Astronomy Linux

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
====== Documentation ======

This distributive contains many programs:

==== Planetariums ====

1. [[KStars]] is free, open source, cross-platform Astronomy Software. It provides an accurate graphical simulation of the night sky, from any location on Earth, at any date and time. Free. Supports INDI.

2. [[Cartes du Ciel / SkyCharts]] This program enables you to draw sky charts, making use of the data in many catalogs of stars and nebulae. In addition the position of planets, asteroids and comets are shown. Free. Supports INDI.

3. [[Virtual Moon Atlas]]. Free software for Moon observation or survey.

4. [[Virtual Planets Atlas]]. New free software for planets observation and study.

5. [[Xephem]] is a Motif based ephemeris and planetarium program for Unix-like operating systems. Supports INDI.

6. [[Stellarium]] is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. Free.

7. [[Celestia]] is free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Free.

8. [[HNSKY]] for LINUX or HNSKY is a full feature planetarium program for Windows and Linux (under development). Contains 30.000 deep sky objects, a comet and asteroid database and the TYCHO2++ 4.5 million star database up to magnitude 12.5. The Sun, Moon, the planets and their major moons are all displayed with surface features. It is supplied with hundreds of DSS deep sky images which will blend in at the correct size and orientation. Free.

9. [[Where is M13?]] is a unique application that helps you visualize the locations and physical properties of deep sky objects in and around the Galaxy.

10. [[BoPlanets]] is a virtual planetarium showing the planets relatively to any observing planet. The planets can be viewed in ecliptical-, equatorial- or horizontal view. The times of rise, transit and set of a planet can be determined.

11.  [[Digital Universe]], developed by the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium, incorporates data from dozens of organizations worldwide to create the most complete and accurate 3-D atlas of the Universe from the local solar neighborhood out to the edge of the observable Universe.

12. [[Gaia Sky]] is a real-time, 3D, astronomy visualisation software that runs on Windows, Linux and OS X. It is developed in the framework of ESA's Gaia mission to chart about 1 billion stars of our Galaxy in the Gaia group of the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (ZAH, Universität Heidelberg).

==== Image processing ====

1. [[Siril]] is meant to be Iris for Linux (sirI-L). It is an astronomical image processing tool, able to convert, pre-process images, help aligning them automatically or manually, stack them and enhance final images. Free.

2. [[AstroImageJ]] is ImageJ with astronomy plugins and macros installed. It includes tools based on the Göttingen ImageJ astronomical resources with additions we find useful. Because it was necessary to modify the original ImageJ code to enable some of these features, this package should be installed in its entirety. Free.

3. [[MicroObservatory Image]] is a simple to use, yet powerful astronomical image processing program that works with FITS and GIF files. Free.

4. [[Lxnstack]] is a program designed to align and stack astronomical images (both planetary and deep-sky) by Maurizio D'Addona. Written in python and qt for the Linux platform it is released under the Open Source GPLv3 licence. Free.

5. [[Regim]] is a software tool for processing astronomical images. Free.

6. [[THELI GUI]] is a powerful and easy-to-use package for astronomical image reduction, offering e.g. Free.

7. [[nip2]] aims to be about halfway between Excel and Photoshop. You don't directly edit images --- instead, like a spreadsheet, you build relationships between objects. You enter formula (or select menu items) to describe how to make a new object from some of the objects you already have. nip2 keeps track of these relationships: if you make a change anywhere, nip2 automatically recalculates anything affected by the change.

8. [[GIMP v.2.9.5]] is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems. It is free software, you can change its source code and distribute your changes.

9. [[ImPPG]] performs Lucy-Richardson deconvolution, unsharp masking, brightness normalization and tone curve adjustment. It can also apply previously specified processing settings to multiple images. All operations are performed using 32-bit floating-point arithmetic.

10. [[Stackistry]] implements the lucky imaging principle of astronomical imaging: creating a high-quality still image out of a series of many (possibly thousands) low quality ones (blurred, deformed, noisy). The resulting image stack typically requires post-processing, including sharpening (e.g. via deconvolution). Such post-processing is not performed by Stackistry.

11. [[C-Munipack]] is the software package, which offers the complete solution for reduction of images carried out by CCD camera, intended on a observation of variable stars. Each step of reduction process can be run from the command line or via simple and intuitive graphical user interface.

12. [[AstroAviBrowser]] is a small tool for astronomy imaging processing. With AstroAviBrowser, you may open a video file, select the good frames and save the new sequence in a new avi file. It also debayer your raw sequences. Free.

13. [[cvastroalign]] (video align tool for astrophotography) is a program that loads a video sequence, aligns and stacks the selected frames obtaining an image as result of this process.

==== Image capture ====

1. [[oaCapture]] is a planetary imaging application intended mainly for Linux. Free.

2. [[OpenSkyImager]] is a capture program written for Astronomy camera operation. Free.

