Standard Features and Sample Screens

Feature

Sample Screen

Explanation

Display an Interactive Sky Chart

Looking up at dusk.

Looking North.

The flexible interactive Sky Chart shows you the simulated sky.

• Input any date from 4,712 B.C. to A.D. 10,000 and any time of day to show the simulated star chart for your location. 

• Click the North, South, East, West or Look Up buttons to orient the chart as it would appear from your backyard.

• Change the magnification to show any field of view, from 235° down to 30 arc seconds across.

Databases of Celestial Objects and Photos

Large databases of pictures and photos.

Photos tab

TheSky is packed with information on millions of objects and thousands of fascinating astronomical photographs.

View and find the planets, dwarf planets, the Moon, comets, asteroids, satellites, and thousands of the most popular non-stellar objects from the Messier, NGC and IC catalogs and approximately 1 million stars from the Hipparcos and Tycho star catalogs (complete to about magnitude 12).

Databases of Objects and Photos

TheSky also includes:

• Over 13,000 images from the NGC and IC Catalogs.

• Photos of every object in the Messier catalog.

• Photos of solar system objects, including images from the Mars Rover and other space missions.

• Over 1000 high-resolution photographs of the moon.

Show What's Up Tonight

What's Up? Report

Hertzsprung-Russell diagram

Wide-field chart showing the location of Saturn tonight.

The simplified observing list includes a What's Up? query that lets you specify the viewing time, your optical aid (naked eye, binocular, or small telescope) and which objects you're interested in seeing tonight; TheSky's What Up? command generates a report for you, complete with fascinating descriptions about many deep-space objects, sample photographs of the object (when available), and Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagrams for stars.

You can scroll through each object in the report and watch the Sky Chart update to show you exactly where to look for the object.

Create and Show Field of View Indicators (FOVIs)

FOVI around the Horsehead nebula

Choose your equipment from a database of hundreds of telescopes, eyepieces and cameras or define your own, then show an overlay on the Sky Chart.

Predict and Watch Iridium Flares

Iridium Flare Report

Predict and watch simulated Iridium Flares directly from TheSky.  

Watch Animated Tours

Tour showing the Sun's analemma

TheSky includes animated tours that you can watch, learn, or show others basic astronomy concepts.

Supplied Tours include:

• Sun's Analemma

• Angular Size of Mars

• Equatorial Coordinates

• Horizon Coordinates

• Mercury Evening Visibility

• Mercury Morning Visibility

• Moon Cycle - Size and Phase

• Motion of Barnard's Star

• 24-Hour Motion of Saturn's Moons

• Rotation and Phase of Mercury 2008

• Rotation and Phase of Venus 2008

• 10-yeaar View of Saturn from Earth

• Venus and Mercury Annual Paths

• What was that? Iridium Flare Sample

• Winter Constellations

Tabbed/Dockable/Floating Windows

The Tours, Find, Chart Elements, Labels and Date and Time windows stacked together.

By default, commonly used features can be accessed by clicking the appropriate tab on the left side of the Sky Chart.  

List of the standard docking windows:

Tours window - Watch animations related to many interesting astronomical concepts.

Find window - Easily locate any object by name, catalog number and many other designations.

Chart Elements window - Lets you turn on and off, or filter by upper and lower magnitude or angular size, elements on the Sky Chart, including:

• Non-stellar objects (Type C, elliptical, lenticular, spiral, irregular galaxies and clusters of galaxies; bright, dark and planetary nebulas; open and globular clusters and clusters plus nebulosity; probable NGC stars, other NGC objects)

• Solar system objects (the Moon, planets, small solar system objects including Pluto, comets and asteroids, the Sun, and planets' moons) and satellites.

• Stellar objects (stars, double stars, suspected variables and variables).

