The Spinning Sphere

In Preferences dialog

This refers to the rotating earth you see spinning in the background. You either gotta love it or hate it.

There are a number of options here
1. Display on screen - turns the sphere on or off
2. Moving ? - if you choose to display on screen, then you can view either a spinning globe that sits in the corner, or one that moves across the screen into the distance.
3. Number of Frames - If you choose a moving sphere, this is the number of frames of animation before it disappears into the distance. Larger numbers mean a smoother look, at the expense of taking more processing time.