Nanoverse is a planetarium based on Southern Stars' open source SSCore astronomy library. This web preview version works with Safari, Chrome, and Microsoft Edge. Firefox is not supported. The Nanoverse web app contains...
Accuracy is about 10 – 30 arcseconds for the planets and 2-4 arcminutes for the Moon, sufficient for casual eyeball or binocular/small telescope observation.
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The first time you run Nanoverse, it simulates the sky at your at your location, and at your current time.
Your simulated date, time, and latitude/longitude are shown in the upper left. The field of view center coordinates, and the view width x height, are shown in the upper right.
Click and drag to move around the sky view. Click any object to select it. Your selected object's type, name, and other identifiers are shown at the bottom of the screen.
Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Click-and-hold the + and - "magnifying glass" icons at lower left to zoom in and out.
You can change your simulated location to anywhere on Earth or in the Solar System. You can change the simulated time to any date between 9999 BC and 9999 AD. See below.
Icon buttons in the lower left and right sides of the screen let you control Nanoverse, and access additional functions and data.
Controls on the lower right side are:
| Night Vision | Transitions to or from red screen mode, to help preserve night vision. |
| Spaceship | Lets you "orbit" the Sun or any solar system object. Click this icon after selecting any solar system object to view it from space; click again to return to your location on Earth. |
| Navigate | Returns you to your current location on Earth, at the current time. On mobile devices, this icon activates your device's motion sensors and lets you navigate around the sky by moving your phone. |
| Settings | Shows a panel which lets you control every aspect of the simulated view: time, location, reference frames, and many display options. |
| Time | Shows the date and time, and animation controls. These let you animate the time in single steps, or continuously, both forward and backward. Set the animation time increment - years, months, days, hours, minutes, or seconds - by clicking the appropriate part of the date/time display. |
| Search | Lets you find and select any object in the Nanoverse by typing its name. Alternately, you can select an object from the lists of Planets, Moons, Stars, and Deep Sky objects under the search field. |
Controls on the lower left side are:
 | Info | Shows a panel of information about your selected object. For several hundred of the brightest and best-known objects, a textual description is included. |
 | Move In | Moves you closer to the solar system object you are orbiting. Click and hold to move in continuously. Disabled if you are located on Earth. |
 | Move Out | Moves you farther from the solar system object you are orbiting. Click and hold to move out continuously. Disabled if you are located on Earth. |
 | Center | Centers your selected object in the view. It will stay centered as you animate the time. Disabled if no object is selected. |
 | Zoom In | Magnifies the field of view; click-and-hold to zoom in continuously. |
 | Zoom Out | De-magnifies the field of view; click-and-hold to zoom out continuously. |
If your simulated time and/or location are wrong, make sure you used a secure (https) URL to load this page. Also make sure your web browser has permission to access your system location.
Nanoverse saves your settings in your browser cache, so that when you re-launch, it starts up in the state where you last left it. To start fresh with defaults, click the Settings ("gear") icon at lower right, then click the "Restore Defaults" button at bottom.
If Nanoverse won't load at all, try clearing your browser cache.