diff --git a/kstars/kstarsactions.cpp b/kstars/kstarsactions.cpp
index 6f7c82ff7b4c9e4395bedb3925b3edbda928f764..0d7d12014993aa221f3e6320205eed0f2e613383 100644
--- a/kstars/kstarsactions.cpp
+++ b/kstars/kstarsactions.cpp
@@ -536,6 +536,7 @@ void KStars::slotToggleWIView()
     {
         m_WIView = new WIView(0);
         m_wiDock = new QDockWidget(this);
+        m_wiDock->setStyleSheet("QDockWidget::title{background-color:black;}");
         m_wiDock->setObjectName("What's Interesting");
         m_wiDock->setAllowedAreas(Qt::RightDockWidgetArea);
         QWidget * container = QWidget::createWindowContainer(m_WIView->getWIBaseView());
diff --git a/kstars/time/simclock.cpp b/kstars/time/simclock.cpp
index 7f9434f0e52a44481445ff3b231dc678831f08e8..01713e347a9c14504c8c82a5104ebaf02527cf08 100644
--- a/kstars/time/simclock.cpp
+++ b/kstars/time/simclock.cpp
@@ -102,7 +102,11 @@ void SimClock::manualTick( bool force )
 {
     if ( force || (ManualMode && ManualActive) )
     {
-        setUTC( UTC.addSecs( (long double)Scale ) );
+        //The single shot timer is needed because otherwise the animation is happening so frequently
+        //that the kstars interface becomes too unresponsive.
+        QTimer::singleShot(1, [this]{
+            setUTC( UTC.addSecs( (long double)Scale ) );
+        });
     }
     else if ( ! ManualMode )
         tick();