3. [[CCDciel]] is a free CCD capture software intended for the amateur astronomer. Supports INDI.

4. [[GCX]] is an astronomical image processing and photometry application written in C using Gtk+-1.2, and provided under the Gnu General Public License. It was tested on Linux, FreeBSD and OS/X (using the X Window System

5. [[Entangle]] provides a graphical interface for “tethered shooting”, aka taking photographs with a digital camera completely controlled from the computer.

6. [[wxAstroCapture]] is a free capture program primarily intended for astronomical use, it is developed as a joint effort between Martin Burri (Switzerland) and Carsten Arnholm (Norway).

7. [[GoQat]] is a hardware control and data acquisition program for astronomy on the Linux platform. It has an INDI client to control any device with an INDI driver and has native support for any CCD camera from Quantum Scientific Imaging and any Starlight Xpress USB 2.0 camera. It can also control Starlight Xpress filter wheels. GoQat can guide mounts via a serial/USB port, parallel port or autoguider port.

8. [[Qastrocam-g2]]: Linux modified webcam capture software for astronomy. This project is a fork from the great Qastrocam, written by F. Sicard (http://qastrocam.sourceforge.net/).

9. [[GuLinux Planetary Imager]] is Qt capture software for astronomy, mainly planetary shooting. Currently this application supports only QHY based cameras, mainly QHY5IIm-L (the one I had until a few months ago). It also has support for V4L compliant cameras, and initial support for ZWO ASI cameras.

10. [[Coriander]] is the Linux graphical user interface (GUI) for controlling a Digital Camera through the IEEE1394 bus (aka FireWire, or iLink). Coriander is full featured and besides changing the parameters of the camera it will also let you record video, send images to an FTP site, convert the video to a V4L stream,... A live display is of course provided too.

11. [[Audela]] is a free and open source astronomy software intended for digital observations (CCD cameras, Webcams, etc.). Its concept is entirely new, because whilst it features advanced image processing and acquisition functions like existing software, its originality lies in the fact that it is entirely reprogrammable using simple scripts. It has been written for both Windows and Linux platforms and can control many telescope mounts and cameras or DSLRs. Free.

12. [[astrofocuser]] is a very simple tool written with Qt 4.5 to help star focusing in astrophotogaphy. This tool applies an FWHM by transparency on the background window. Free.


==== FITS Viewers ====

1. [[Fv: The Interactive FITS File Editor]] is the easy to use graphical program for viewing and editing any FITS format image or table. Fv can be used with the DS9 image display.Free.

2. [[SAOImage DS9]] is an astronomical imaging and data visualization application. DS9 supports FITS images and binary tables, multiple frame buffers, region manipulation, and many scale algorithms and colormaps. It provides for easy communication with external analysis tasks and is highly configurable and extensible via XPA and SAMP. Free.

3. [[Ginga]] is a toolkit designed for building viewers for scientific image data in Python, visualizing 2D pixel data in numpy arrays. It can view astronomical data such as contained in files based on the FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) file format. It is written and is maintained by software engineers at the Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

4. [[QFitsView]] is a FITS file viewer similar to SAOimage, DS9, and the like. It was written using the cross-platform QT library and thus runs under Microsoft Windows as well as many flavors of UNIX and MAC OS-X.

5. [[JSky]] package contains java classes for displaying astronomical images, searching astronomical
catalogs and plotting catalog symbols on images. The jskycat application is also included and makes use of most of the features.

==== INDI clients ====

1. [[EqmodGui]] is a user interface for Linux INDI Eqmod telescope driver.
It allow to easily set the main parameters require to use this driver and manage the alignment data. Free. Supports INDI.

2. [[INDI Starter]] is a user interface to run a INDI server. You can configure different profile for your astronomical equipment. The INDI server can be launched locally or remotely on another computer. In this last case a ssh tunnel is established to allow local client connection. Free.

3. [[INDIprop]] provides a generic user interface for browsing device properties published by an INDI server.

4. [[DCD]] is a client program compatible with the INDI standard (see http://indi.sourceforge.net) for remote telescope and device control. It works under Windows as well as Linux. It is writen in Python and uses the GTK in order to display the GUI. 

5. [[GoQat]] is a hardware control and data acquisition program for astronomy on the Linux platform. It has an INDI client to control any device with an INDI driver and has native support for any CCD camera from Quantum Scientific Imaging and any Starlight Xpress USB 2.0 camera. It can also control Starlight Xpress filter wheels. GoQat can guide mounts via a serial/USB port, parallel port or autoguider port. 

6. [[CCDciel]] is a free CCD capture software intended for the amateur astronomer. Supports INDI. 

7. [[Xephem]] is a Motif based ephemeris and planetarium program for Unix-like operating systems. Supports INDI. 

