In the Moon Span mode, visitors can see an image of the moon shaded to indicate the moon's phase, andobserve the penumbral and umbral shadows cast by the earth upon the moon during a lunar eclipse. The Ecliptic View allows visitors to see the motions of the planets against the background of the stars using animation. Visitors are encouraged to switch back and forth among the Sky, Ecliptic, and Orbits Views, to get a better understanding of the movements of the planets through the sky. Also featured is the Moons View that shows the four major moons of Jupiter and eight of the moons of Saturn. The image of Saturn also displays the orientation of the rings of Saturn as seen from the earth.
Visitors can design their own calendar that displays a variety of astronomical events.
They can also generate various tables that present such information as the rise and set times for a selected planet, the times of the phases of the moon for one year, and the times of the equinoxes and solstices for ten years. Sky View Cafe is a large Java applet, around 344K in size. If you're using a modem, especially if you're connecting at 28.8K or less, you'll need to be patient for the applet to load. Future visits will often be much faster if your web browser has kept this applet cached. If you're fortunate enough to have a high-speed internet connection, you should be able to breeze right in.