Now, if they had the database with hundreds of terabytes of objects that NASA has for their OpenUniverse simulation they’re running for the upcoming Roman space telescope (see https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-roman-mission-gets-cosmi...), then maybe I could understand why it is so confusing.
As it is, I don’t really understand why it has to be so confusing.
And using a viewpoint of a large sphere from the outside just seems wrong. It should be viewed from the inside.
Are you really, really sure the hundreds of millions of images &c. it links you to aren't in the hundreds of petabytes in size?
It looks like they have a deficient web page design that doesn’t work well on mobile. Thus leading to a much more confusing interface.
And I think that would probably also serve the professional astronomers or astronomical researchers better.
Who is it that can manage the niche software needed to digest the data sets but have such trouble figuring out how to navigate that web page? Of what use would they be to the academics and weird nerds?
It took me less than two minutes to figure out navigation and how the menu works. If you really want to make an impression in this area it would probably be better to spend time on improving VO-software and organising study groups where you live.
There's an excellent web version of Stellarium, if anyone's interested: https://stellarium-web.org/