TheSky6 Databases

Software Bisque's goal with TheSky6 is to provide a comprehensive set of astronomical catalogs and the tools to quickly access information from them. TheSky6's "core" databases include extremely accurate, industry-standard astronomical catalogs. They should meet your needs whether you're star hopping with your telescope, taking CCD images of faint galaxies, or computing sub-arcsecond astrometric positions of minor planets.

TheSky6 (Professional, Serious Astronomer and Student Edition) displays celestial objects and other screen elements from a wide variety of sources, including user-defined sources and databases. The table below lists the major categories.

Database Category

(sold separately)

Cross references/optional stellar databases

Catalog Cross References

Optional Stellar Databases

Core Databases

TheSky6 contains databases of celestial objects from the following standard astronomical catalogs. The information in these catalogs has been stored in an optimized file format so that TheSky6 plots and accesses information quickly.

Use TheSky6's Edit | Find command to locate any object from any of these catalogs.

Catalog Type	TheSky6 Edition	Astronomical Database	Object Count
Stars	All Editions	Hipparcos/Tycho Stellar Catalog	1.2 million (complete to 12th magnitude)
	Serious Astronomer Edition and Professional Edition	Hubble Guide Star Catalog (GSC) Version 1.2	19 million (complete to about 14th magnitude)
	Professional Edition	USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC) Version 2.0 (Professional Edition only)	48 million stars to 40 degrees declination
	Professional Edition	USNO B 1.0 subset (Professional Edition only)	15 million stars above 40 degrees declination that complete the missing stars from the incomplete USNO UCAC 2.0 catalog
	Professional Edition	TheSky6 Professional Edition supports additional stellar databases	Up to 1 billion stars
Double Stars	All Editions	Washington Catalog of Double Stars (WDS)	99,068
Double Stars	All Editions	Struve Double Star Catalog	4,307
Variable Stars	All Editions	General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS)	37,383
Suspected Variable Stars	All Editions	New Suspected Variable Star Catalog (NSV)	14,812
Non-Stellar Objects	All Editions	New General Catalog (NGC) from the NGC/IC Project NGC/IC Database Copyright Notice	7,840
		Index Catalog (IC) from the NGC/IC Project NGC/IC Database Copyright Notice	5,382
		Tomm Lorenzin 2000+ Catalog	2,088
		Herschel Catalog	400
		Caldwell Catalog	109
		Messier Catalog	110
		Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) Database	10,580
Galaxies	Student Edition and Serious Astronomy Edition	Catalog of Principle Galaxies (PGC)	98,087
	Professional Edition	Catalog of Principle Galaxies (PGC)	900,000
	Professional Edition	Arp Peculiar Galaxies	338
Planetary Nebula	All Editions	PK Planetary Nebula Catalog (PLN)	1,455
Clusters of Galaxies	Professional Edition	Abell Clusters of Galaxies	2,712
Globular Clusters	Professional Edition	Galactic Globulars	2,495
Solar System Objects	All Editions	Sun Mercury Venus Earth Earth's Moon Mars Jupiter Io Ganymede Europa Callisto Saturn Enceladus Mimas Tethys Dione Rhea Titan Hyperion Iapetus Uranus Neptune Pluto	22
	Comets	Updated from the web using TheSky6	Up to 1000 at once
	Minor Planets (Asteroids)	Updated from the web using TheSky6	Every known asteroid (Over 330,000 at the time of this writing; the total number is increasing rapidly.)
	Satellites	Updated from the web using TheSky6	up to 10,000

The Hipparcos-Tycho Catalogs are the primary stellar databases used to display information by TheSky6 (all Editions) for stars to about 12 magnitude and brighter.

TheSky6 (all Editions) also cross-references stars from:

the Bayer/Flamsteed Catalog
Guide Star Catalog (GSC)
the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Catalog (SAO)
the Positions and Proper Motion catalog (PPM)
Henry Draper Catalog (HD)
UCAC
USNO

and other stellar catalogs, where applicable.

Optional Stellar Databases (Professional Edition)

TheSky6 Professional Edition can display stars from the following optional (not included) stellar databases.

Optional Core Stellar Catalogs	Object Count
USNO B1.0	1 billion stars (80 GB)
USNO A2.0	500 million stars (6 GB, 10 CD-ROM set)
USNO SA2.0	50 million stars (600 MB, 1 CD-ROM)

These databases, not provided with TheSky6 Professional Edition, may be obtained from the U.S. Naval Observatory using the following procedure.

Download the catalog from the U.S. Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station's ftp site. Files that have the ".cat" and ".acc" extensions are required and should be copied to a single folder on your hard drive.
These files can reside in any folder. By default, TheSky6 looks to the USNO A2.0" folder in TheSky6's Data\Core Databases folder for these files. To configure TheSky6 to use a different folder, click Data | File Locations, and then edit the name of the USNOA 2.0 directory.
To display stars from the USNO A2.0 database, click View | Stellar Options, click the Catalogs/Astrometry tab, mark the USNO A2.0... option and then click OK.

Cross Referenced Catalogs

TheSky6 (all Editions) also cross-references the following catalogs. Use TheSky6 Edit | Find command to locate any object from any of these catalogs.

