Object Information dialog box  (Click on an object or Edit | Find objects)

The Object Information dialog box displays a host of information about a particular object. It is displayed when you click the mouse on the Virtual Sky or use the Find command to query TheSky6’s database to locate an object.

This window has two different display modes, small and large. The Small Object Information dialog box, which occupies less screen space, and displays fewer options, appears by default. The Large Object Information dialog box can be displayed by clicking the button that shows a double "down" arrow on the window's toolbar . Likewise the Small Object Information dialog box can be displayed by clicking the double "up" arrow on the window's toolbar .

Small Object Information Dialog Box

Small Object Information dialog box

The Small Object Information dialog box contains the following controls:

• A list box that contains the objects located near the mouse cursor, or that closely match the Find dialog box text query. Up to 10 objects are listed. If there are no objects near the mouse cursor when you click on the Virtual Sky, an object named Cursor Position is displayed. The displayed coordinates are for this point on the screen.

• A text box that shows the Object Information Report for the selected object. Use the scroll bar to view its contents.

• A toolbar with buttons for commonly used commands (described below).

Click the button to show the Large Object Information dialog box.

Large Object Information Dialog Box

Large Object Information dialog box

The Large Object Information dialog box contains four tabs: General, Multimedia, Utility and Telescope. Each tab contains specific options and controls to accomplish different tasks. The Object Information toolbar is always displayed at the bottom of this window.

Object Information Report

The information presented in these dialog boxes for a particular object includes:

• common name

• catalog number (including cross references to other catalogs), for example M42 or NGC1976.

• description of the object, when available

• magnitude, including blue (B) and violet (V) when available

• distance information, when available

• rise, transit, set times

• the constellation to which the object belongs

• equatorial and horizon-based coordinates

• other object and catalog specific data

• position angle (measured from the Celestial Pole) from the previously identified object

• phase (where applicable)

• air mass (for computing atmospheric extension and transmission)

• proper motion, where applicable (units are milli-arcseconds per year)

• parallax, where applicable

See the Object Attributes topic for a complete list.

Example Object Information Report Data

The table below lists examples of the information shown for stars, deep-space objects, comets, minor planets, satellites and solar system objects. This information is configurable by editing the Object Information text file.

Note that TheSky6 computes and displays the current tracking rates for the planets, the Sun, the Moon, satellites, comets and minor planets. Robotic telescope mounts such as the Paramount ME can use these rates to automatically track these bodies that move at "non-sidereal rates."

Formatting the Object Information Report

The information displayed in the Object Information dialog box's report section is configurable. By editing the text file named Object Information Format.txt (in the <My Documents>\Software Bisque\TheSky 6 folder) you can specify the order of the information displayed, as well as the content of the report.

See the default Object Information Format.txt below for the format of this text file, as well as comments (the lines that begin with a semi-colon character are not part of the report) on each field in the report.

• Fields in the report are separated by the '|' character.

• The first field is the text that appears in Object Information report.

• The second field is the TheSky6's object attribute that is associated with this text.

• Fields that are not applicable to a particular object are ignored. For example, information about a planet will not appear when identifying a star.

Default Object Information Format Text File

Object name|Object name|

"Other ID"|Name 2|

Catalog ID|Catalog ID|

Magnitude|Magnitude|

Apparent magnitude|Apparent magnitude|

"Equatorial"|"RA: "|RA (current epoch)|"   Dec: "|Dec (current epoch)|"(current)"|

"Equatorial 2000"|"RA: "|RA (epoch 2000)|"   Dec: "|Dec (epoch 2000)|

"Horizon"|"Azim: "|Azimuth|"   Alt: "|Altitude|

"Size"|Major axis |" x "|Minor Axis|

Apparent angular diameter|Apparent angular diameter|

"Alternate names"|Name 3|" "|Name 4|"  "|Name 5|

"Visibility"|"Rise "|Rise time|",  "|"Set "|Set time|

Transit time|Transit time|"  "|Rise/set notes|

Phase (%)|Phase (%)|

Flamsteed-Bayer|Flamsteed-Bayer|

Name 6|Name 6|

Name 7|Name 7|

Name 8|Name 8|

Name 9|Name 9|

Object type|Object type|

Spectral|Spectral|

Source catalog|Source catalog|

; These are fields that are particular to the catalog.

