Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Astra: An open-source observatory control software

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 27 posts

Re: Astra: An open-source observatory control software

#2

Post by dylan604 »

Excellent. Now all I needs is my own observatory. Oh, and the land in a location worthy of building that observatory. That's said only half jokingly. I already have my mount, a primary scope, a second scope for guiding, and a camera. So it is something a boy dreams about doing when he grows up.

Re: Astra: An open-source observatory control software

#4

Post by malfist »

dylan604 wrote: post #2

Excellent. Now all I needs is my own observatory. Oh, and the land in a location worthy of building that observatory. That's said only half jokingly. I already have my mount, a primary scope, a second scope for guiding, and a camera. So it is something a boy dreams about doing when he grows up.

You'd be surprised what you can see under light pollutes skies. Especially in narrowband. I built an observatory in a bortle 7 and I get plenty of good data. Link in profile if you wanna see my work

Re: Astra: An open-source observatory control software

#5

Post by dylan604 »

malfist wrote: post #4
dylan604 wrote: post #2

Excellent. Now all I needs is my own observatory. Oh, and the land in a location worthy of building that observatory. That's said only half jokingly. I already have my mount, a primary scope, a second scope for guiding, and a camera. So it is something a boy dreams about doing when he grows up.

You'd be surprised what you can see under light pollutes skies. Especially in narrowband. I built an observatory in a bortle 7 and I get plenty of good data. Link in profile if you wanna see my work

I can see Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon, etc. But even looking at Andromeda is difficult. Pleiades is also difficult. I'm minutes outside of downtown, so light pollution in my area is intense.

Re: Astra: An open-source observatory control software

#6

Post by joshumax »

dylan604 wrote: post #5
malfist wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be surprised what you can see under light pollutes skies. Especially in narrowband. I built an observatory in a bortle 7 and I get plenty of good data. Link in profile if you wanna see my work

I can see Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon, etc. But even looking at Andromeda is difficult. Pleiades is also difficult. I'm minutes outside of downtown, so light pollution in my area is intense.

I think GP was mostly referring to astrophotography when it comes to light-polluted areas. I live in a bortle 9 area (downtown) and unless I bring out my 20" dobsonian I'm mostly visually limited to double stars, planets, bright clusters, and extremely bright emission nebulae such as M42. With modern LED broad-spectrum lighting, skyglow definitely becomes a major issue, especially for broadband targets like Andromeda.

However, I've been able to capture stunning images (and an APOD) even in broadband within my city using dedicated astro cameras and modern gradient processing techniques quite easily, so we're definitely living in the golden age for EAA if you'd consider that as an alternative.

Re: Astra: An open-source observatory control software

#7

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

Are there open source software platforms used for industrial processes?

Can I download software to control a refinery, brewery, car plant? With the interest in digital twins, would not be terribly surprising if I could simulate pretty complicated processes.

Re: Astra: An open-source observatory control software

#8

Post by joshumax »

I used Astra on one of my old observatories (an aging Explora-Dome) and I can say it's definitely a very nice experience compared to "legacy" tools like ACP from DC3. That being said, however, it kind of sits on the lower end of functionality compared to existing commercial observatory control offerings like Starkeeper's Voyager platform, especially when it comes to advanced scheduling features and scripting. Still, for basic needs it's nice to have a decent open source alternative in a very niche ecosystem.
Post reply on HN