TheSky6 Frequently Asked Questions

Click on any questions below to see the answer.

Feature-specific questions

Does TheSky6 show the distance from Earth to every object? A. No. Most of the standard astronomical catalogs (or databases) used by TheSky6 do not include the distance from Earth. These include, for example, the GSC, PGC, WDS, NGC, IC, Messier catalogs. The 1.2 million stars in the Hipparcos-Tycho catalog do contain parallax data from which distance from Earth can be computed (as is displayed in the TheSky6's Object Information dialogs.)

What new features are included in TheSky6? A. TheSky6 web site contains a list of the standard and new features in TheSky6.

Click the Contents button, then open the Improvements and Enhancements topic on the left side of TheSky6 Information Site window for details.

Does TheSky6 run under Windows 95? A. No. TheSky version 6 requires Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP or later.
 

Is TheSky6 available for Macintosh OS? A. Not currently. However, Software Bisque is developing a native Macintosh version of TheSky. No additional information is available at this time.
 

Does TheSky6 come with a printed manual? A. No. A printed Getting Started guide is included with TheSky6.

The 250-page (or so) TheSky6 User's Guide is supplied as PDF document, and is copied to your hard drive during installation. Click Start | All Programs | Software Bisque | TheSky6 | TheSky6 User's Guide (PDF) to view it. Or, visit www.bisque.com/documentation to download the latest revision of this manual. Note that the free Abode Reader must be installed to view PDF documents.
 

What are the minimum system requirements for TheSky6? A. See Minimum System Requirements for details.

What are differences between TheSky6 Student Edition, Serious Astronomer Edition and Professional Edition? A. See TheSky6's Editions for details.

What are differences between TheSky6 Professional Edition on CD-ROM and DVD media? A. There are no differences between the 4 CD-ROM set of TheSky6 Professional Edition and the DVD media.


For TheSky6 Professional Edition media shipped before March, 2005, TheSky6 Professional Edition on DVD contained an additional 191 photographs from the Anglo-Australian Observatory (David Malin collection) and 414 photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Can TheSky6 filter objects by magnitude? A. Yes. TheSky6 can filter any of 69 separate object classifications (stars, spiral galaxies, open clusters, etc.) by upper and lower limiting magnitude.

Can TheSky track comets, minor planets or satellites using a computer-controlled telescope? A. TheSky6 combined with a Paramount can track the "fast" or "slow" moving objects. Just click on the satellite in TheSky and then click the Track Satellite button on the Object Information dialog box (Telescope tab). TheSky6 slews the Paramount to the satellite, and then TheSky6 computes and adjusts the telescope tracking rates in both right ascension and declination to follow the object. Software Bisque routinely captures fast-moving satellites on video using the Paramount.

Solar System Objects Tracking Issues

1. For fast-moving objects (such as low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites), the telescope must be able to point accurately enough to place the object in the field of view. TPoint telescope pointing analysis software makes this task relatively simple.
2. In order to automatically track slow- or fast-moving satellites, the telescope's control system must have configurable tracking rates (different than slew rates) in both the right ascension and declination axis. In addition, the telescope's configurable tracking rates must have sufficient dynamic range. Almost no commercially available telescope can specify variable tracking rates in both right ascension and declination at sufficient dynamic range to follow these fast-moving, low-earth objects. The Paramount ME can.

Does TheSky6 account for precession, nutation, aberration and refraction? A. Yes. We're frequently asked if the positions of objects displayed by TheSky6 account for the effects of precession, nutation, aberration and refraction.

The answer is, "yes!" TheSky6 accounts for the effects from all these phenomena.

Precession
The 26,000-year period "wobble" of the Earth's rotational axis that results in precession of the equinoxes. The result is a slow change in the positions stars over time.

Nutation
A small change in the position of stars due to the Moon's 18.6-year period precession.

Aberration
The difference between the apparent position of a star and its actual position. This very small offset is the result of observing the light from stars from a rotating Earth.

Refraction
The bending of light caused by the Earth's atmosphere.

What are TheSky6's date limits? A. TheSky6 can accept any date from 4,712 B.C. to A.D. 10,000 to show a graphical representation of what the sky looks like from your location on Earth.  

Miscellaneous Questions

Is TheSky6 compatible Windows Vista? A. Yes. See TheSky6's Minimum System Requirements for a list of supported operating systems.

Can TheSky6 be installed on Windows XP Tablet Edition? A. Yes. See TheSky6's Minimum System Requirements for a list of supported operating systems.

Does Software Bisque have an agent located in England? A. Yes. See the "Re-sellers" topic for contact information.
 

Can I publish content (for example, star charts) from TheSky? A. Yes, provided sufficient copyright notice is provided. See the "TheSky Copyright Notification for details.
 

Purchasing TheSky6

How can I buy TheSky6? A. Place your secure order for TheSky6 (any Edition) or TheSky6 upgrade on the Software Bisque web site via TheSky6 Order Center. Or, visit or call a TheSky6 Re-seller.

How much does TheSky6 upgrade cost? A. Visit TheSky Version 6 Purchase and Upgrade Scenarios for details.

How much does TheSky6 cost for a first-time buyer? A. Visit TheSky Version 6 Purchase and Upgrade Scenarios for details.

Can TheSky6 be downloaded from the web? A. No. TheSky6 Professional Edition, compressed, is 2.7 GB. TheSky6 Serious Astronomer Edition, compressed, is about 1 GB. TheSky6 Student Edition is 567 MB.

Does TheSky6 come with a money-back guarantee? A. Software Bisque offers a 30 day money back guarantee on TheSky6. This offer is not applicable to dealer sales, other restrictions apply and a 15 percent restocking fee is applicable.

See:
http://www.bisque.com/support/sbkb2/1083.asp
for details.

Does TheSky6 Order Center accept international orders? A. Yes, Software Bisque accepts international orders from TheSky6 Order Center.

Telescope-specific questions

Which Editions of TheSky6 include telescope control? A.TheSky6 Serious Astronomer Edition and TheSky6 Professional Edition have native telescope control. No additional software or third-party drivers are required.

Is TPoint required to control my telescope? A. No. TheSky6 Serious Astronomer Edition and TheSky6 Professional Edition have native telescope control. No additional software or third-party drivers are required. TPoint is telescope modeling software that can improve the telescope's ability to point, but is not required for general-purpose telescope control.

What model telescopes are supported? A. See the Supported Telescopes for a complete list.