Date & Time window - Includes controls to specify the current date and time, including a calendar control showing the phases of the moon, a context menu button to set specific times (now, sunrise, noon, sunset, midnight, morning, new moon, first quarter, last quarter, full moon, moonrise, moonset, vernal (spring) equinox, summer solstice, autumnal equinox, winter solstice or any Julian date), advance/retreat time controls and more.

Labels window - Turn on and off the names of objects, including:

• asterisms

• asteroids

• comets

• common non-stellar objects

• direction markers (NSEW)

• Messier objects

• meteor shower radiants

• planets, dwarf planets, the moon, planets' moons, and the sun

• stars, including the Bayer designation, Flamsteed designation, and common names

Photos window - Show color or black and white photographs for thousands of deep-sky objects.

Each tab represents a separate window that can be moved and sized to your liking.

Find Objects

Simple Find

A list of common names that match the letters you type appears automatically.

Advanced tab

All object in TheSky's databases can be found in the Advanced list.

The friendly, powerful Find command lets you easily locate any object in TheSky's astronomical databases.

All objects in the databases are listed in a "tree list" and sorted by type (star, double star, galaxy, cluster, etc.).  Just double-click on the name to find it, or specific classification, including:

Finding Stars by:

• Common name (a list of common names that match the letters you type appears automatically)

• Bayer designation

• Flamsteed designation

• General Catalog of Variable Star (GCVS) designation

• Non-stellar variable star (NSV) designation

• Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) Catalog number

• Struve designation

• Washington Catalog of Double Star designation

Finding Non-stellar objects by:

• Caldwell number

• Common name

• Herschel number

• Index Catalog number (IC)

• Lorenzin Catalog number

• New General Catalog (NGC/IC Project) number

• Principle Galaxy Catalog number (PGC)

• Principle Galaxy Catalog cross-reference number

• Zwicky designation

• Arakelian Catalog of Galaxies designation

• Catalog of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies (CGCG) designation

• David Dunlop Observatory Catalog of Galaxies designation

• Fairall Catalog of Galaxies  designation

• Karachentseva Catalog of Galaxies designation

• Kazaryan UV Galaxies designation

• Kiso UV Galaxies designation

• Second Byurakay Survey designation

• Tololo Galaxies designation

• Uppsala General Catalog of Galaxies (UGC)designation

• University of Michigan Catalog of Galaxies designation

• Virgo Cluster Catalog of Galaxies designation

• Weinberger Catalog of Galaxies designation

• Planetary Nebula designation (PLN)

• Saguaro Astronomy Club Deep-Space Object catalog (SAC)

Finding Solar System Objects:

• Comet's by name

• Asteriod by name or number

• Moon

• Satellites

• Sun

• Mercury

• Venus

• Mars

• Jupiter

• Saturn

• Uranus

• Jupiter

• Saturn

• Uranus

• Neptune

• Pluto

Finding the Constellations by:

• Common name

• Abbreviation

Find 70 Common Asterisms

The object's name appear in green letter if it's currently above the horizon, or in black italicized letters when it's below the horizon.

Get Detailed Information on Celestial Objects

Object Information reports are configurable to show as much, or as little information as you need.

Click on any object, or use the Find command to show extensive information on celestial objects, including:

• Object type (star, cluster, galaxy, nebula, etc.)

• Right ascension and declination coordinates (current)

• Right ascension and declination coordinates (Epoch 2000)

• Altitude and azimuth coordinates

• Object magnitude*

• Common name*

• Catalog number (including cross references to other catalogs), for example M42 or NGC 1976v.*

• Description of the object*

• Visual magnitude*

• B magnitude*

• V magnitude *

• Parallax*

• Proper motion*

• Sidereal time

• Distance from Earth (in light years or parsecs)*

• Rise, transit, set times

• The constellation to which the object belongs

• Equatorial and horizon-based coordinates

• Other object and catalog specific data

• Position angle (as measured from the celestial pole) from the previously identified object

• Phase or percent illumination*

• Air mass

*Please note that not every database or every object in a particular database used by TheSky contains information about every parameter listed above. For example, most astronomical catalogs do not contain an object's distance to Earth information.

