Software Bisque Support Corner

Wow, Talk about being lost on a site! I see your ad for "The Sky" in pretty much every Astronomy magazine issue, so I decided to maybe give it a try. I should mention right off the bat that I have a "kindergarten" mentality when it comes to anything "computers", so keep that in mind when you reply. I use a Mac "tower" computer, system OS X 10.5.5. It's about 3 years old and doesn't have the new Intel chips in it. Do you have a version of "The Sky" that will work on this system? I do a lot of astrophotography for my self, and for a science based stock photography agency in New York City (Photo Researchers). Besides Astronomy magazine, 2 things that are vital to me are the Abrahm's Planetary Sky Calendars (because I can see any interesting conjunctions / alignments 3 months in advance) and a computer-generated spiral bound book called "The Photographer's Almanac of the Sun and Moon 2008" (published out there near you in Colorado Springs). This book is VERY valuable to me in that it tells me WHERE on the horizon the moon and sun will both rise / set for my particular location. I took this photo ( http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050503.html ) which appeared on Nasa's Picture of the Day website a few years back using these 2 simple tools. OK, so here's what I want to ask : do you make a product where I can see the sun and moon (big and clear) over the horizon (nice and flat - no curved job), where I could actually somehow copy the paths of each, at say, 5 minute intervals? If I could have a picture of each stage, I know how to copy what's actually shown on my computer screen as a photo itself. I could then "stack" them in Photoshop and now REALLY visualize what the next "event" for my area might look like. The reason I'm asking is that here in the North East it's completely cloudy, and we won't be able to see the moon near Venus and Jupiter tonight. I would still, somehow, like to visually create a photo of what the sun, moon, Venus, and Jupiter all setting would have looked like. I know this is a long-winded question with a lot of twists and turns to it. I thank you in advance for ANY information you might share. Larry Landolfi, Rochester, NH

Larry Landolfi:

Do you have a version of "The Sky" that will work on this system?

Yes, TheSkyX Student Edition for Mac. See: http://www.bisque.com/Products/TheSkyX/

Larry Landolfi:

OK, so here's what I want to ask : do you make a product where I can see the sun and moon (big and clear) over the horizon (nice and flat - no curved job), where I could actually somehow copy the paths of each, at say, 5 minute intervals? If I could have a picture of each stage, I know how to copy what's actually shown on my computer screen as a photo itself. I could then "stack" them in Photoshop and now REALLY visualize what the next "event" for my area might look like. The reason I'm asking is that here in the North East it's completely cloudy, and we won't be able to see the moon near Venus and Jupiter tonight. I would still, somehow, like to visually create a photo of what the sun, moon, Venus, and Jupiter all setting would have looked like. I know this is a long-winded question with a lot of twists and turns to it. I thank you in advance for ANY information you might share. Larry Landolfi, Rochester, NH

The advanced features you want are not included in the introductory version of TheSkyX (TheSkyX Student Edition). However, the output you want can be generated in TheSkyX Serious Astronomer (release date: January 5, 2009 at MacWorld).

Specifically, TheSkyX Serious Astronomer Edition can produce "Object Paths" for any period of time so that you can know where an object will rise, for example.

TheSkyX can also generate simulated star charts for any date and time, even when it's cloudy outside.

Let me know if this answers your questions.