Software Bisque Knowledge Base Article – 252

DIVIDE ERROR WHEN LAUNCH THESKY

ISSUE

When attempting to launch TheSky v5.00.00x, the toolbars and splash screen appear with a transparent window, the pointer momentarily changes to the solar system compute mode, then an error message is displayed:
“This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.”
…clicking Details reveals:
“SKY caused a divide error in module SKY.EXE…”

Under Windows NT, the message reads:
“The exception integer division by zero”

If Dr. Watson is installed on the system, the error message is:
“An application error has occurred and an application error log is being generated. SKY.EXE exception: divide by zero (hex address)…”

RESOLUTION

This happens when TheSky launches with a document that has the Bayer or Flamsteed Designations enabled, yet the Star object type filtered off. Launching with a different document can bypass the problem, and the “problem” document can then be opened and corrected. Here’s how:

1. Right-click on the Start button and choose Find.
2. Enter *.sky into the Named field.
3. Set the Look In location to be Local Hard Drives, if available, or the drive on which TheSky is installed (e.g. C:). Do not set it to your CD-ROM drive.
4. Be sure the Include Subfolders option is checked.
5. Click the Find Now button. The location(s) of Sky Documents will be displayed in the lower portion of the Find window. If none is, then confirm the correct drive selection in step 3.
6. From the list of Sky Documents, double-click on the name of one you haven’t recently used (if the files’ Modified dates are shown, choose one of the older ones). For this procedure, do not choose Analemma.sky. TheSky should start with the selected document loaded.
7. From TheSky’s File menu, select 2, which will open your previously-used document.
8. Select View, Labels, Setup and then uncheck the box next to Bayer Designation and/or Flamsteed Designation. Alternatively, you could make the stars visible by using View, Filters and checking the box next to Star in the Celestial Object list.
9. Click OK on the dialog from step 8.
10. Select File, Save to save the corrected document. TheSky will now be able to start normally.

This behaviour will be corrected in an update AFTER v5.00.004. When available, this update should be obtained to avoid the problem (from the Download section of Software Bisque’s web site at http://www.bisque.com/thesky/download.htm).

APPLIES TO

General

KEYWORDS

SBKB

This article was formerly published under the identifier Q492KB in Software Bisque’s prior knowledge base.

Last Reviewed: 11/24/2004