DB field 1|DB field 1|

DB field 2|DB field 2|

DB field 3|DB field 3|

DB field 4|DB field 4|

DB field 5|DB field 5|

DB field 6|DB field 6|

DB field 7|DB field 7|

DB field 8|DB field 8|

DB field 9|DB field 9|

DB field 10|DB field 10|

DB field 11|DB field 11|

DB field 12|DB field 12|

DB field 13|DB field 13|

DB field 14|DB field 14|

DB field 15|DB field 15|

DB field 16|DB field 16|

;Text record|Text record|

Earth distance (km)|Earth distance (km)|

Sun distance (au)|Sun distance (au)|

Position angle|Position angle|

Hour angle|Hour angle|

Air mass|Air mass|

Magnitude B|Magnitude B|

Magnitude V|Magnitude V|

Magnitude R|Magnitude R|

"Screen x,y"|Screen X|", "|Screen Y|

RA rate (arcsecs/sec)|RA rate (arcsecs/sec)|

Dec rate (arcsecs/sec)|Dec rate (arcsecs/sec)|

Altitude rate (arcsecs/sec)|Altitude rate (arcsecs/sec)|

Azimuth rate (arcsecs/sec)|Azimuth rate (arcsecs/sec)|

Azimuth rise|Azimuth rise|

Azimuth set|Azimuth set|

Minor planet active|Minor planet active|

Minor planet epoch month|Minor planet epoch month|

Minor planet epoch day|Minor planet epoch day|

Minor planet epoch year|Minor planet epoch year|

Minor planet mean anomoly|Minor planet mean anomoly|

Minor planet eccentricity|Minor planet eccentricity|

Minor planet semi-major axis|Minor planet semi-major axis|

Minor planet inclination|Minor planet inclination|

Minor planet long-ascend node|Minor planet long-ascend node|

Minor planet long. perihelion|Minor planet long. perihelion|

Minor planet eclip|Minor planet eclip|

Minor planet mag 1|Minor planet mag 1|

Minor planet mag 2|Minor planet mag 2|

Comet perihelion month|Comet perihelion month|

Comet perihelion day|Comet perihelion day|

Comet perihelion year|Comet perihelion year|

Comet eccentricity|Comet eccentricity|

Comet perihelion distance|Comet perihelion distance|

Comet inclination|Comet inclination|

Comet long-ascending node|Comet long-ascending node|

Comet long-perihelion|Comet long-perihelion|

Comet eclip|Comet eclip|

Comet mag 1|Comet mag 1|

Comet mag 2|Comet mag 2|

"Heliocentric"|"l: "|Heliocentric longitude|"b: "|Heliocentric latitude|"r: "|Heliocentric radius|

"Geocentric"|"l: "|Geocentric longitude|"b: "|Geocentric latitude|"r: "|Geocentric radius|

"Geocentric mean"|"l: "|Geocentric mean longitude|"b: "|Geocentric mean latitude|"r: "|Geocentric mean radius|

True RA|True RA|

True Dec|True Dec|

Altitude w/refraction|Altitude w/refraction|

"Ecliptic"|"l: "|Moon ecliptic longitude|"b: "|Moon ecliptic latitude|"r: "|Moon ecliptic radius|

Moon parallax|Moon parallax|

Moon angular diameter|Moon angular diameter|

Moon distance (km)|Moon distance (km)|

Moon true RA|Moon true RA|

Moon true Dec|Moon true Dec|

Moon topocentric RA|Moon topocentric RA|

Moon topocentric Dec|Moon topocentric Dec|

Moon topocentric ang. diameter|Moon topocentric ang. diameter|

Moon altitude w/refraction|Moon altitude w/refraction|

"Moon optical libration"|"l: "|Moon optical libration l|" "|"b: "|Moon optical libration b|

"Moon physical libration"|"l: "|Moon physical libration l|" "|"b: "|Moon physical libration b|

"Moon total libration"|"l: "|Moon total libration l|" "|"b: "|Moon total libration b|

Moon position angle|Moon position angle|

Moon phase angle|Moon phase angle|

Moon position angle of bright limb|Moon position angle of bright limb|

Penumbra radius|Penumbra radius|

Umbra radius|Umbra radius|

Sun position angle|Sun position angle|

Heliocentric longitude|Heliocentric longitude|

Heliocentric latitude|Heliocentric latitude|

Declination of Sun|Declination of Sun|

Declination of Earth|Declination of Earth|

Polar diameter|Polar diameter|

Longitude of the central meridian|Longitude of the central meridian|

Longitude of the central meridian (II)|Longitude of the central meridian (II)|

Defect of illumination|Defect of illumination|

Phase correction|Phase correction|

Ring axis (a)|Ring axis (a)|

Ring axis (b)|Ring axis (b)|

Parallax|Parallax|

"Proper Motion"|Proper motion RA|", "|Proper motion Dec|

"Position error"|Position error RA|", "|Position error Dec|

Position error parallax|Position error parallax|

Proper motion error RA|Proper motion error RA|

Proper motion error Dec|Proper motion error Dec|

Civil twilight start|Civil twilight start|

Civil twilight end |Civil twilight end |

Nautical twilight start|Nautical twilight start|

Nautical twilight end|Nautical twilight end|

Astronomical twilight start|Astronomical twilight start|

Astronomical twilight end|Astronomical twilight end|

Sidereal time|Sidereal time|

Click distance|Click distance|

Point 3D x|Point 3D x|

Point 3D y|Point 3D y|

Point 3D z|Point 3D z|

Frame size (mins)|Frame size (mins)|

Light years|Light years|

Parsecs|Parsecs|

Scale|Scale|

Height|Height|

Width|Width|

Catalog number|Catalog number|

Celestial type|Celestial type|

Star ID|Star ID|

GSC block|GSC block|

GSC num|GSC num|

Index|Index|

NGC/IC|NGC/IC|

Skip index|Skip index|

Non-stellar fields|Non-stellar fields|

Text record start|Text record start|

Satellite visible|Satellite visible|

Satellite eclipsed|Satellite eclipsed|

Satellite extended|Satellite extended|

Satellite name|Satellite name|

Satellite TLE1|Satellite TLE1|

Satellite TLE2|Satellite TLE2|

Julian day|Julian date|

Latitude|Latitude|

Longitude|Longitude|

Earth altitude|Earth altitude|

Range|Range|

Range rate|Range rate|

Depth of eclipse|Depth of eclipse|

Catalog|Catalog|

Angular separation|Angular separation|

Observer's Log|Observer's Log| 

Object Information Toolbars

Each button on the Large and Small Object Information dialog box is described below.

Small Object Information Window Toolbar Buttons