Sample Object Information

The table below lists the typical information displayed for different classifications of objects.

Select Different Photographs for the Panoramic Horizon

Software Bisque Observatory

New Mexico Skies

Choose from several supplied custom panoramic horizons, including:

• Cayman Island scene

• Desert scene

• Forest scene

• Grand Mesa, Colorado

• Ice Lake, Michigan

• Mountain scene

• Mt. Wilson Institute Observatory

• New Mexico Skies

• Software Bisque Observatory

• Very Large Array

• Winter Star Party

Or, create a photographic panorama of your favorite observing site (instructions can be found in TheSky User Guide).

Quickly Set Chart Options with Chart Elements

Chart Elements tab.

Turning on and off individual, selected or all object classifications or "chart elements" is easy with the Chart Elements window.

Show Reference Lines and Photos

Reference Lines and Reference Photos

Show the following reference lines and reference photos:

Constellation Figures from:

• Astronomy Magazine

• H.A. Rey

• Patrick Moore

• Sky & Telescope Magazine

• TheSky

• Wil Tirion

• Milky Way Galaxy

• Isophotes

• Black & white photo

• Full color photo

• Constellation Boundaries

• Many popular Asterisms

• Ecliptic line

• Equatorial Grid lines

• Galactic Equator

• Horizon Grid lines

• Meridian

• Celestial North/South Arrow

Show Object Names (Object Labels)

Object Name Labels

TheSky can show the names and labels for the following:

• Asterisms

• Asteroids

• Comets

• Common Non-stellar Objects

• Constellations

• Direction Markers (NSEW)

• Messier Objects

• Meteor Shower Radiants

• Planets, Dwarf Planets, Moons, Sun

• Satellites

• Star Labels

• Bayer Designation

• Common Star Names

• Flamsteed Designation

Configure Appearance of Stars

Sample star field

Star Options window

Adjust the appearance of the stars by:

• Brightness

• Contrast

• Star gradient

• Star density

• Size of surrounding halo

• Spectral color or custom fill color

• Spectral color saturation

Customize Tool bars to Access Commands You Want

Look tool bar

Orientation tool bar

Tool bars positioned around the Star Chart

Six standard tool bars contain buttons to access many frequently used commands. You can also add your own custom tool bars for the commands you use most.

The size of the buttons on the tool bars are configurable, as well as the content of the buttons (show a graph, or text or both on the button).

The position of the tool bars can be customized.  Show them as floating windows, or drag and drop them anywhere along the edges Star Chart window.

Chart Status window

Chart Status window with configurable report

The Chart Status window shows a continuously updated information about the current chart.

Choose from the following list of status report options:

• Date

• Time

• Julian Date

• Universal Time (UT)

• Local Sidereal Time (LST)

• Location Description

• Latitude

• Longitude

• Time Zone

• Elevation

• Screen Center Right Ascension (RA)

• Screen Center Declination (Dec)

• Screen Center Right Azimuth (Az)

• Screen Center Altitude (Alt)

• Screen Field Width

• Screen Rotation

• Cursor X position

• Cursor Y position

• Cusor Constellation

• Cursor Right Ascension/Declination (RA/Dec)

• Cursor Azimuth/Altitude (Azm/Alt)

Show/Hide Scroll Bars

Chart with optional scroll bars turned on

Show/hide horizontal and vertical scroll bars for easy chart navigation.

Look North, South, East, West or Up

Never get lost in space!

Automatically adjust the star chart for your location to look North, South, East, West or straight up (at the Zenith).

Zoom Box

Zoom Box

Click and drag the "zoom box" on the chart to magnify (or zoom in) to this region.

The size (or field width) and the angular separation between the corners of the zoom box is shown.

Zoom to Pre-defined Fields of View

Custom Field of View window.

