Software Bisque, Inc. (formerly named ''Computer Assist Services'') is a corporation based in

Golden, Colorado Golden is a home rule city that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 20,399 at the 2020 United States census. Golden lies along Clear Creek at the base of the Front Range of the Rocky Moun ...

that develops robotics telescope mounts and accessories and publishes

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

used in

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

. It was founded in 1984 by current president and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

, Stephen M. Bisque.

History

Bisque initially developed and marketed custom financial

and also sold a

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

-based astronomy program named '' TheSky''. At that time, the company was based in Bisque's home in Golden,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. In 1990, Bisque hired his brothers Thomas, Daniel and Matthew. Together they ported TheSky for DOS to Windows 3.0. In 1992, ''TheSky for Windows'' was released. The product has been under continuous development since it was first released in the early 1980s; the current version is known as TheSkyX.

Products

Software Bisque has since developed and sold many astronomy-related products, including: * TheSky, TheSkyX Astronomy Software, Camera Add On, Dome Add On, and TPoint Add On * TheSky Pocket Edition for

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...

devices *CCDSoft, a program for the acquisition and development of CCD images * TPoint for Windows, telescope analysis and pointing correction software *Orchestrate, a program for automating multiple astronomy devices, allowing fully automatic operation and data acquisition *Seeker, an

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a Language-independent specification, cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D computer graphics, 2D and 3D computer graphics, 3D vector graphics. The API is typic ...

three-dimensional solar system simulator *AutomaDome, astronomical dome control software *PrecisionPEC, periodic error correction modeling software *Paramount ME, Paramount ME II, Paramount MX, Paramount MYT German equatorial telescope mounts, and the Paramount Taurus equatorial fork mounts (models 400, 500 and 600), all models include the Paramount Software Suite for integrated software control on Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems *BisqueTCS, a dual-axis DC servomotor telescope motion control system Amateurs have discovered over 500 new objects (including

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

s, minor

planet A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...

supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...

s, and cataclysmic

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes systematically with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are ...

s) using these products.

References

External links

* {{official website, bisque.com Software companies based in Colorado Companies based in Golden, Colorado Software companies of the United States