11 Recommended Open Source Multi-Platform Astronomy Software

SkyChart / Cartes du Ciel

The purpose of SkyChart is to prepare different sky maps for a particular observation. A large number of parameters help you to choose specifically or automatically which catalogues to use, the colour and the dimension of stars and nebulae, the representation of planets, the display of labels and coordinate grids, the superposition of pictures, the condition of visibility and more.

All these features make this celestial atlas more complete than a conventional planetarium.

Features include:

• Galactic and Ecliptic chart projection
• Superimpose images over digitized sky survey charts
• Galactic and Ecliptic chart projection
• Telescope tracking – uses INDI to interface the telescope. Users can also use the include interface for Meade/LX200 protocol or a simple encoder interface. Any telescope supported by INDI works with the software
• Observatory database
• TCP/IP server capability
• Online pictures
• CatGen, a Catalog build tool. Download thousands of Catalog text files with data of any kind of celestial objects from the CDS or ADC websites. This tool lets you convert an ASCII catalog file to one that SkyChart can efficiently use
• Observing list Tour function
• Comes supplied with the OpenNGC catalogue
• Plot images for the main planetary satellites
• Scripting functions and custom tool box capabilities
• Telescope interfaces: INDI driver, ASCOM, MX200, Manual mount, encoders
• Send and receive coordinates position, FITS images and VO tables via SAMP, a messaging protocol
• Update tool for comet elements, asteroid elements, and artificial satellites
• Internationalization support

OS	Supported	Notes
		On Linux, you'll need to install the libpasastro library. This provides shared libraries to interface Pascal program with standard astronomy libraries. The data is stored in the SQLite database. Homepage: www.ap-i.net/skychart Developer: Patrick Chevalley, Peter Dean, John Sunderland, Anat Ruangrassamee, Sasa Zeman License: GNU General Public License v2 Written in: Object Pascal