About
Skyhound
Skyhound LLC is a maker of
astronomy software. We are located in the village of
Cloudcroft, at an elevation of 9000 ft in the dark skies
of the Sacramento mountains of central New Mexico, USA.
Skyhound is owned and operated by Greg Crinklaw. Greg is
an accomplished programmer, is trained as a professional
astronomer, and is a life-long amateur astronomer.
In 1991 Greg developed
PC-Sky in his spare time while he was a graduate
student. PC-Sky was the first realistic sky simulator
for the desktop computer. Later, while working for NASA,
he started thinking about astronomy software for
observing, rethinking astronomy software from the point
of view of observational astronomy. His dream was to
create a software product that would bring all of the
tools an observer needs together. Not only would they be
part of the same app, but they would work seamlessly
together as well, creating an efficient and powerful
observing system. Most of all, the software had to be useful.
This is how SkyTools was born.
In the years since, he has
worked on the cutting edge of astronomy software,
developing an accurate contrast model to predict the
visibility of objects in the eyepiece, and more
recently, the first comprehensive imaging model. But to Greg, these are just the foundation. It is the clever
way these models are used, and his innovative,
form-follows-function interfaces that has changed the
way countless people observe.
In a world full of
planetarium and star charting programs, observing
planners, and calculators, SkyTools is the first
comprehensive software created from the ground up
entirely for the purpose of observing.
