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full color saturation. Turn it to, say, 50%, and the stars will appear to be somewhat more realistically colored. The "blurring" option is another gesture toward realism. Set it to a non-zero value, and Guide will draw stars with softer edges, making them look a little more circular. A value of 1 to 3 is usually considered visually pleasing. As with many of the settings in this dialog, though, your personal preferences may be very different. 7b: The Data Shown menu The Data Shown menu lets you control what celestial objects are shown on the chart, and the manner in which they are shown. In the dialog box, you are given a list of fifteen classes of objects controlled by the Data Shown menu/dialog: Messier NGC + IC Galaxies Nebulae Planets Variables NSV Open clusters Asteroids Gal Clusters Comets Globulars Planetaries Dark Nebulae Satellites Each object class is followed by buttons to turn that class "on", "off", "auto", or "fixed". When a particular class of objects is turned On, all objects of that class will be shown, regardless of magnitude. When Off, none will be shown. When set to Auto or Fixed, all objects brighter than the magnitude limit for that class will be shown. The difference between 'fixed' and 'auto' is a simple one. In 'auto' mode, Guide will automatically adjust the limiting magnitude as one zooms in or out, in an attempt to maintain a constant density of objects. (This is always done for stars, for example.) But in 'fixed' mode, you are essentially telling Guide that you want a class of object to be shown to a particular limiting magnitude, and that the zoom level should be ignored. If an object class is turned On or Off, the magnitude limit is irrelevant, and is therefore grayed out.
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