TheSky (astronomy software)

TheSky is an astronomy application designed to be used for educational, observational purposes. TheSky provides an extensive feature set including the following:

• The display of star charts using catalogs such as USNO, UCAC4, the Hubble Guide Star Catalog, the Hipparcos Catalogue, the Tycho-2 Catalogue and the NOMAD catalog.
• Planetarium features capable of depicting the sky in a realistic way, including the simulation of sky movement over time in order to predict the locations of different sky objects
• Automatic telescope and focuser control using native telescope drivers as well as ASCOM.
• Scriptable via JavaScript or the Component Object Model, allowing scripted operation.
• Option Add Ons to extend TheSky's functionality, including a Camera Add On to control CCD, DSLR and video cameras, focusers, filter wheels, and rotators; a Dome Add On to automate dome control; a TPoint Add On for telescope pointing analysis, automated polar alignment, telescope tracking correction (ProTrack), and automated telescope model determination (SuperModel); a Database Add On that provides the NOMAD, UCAC4 star catalogs as well as the 10x Digitized Sky Survey
• Paramount ME, Paramount ME II and Paramount MX Robotic Telescope Mount control, automation and automated PEC training.

The_Sky (first named using an underscore character to separate 'The' from 'Sky' following Pascal naming conventions) was first released in 1983 for DOS and has been upgraded multiple times to support new versions of Microsoft Windows. The latest release of TheSky, called TheSkyX, is also compatible with Mac OS X.

TheSky HD for iOS is available on the App Store

The software is developed and distributed by Software Bisque.

External links

• Software Bisque Home Page