Built-in command to show the following fields of view:

• Minimum (30 arcseconds)

• Telescope (1°)

• Finder (10°)

• Binocular (50°)

• Naked Eye (100°)

• Wide Field (180°)

• Maximum (235°)

Or, define any number of custom fields of view using the Custom Fields of View window.

Navigate the Celestial Sphere

Navigate to any coordinate using the Screen Center tab on the Navigate window.

Navigate the Celestial Sphere.

The Navigate window let's you:

• Position the center of the chart at any equatorial (right ascension/declination/Epoch) or horizon (azimuth/altitude) coordinate.

• Center the chart on any ra/dec using a 360 degree chart of the celestial sphere that shows the constellation boundaries and figures. As you move the mouse, the current equatorial and horizon coordinates and constellation name are shown.

• View the entire celestial sphere, and click on the constellation you want to view.

• Rotate the Sky Chart to any orientation to match your photographs.

Control the Date and Time

The Date & Time window.

Custom Time Flow Increments and Rates window.

Date & Time tool bar.

Input any date from 4,712 B.C. to A.D. 10,000 and any time to show a beautiful star chart for your location. 

The Date & Time tab on the Command Center Window provides many different tools that allow you to quickly set any date from 4,712 B.C. to A.D. 10,000 and any time, including:

• Use Computer's Clock button to set time to now.

• Date & Time Control to manually enter any date and time.

• Calender control to set any date. The control also displays the phases of the moon for each month.

The Date & Time tab allows you to specify specific times, including:

• Now (computer's clock)

• Sunrise

• Noon

• Sunset

• Midnight

• Morning (begin twilight)

• Evening (end twilight)

• New Moon

• First Quarter

• Last Quarter

• Full Moon

• Moonrise

• Moonset

• Specific Julian Date

The Date & Time tab allows you to control the rate that time changes, or the increment of time to advance or retreat in time. The default increments include:

• 1x

• 10x

• 100x

• 1000x

• 10000x

• 1 second

• 1 minute

• 1 hour

• 1 day

• 1 Lunar Month

• 1 Year

• Sunrise

• Sunset

• Start Twilight

• End Twilight

You can define custom increments and rates using the Custom Time Flow Increments and Rates window.

The Date & Time toolbar allows you to set the Date & Time as well as specify the direction and rate of time.

Choose your location on Earth

Earth Map tab on the Location window.

By default, your location on earth is detected automatically from the web.

Or,

• Select your location from a list of over 1200 cities, star parties, observatories and other sites on the List of Locations tab.

• Select your location by clicking on a map of the Earth. Regions of Daylight/nighttime are shown on this map for convenience.

• Enter your USA zip code.

• Automatically retrieve your location using your computer's Internet Protocol (IP) address.

• Manually enter your location by specifying a description and your longitude, latitude (in hour/minutes/seconds or decimal degrees), elevation, time zone and Daylight Saving option (DSO).

Create Solar System Object Paths

Mercury morning visibility in 2008.

Create a "path" that represents the future or past positions of the Sun, planets (including Pluto), Moon, comets and asteroids.

The screen to the left shows the position of Mercury each evening for one year.

Find and View Solar and Lunar Eclipses with the Eclipse Viewer

Solar Eclipse Viewer.

Example lunar eclipse view.

When is the next solar eclipse? Where it visible on Earth? You'll be able to answer these questions, learn about the dynamics of solar and lunar eclipses and more using the Solar and Lunar Eclipse Viewer.

Solar Eclipses

TheSky shows every solar eclipse for the next twenty years (or so) from the current date (starting from any date).

Select an eclipse from the list and the three-dimensional view of the Earth gives the local circumstances:

• Whether or not it is visible from the current location.

• Annular, total central, annular central, partial, or hybrid designation.