8. [[HNSKY]] for LINUX or HNSKY is a full feature planetarium program for Windows and Linux (under development). Contains 30.000 deep sky objects, a comet and asteroid database and the TYCHO2++ 4.5 million star database up to magnitude 12.5. The Sun, Moon, the planets and their major moons are all displayed with surface features. It is supplied with hundreds of DSS deep sky images which will blend in at the correct size and orientation. Free. 

9. [[KStars]] is free, open source, cross-platform Astronomy Software. It provides an accurate graphical simulation of the night sky, from any location on Earth, at any date and time. Free. Supports INDI.

10. [[Cartes du Ciel / SkyCharts]] This program enables you to draw sky charts, making use of the data in many catalogs of stars and nebulae. In addition the position of planets, asteroids and comets are shown. Free. Supports INDI. 

11. Linux version of [[PHD2]]. PHD2 is telescope guiding software that simplifies the process of tracking a guide star, letting you concentrate on other aspects of deep-sky imaging or spectroscopy. Free. 
==== Autoguiders ====

1. Linux version of [[PHD2]].
PHD2 is telescope guiding software that simplifies the process of tracking a guide star, letting you concentrate on other aspects of deep-sky imaging or spectroscopy. Free.

2. [[Lin-guider]] is an astronomical autoguiding program for Linux. It supports Philips, Logitech, uvc webcams, QHY5, QHY6, DSI2PRO, QHY5L-II-M, QHY5L-II-C, QHY5-II, ATIK, Starlight Xpress, ZWO ASI astrocams for video and FTDI chip-based, parallel port-based (LPT), GPIO-based, GPUSB devices, Nexstar-protocol based and QHY5, QHY6, QHY5L-II-M, QHY5L-II-C, QHY5-II, ATIK, Starlight Xpress, ZWO ASI astrocams for pulse guiding. Free.

3. [[GoQat]] is a hardware control and data acquisition program for astronomy on the Linux platform. It has an INDI client to control any device with an INDI driver and has native support for any CCD camera from Quantum Scientific Imaging and any Starlight Xpress USB 2.0 camera. It can also control Starlight Xpress filter wheels. GoQat can guide mounts via a serial/USB port, parallel port or autoguider port. 

==== Other ====

1. [[Observation Manager]] is a free and open logbook for (amateur-) astronomical observations. It's written in pure Java and runs on every platform supporting Java 1.4 or higher.

2. [[VStar]] is a multi-platform, easy-to-use variable star observation visualisation and analysis tool. Data can be read from a file or the AAVSO database, light curves and phase plots created, period analysis performed, and filters applied. Plugins can be developed, e.g. to make additional observation sources available.

3. [[Aperture Photometry Tool (APT)]] is software for astronomical research, as well as for learning, visualizing and refining aperture-photometry analyses. Image overlays, graphical representations, statistics, models, options and controls for aperture-photometry calculations are brought together into a single package. Free.

4. [[SER Player]] is a video player for playing LuCam Recorder SER files. SER files are used for planetary, lunar and solar captures and this player allows these captures to be viewed in the same way AVI files are viewed with a standard video player.
SER Player also supports basic processing and will save frames in other file formats.

5. [[Aladin]] is an interactive sky atlas allowing the user to visualize digitized astronomical images or full surveys, superimpose entries from astronomical catalogues or databases, and interactively access related data and information from the Simbad database, the VizieR service and other archives for all known astronomical objects in the field.

6. [[Gpredict]] is a real-time satellite tracking and orbit prediction application. It can track an unlimited number of satellites and display their position and other data in lists, tables, maps, and polar plots (radar view). Gpredict can also predict the time of future passes for a satellite, and provide you with detailed information about each pass.

7. [[Geomview]] is an interactive 3D viewing program for Unix. Geomview lets you view and manipulate three- and higher-dimensional objects, and can also be used as a display engine by other programs to animate objects. Geomview supports OpenGL and uses a Motif X interface.

8. [[TOPCAT]] is an interactive graphical viewer and editor for tabular data. Its aim is to provide most of the facilities that astronomers need for analysis and manipulation of source catalogues and other tables, though it can be used for non-astronomical data as well. It understands a number of different astronomically important formats (including FITS, VOTable and CDF) and more formats can be added.

9. [[Specview]] is a Java GUI_based application for 1-D spectral visualization and analysis of astronomical spectrograms generated by a variety of observatories and instruments.

10. [[AstRawDark]] helps you manage your astrophotography dark frames library and generate quality master darks by selecting dark frames with temperature matching the lights you have to pre-process

11. [[Munipack]] is a free open source tool which aim is to be a software eye of an astronomer.
Munipack's goal is to implement easy-to-use tools for all astronomical astrometry and photometry, access to Virtual observatory as well as FITS files operations and even more.

12. [[ORBDET]] may be used to determine the orbits of minor bodies in the planetary system and the orbits of artificial Earth satellites and of space debris.

13. [[Corrida]] is an application for archivation of meteor observations.

//To be continue...// :-)
Astronomy Linux

User Tools

Site Tools

Page Tools
