scheme, and then your scheme will appear in the list in all future &kstars; sessions. To remove a custom scheme, simply highlight it in the list, and press the Remove Color Scheme button.