• Time of eclipse start

• Time of greatest eclipse

• Time of eclipse end

• The line of the central eclipse, and the rise/set curve, shadow limits, and eclipse shadow for the Earth's umbra and penumbra can be shown.

You can adjust the viewing distance from Earth using the Solar Viewing Distance Slider.

Lunar Eclipses

As with solar eclipses, the next twenty years of lunar eclipses are listed. Select one from the list to view it's local circumstances, including:

• The type of lunar eclipse (partial, penumbral, total)

• The date and time when the eclipse begins

When a lunar eclipse is selected, the Sky Chart is updated to show the Earth's penumbra and umbra and the position of the moon at the start of the eclipse.

Find Conjunctions with the Conjunction Finder

Conjunction Finder window.

View of actual conjunction.

Select any 2 or 3 planets (or the Sun and Moon) to find the future conjunctions of these bodies.

For each conjunction that is located, the Star Chart shows a green laser pointer to help you find it in the actual sky.

Show the Positions of the Major Moons of Jupiter and Saturn

View Jupiter's major moons.

View Saturn's major moons.

View the positions of Jupiter's and Saturn's major moons.

Display or Print Calendars showing the Moon's Phase and other information

Monthly calendar.

Show a calendar of any month with the phases of the moon, as well as sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, and Iridium Flare occurrences.

A full year's calendar can be shown, too.  The calendar can be saved (or exported) as a PDF file.

View High-Resolution Images of the Moon using the Moon Viewer

Moon Photo Viewer

Location of Moon Viewer Photo on Sky Chart's Moon

The interactive Moon Photo Viewer is a powerful tool that can:

• Display photographs of virtually the entire Moon's visible surface.

• Search for lunar features.

• Display the name of the nearest lunar feature with a mouse click.

• Overlay text descriptions (labels) of many of lunar features.

• Show the longitude and latitude for any point of any location on the Moon.

• Show the longitude and latitude of the center of images.

• Outline craters and other features.

• Expand or decrease the size of the lunar image (by sizing the window).

• Display a brief history of the source of the lunar feature's name.

• Show the macroscopic location of the current Moon Viewer image on the Virtual Sky's Moon.

Identify and get feature specific information by placing the mouse over the photo. The Moon Photo Viewer can overlay text labels of any or all of the following lunar features, including:

• Craters

• Sub-craters

• Mare (seas)

• Landing sites

• Catena (crater chains)

• Rima (rilles)

• Lacus (lakes)

• Mons (mountains)

• Dorsum (wrinkle ridges)

• Promontor

• Vallis (valleys)

• Other features

When the "Highlight Photo's Location on Chart" option is checked, you'll see a blue region on the Sky Chart Moon's surface. This area represents the location of the current high-resolution Moon image. This lets you easily relate the position of a particular photograph its position on the Moon's surface.

View the Solar System in Three Dimensions using the 3D Solar System Viewer

Three dimensional system simulator.

Use this command to toggle between looking at the sky from Earth or from outer space (anywhere inside our solar system). When this command is enabled, the starry background is turned off by default and only the objects in our solar system are displayed. The default location is an arbitrary point in space. It’s above the plane of the ecliptic, just inside Pluto’s orbit, looking back at our Sun.

View Stars in Three Dimensions with the 3D Stars Tool

3D view of the stars.

View the stars in three dimensions with the 3D Stars tool. You can zoom, pan and scroll around the universe to learn about the relative positions of the familiar (and not so familiar) stars in the Milky Way.

Even isolate any of the 88 constellations and view only the stars within its boundaries.

Show Detailed Constellations Figures

Bevis Constellation Drawings

Show detailed drawings for all or selected constellations.

Simulate the Daytime Sky

Sunset at the Mt. Wilson Institute Observatory.

The Daytime Sky Mode lets you simulate and how the sky looks during daytime, as well as dawn and dusk.  

View in Full Screen Mode

Full screen view.

Have the Sky Chart occupy the entire desktop in Full Screen mode.

