Interactive 3D Animated Graphics

AstroGrav has superb interactive 3D animated graphics, in the form of model windows. Model windows let you view a simulation in the form of a three-dimensional model which you can manipulate and navigate around, while watching the simulation evolve with the passage of time. The phases of non-luminous objects (planets, moons, asteroids, etc) are correctly displayed, and you can even attach your viewpoint to an object so that you can watch the evolution of the simulation from the object's point of view.

Model windows also allow you to do the following.

• Display the distance and magnitude of a selected object.
• Display the angles between objects.
• Change the magnification.
• Change the brightness.
• Show or hide the names of objects.
• Show or hide the velocities of objects.
• Show or hide the accelerations of objects.
• Show or hide the orbits of objects.
• Show or hide the coordinate axes.

You can have several model windows displayed at once, so that you can (for example) use one window to view the entire systen, another to view a close-up of an area of interest, and a third to view the system from the viewpoint of a particular object.