Cross-Referenced Catalogs	Prefix	Object Count
Arakelian Catalog of Galaxies	ARAK	595
Bayer/Flamsteed Designations	n/a	n/a
Bonner Durchmusterung Number	B+nn nnnnn	-
Caldwell Catalog	Caldwell + Cn	109
Cape Durchmusterung Number	P-nn nnnn	-
Catalog of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies	CGCG	29,809
Common Non-Stellar Object Names	name of object
Common Star Names	name of object
Constellations	name of constellation	88
Cordoba Durchmusterung	C-nn nnnnn	-
David Dunlop Observatory Catalog of Galaxies	DDO	242
Fairall Catalog of Galaxies	FAIR	1,185
Henry Draper number	HD	359,083
Infrared Astronomical Survey	IRAS	9,347
Karachentseva Catalog of Galaxies	KARA	183
Kazaryan UV Galaxies	KAZ	581
Kiso UV Galaxies	KUG	5,455
Messier Catalog	M	110
Positions and Proper Motions Number	PPM	-
Second Byurakay Survey	SBS	259
Smithsonian Astrophysical Catalog (SAO)	SAO	258,997
Struve Catalog	STRUVE	3,100
Tololo Galaxies	TOL	111
University of Michigan Catalog of Galaxies	UM	652
unnamed	1SZ	26
unnamed	2SZ	32
unnamed	ARP	560
unnamed	ESO	16,239
unnamed	LGS	5
unnamed	VV	1,161
Uppsala General Catalog of Galaxies	UGC	13,073
Virgo Cluster Catalog of Galaxies	VCC	2097
Weinberger Catalog of Galaxies	WEIN	207
Zwicky1	1ZW	238
Zwicky2	2ZW	199
Zwicky3	3ZW	159
Zwicky4	4ZW	203
Zwicky5	5ZW	531
Zwicky6	6ZW	238
Zwicky7	7ZW	1,145
Zwicky8	8ZW	645

Sky Databases (SDBs)

TheSky6 Professional Edition includes additional astronomical catalogs as optional Sky Databases.

Additional Astronomical Catalogs as Sky Databases	Object Count
6C Survey of Radio Sources (I)	1,761
6C Survey of Radio Sources (II)	8,278
6C Survey of Radio Sources (III)	8,749
6C Survey of Radio Sources (IV)	5,421
6C Survey of Radio Sources (V)	2,229
6C Survey of Radio Sources (VI)	6,752
Abell Clusters	2712
Arp Peculiar Galaxies	338
Binocular Asterism Labels	9
Catalog of 1.4 GHz Radio Sources	31,524
Catalog of Pulsars	558
Catalog of Abell and Zwicky Clusters of Galaxies	9,134
Catalog Of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies	29,363
Catalog of Galaxies Behind the Milky Way (1)	2,411
Catalog of Galaxies Behind the Milky Way (2)	4,533
Catalog of Galactic Supernova Remnants	182
Catalog of Galaxies with UV Continuum	1,525
Catalog Of H II Regions (Sharpless)	313
Catalog of POSS Plates with Additional Data	1,037
Catalog of Rich Clusters of Galaxies (North)	2,712
Catalog of Rich Clusters of Galaxies (South)	1,364
CfA Redshift Catalog (November 1993 version)	53,447
Constellation Lines - Levy	n/a
Constellation Lines - Patrick Moore	n/a
Covington Catalog	200
Digitized Sky Survey Plate Positions Catalog	1540
Einstein Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey	835
ESO/Uppsala Survey of the ESO(B) Atlas	18,422
IRAS 1.2 Jy IRAS Redshift Survey	9,897
IRAS Small Scale Structure Catalog	16,740
Kiso Survey for UV-Excess Galaxies (XVIII)	8,162
Lynds' Catalog of Bright Nebula	1,125
Lynds' Catalog of Dark Nebula	1,791
Meade LX200 Alignment Stars	33
Merged Catalog of Galaxies	31,917
Meteor Shower Radiant Catalog	64
Molonglo Reference Catalog of Radio Sources	12,141
Morphological Catalog Of Galaxies (MCG)	29,003
Navigational Stars	58
NexStar Telescope Catalog	10,384
Palomar Globular Clusters	15
Parkes Radio Sources Catalog (Version 1.01)	8,264
Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei (6th Edition)	7,437
RealSky North and South Plate Positions Catalog	1662
Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog of Bright Galaxies	1,246
Second Reference Catalog of Bright Galaxies	4,364
Southern Redshifts Catalog	12,844
Terzian Globulars	11
Third Catalog of Nearby Stars	3,802
Uppsala General Catalog of Galaxies	12,940
Weedman's List of Seyfert Galaxies	121
Zwicky Catalog	9,134

Ephemeral Data

TheSky6 (all Editions) can display the positions of comets and minor planets. Serious Astronomer Edition and Professional Edition can also display the positions of man-made satellites.

The data required to accurately display these objects changes frequently and must be updated from different sources on the worldwide web. Use the links below to download updated orbital element data.

TheSky6 can automatically download selected ephemeral data from the web.

Use TheSky6' Edit | Find command to locate any object from any of these catalogs.

Object Type	Object Count	Web Site Address to Obtain Updated Orbital Element Data
Comets	Up to 1000 at a time	http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/Ephemerides)
Satellites	Up to 10,000 at a time	http://celestrak.com/ (T.S. Kelso's Web Site)
Extended Minor Planets	Total number is limited by the amount of memory in your computer.	http://asteroid.lowell.edu

User-Defined Data

TheSky6 (Serious Astronomer Edition and Professional Edition) allows you to create user-defined objects (such as stars, galaxies, labels or reference lines) so that you can generate your own databases.

Digitized Sky Survey

TheSky6 (all Editions) can access and display high-resolution photographs (1.7 arcseconds/pixel) for the entire celestial sphere from the Digitized Sky Survey using the RealSky CD-ROMs or the 100 CD-ROM Digitized Sky Survey.

Want More Data?

There are literally thousands of astronomical catalogs. If TheSky6's databases of up to a billion objects is not enough, and you wish to access a database that is not currently included, please let us know, and we'll try to incorporate them in future updates.