Preserve Dark Adaptation with the Night Vision Mode

Show the entire screen (and the entire desktop) predominantly red to preserve the eyes' dark adaptation (or night vision).

Show the Chart as a Mirror Image

Show Sky Chart as a mirror image.

Mirror image reverses the Sky Chart, left-to-right. This lets you view the sky as you would through a telescope with an erect, but laterally reversed image.

Show Photo-Like or Map-Like Star Charts

Chart mode reformats the display to look more like what you would see in a book of star charts, or how a printed chart is going look.

Create Publication-Quality Star Charts. Graphics and PDF Output

Exported chart (JPG)

Sky Charts can be exported in portable network graphs (PNG) format, or saved in portable document format (PDF) for publication of charts and graphics to your astronomy club newsletter or web site.*

*Please include the text "Copyright Software Bisque, Inc. www.bisque.com" when publishing star charts generate by TheSky.

Print and Export Star Charts

Print high-resolution star charts on your printer for field use.

Click to Drag the Sky Chart to Change Field of View

Click and drag the mouse and drag the sky chart to change its position.

Rotate the Sky Chart to any position angle

Screen rotation tab.

Use the Rotate tab on the Orientation > Navigate window to rotate the Sky Chart to any angle to match your field of view or photo's orientation.

Database Manager to Add/Remove Core and Additional Sky Databases (SDBs)

Database Manager window.

Use the Database Manager to:

• Show or hide only the astronomical catalogs need

• Import Sky Databases that are generated by TheSky Professional.

• Show statistics about the catalogs and databases used by TheSky.

Compute and View Stellar Proper Motion

Chart showing proper motion arrows.

Configure Stellar Proper Motion

Stars' proper motion lets you:

• Watch stars move over time.

• Show proper motion arrows (or proper motion "vectors" that specify the magnitude and direction of the star's motion over time).

Friendly and Extensive User Guide

TheSky User Guide describe many fundamental principles about astronomy and relates them to TheSky.  This document is available in three different digital formats to satisfy any preference:

• Portable Document Format (PDF)

• Application Help-Based Format

• Web-based Format

Note that a printed copy of the 850+ page TheSky User Guide is not available.  If you wish to have a printed copy made, Software Bisque can grant permission to have a copy printed and bound by your local printing shop.

Display 235 degrees to 30 arcsecond fields of view

Wide field showing the Milky Way

Zoomed in on Jupiter and Europa.

Simulate the celestial sphere, at any magnification from 235 degrees to 30 arc seconds.

Limit the Magnitude and/or the Angular Size of Object Types on Sky Chart

Filter objects by magnitude (upper and lower)...

and limit by angular size.

Select any object type (or all object types) and easily adjust the upper and lower magnitudes and the maximum and minimum angular sizes of objects that are shown on the Sky Chart.

Display Small Solar System Objects, including Comets, Asteroids and Man-Made Satellites

Import Comets

Import Asteroids (numerically integrated)

Import All Asteroids (about 1 million  known asteroids, and counting)

Import Satellites

• Show the positions of up to 2000 comets, all known asteroids (about 1 million presently), and a virtually unlimited number of satellites.

• TheSky can import the updated "orbital elements data sets" (the data that is needed to accurately compute the positions of these objects) directly from the web. Comets and asteroids can also be updated from the web by entering the object's name.

Create Observing Lists

Observing List Options

Observing List (vertical orientation)

Observing List (horizontal orientation)

TheSky makes generating an observing list from this complex query simple!

The Create Observing List feature can be used to perform advanced searches or database queries that can be used to generate observing lists.  

The Advanced Query tab offers much more detail regarding your query of celestial objects than the simplified options on the What’s Up Setup tab.

For example, you could create an observing list that contains all the double stars from the Washington Catalog of Double Stars that have a spectral type of G5 in Orion..  

Advanced control for your Go To or Push To Telescope

See Telescope Control for details.