Astra: An open-source observatory control software | Hacker News Reader

Astra: An open-source observatory control software

github.com

102 pointspppone26 comments

Fantastic news. As ACP is no longer in development, I am starting to slowly look for a replacement, and a few things that come up in my mind:

- Will it work with MaximDL to acquire images and autoguide, or will it simply not need it at all? - Will it work with PWI3 for autofocusing? - Will offset tracking (at custom dRA, dDec rates) be implemented at some point to track artificial satellites? - Will it at some point implement targeting using TLEs and MPC elements? - I am extensively using #WAITZENDIST and other #WAIT directives to wait for an object to be at certain altitude - would be really good to implement that in observation plans (a single plan can do a number of things sequentially.) - Can plans launch custom Python scripts and read/write stuff from/to files?

I probably want too much at this point, but sincerely wishing you best of luck with this incredible project, will definitely follow all the developments!

No MaximDL needed! All built in, including autoguiding and autofocusing.

Satellite tracking to be implemented in the future, working on it these months with a student of mine.

Object scheduling timing is down to the user - but the wait directives does sound like a useful feature!

Custom python scripts are possible, please check out here: https://docs.withastra.io/user_guide/custom_observatories

I also recommend checking out the introduction video that covers install and setup :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIElFSS1hkA

You can always check out NINA, it's also open source, and what I personally use.

Astra

Astral (maker of uv)

Astro (javascript web framework)

I am trying to keep these terms straight in my head -- it's hard

Well, I believe astra is Latin for "star", so it makes sense to me.

It is unfortunate that frameworks and the like, love to choose completely unrelated names. It certainly makes it tough to navigate the landscape when names mean absolutely nothing

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.

I just released Astra, so I'm impressed how quickly you got set up!

How do you feel about Alpaca in actual use? I've been skeptical about controlling something expensive with a REST api, not that I have anything to back up that feeling, but it always raised my eyebrow

It's been great. We've been operating with it at our observatories (SPECULOOS, ESO Paranal, Chile) for the past 2 years without issues that can be attributed to Alpaca. We had to modify the Alpyca library timeout from 5 to 60s (which Astra uses) given our legacy ASCOM drivers not being as compliant as they should be, but other than that it has worked well.

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.

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.

Nice shots! Do you have any information posted about your observatory build and specs?

I ran a build thread on cloudy nights while making it: https://www.cloudynights.com/forums/topic/895712-build-threa...

Come to learn how I did it, stay for the drama of getting swindled by nexdome lol

Something I found funny during the entire saga, I'd have expected to see a fully built shed that was started/completed after the dome started but before it finished. You know, as the icing on the cake!

That happened on the other side of the yard. Had a tuffshed put in and they built it in two days. We actually rented the skid-steer to flatten the area for it and just so happened the place also rented augers to dig the hole for the pier

In my bortle 8 city, I have been able to get some decent images of the Eastern Veil Nebula with an Optolong L-Pro pollution filter, Zenithstar 73, and about ~2hrs total exposure (color)

Just for poking around, SharpCap has a live stacking mode which helps finding the darker stuff

Tangential at best, but as a fan of his books I was happy to stumble upon one of W. Richard Stevens’ earlier examples of technical writing: a guide to Forth for Kitt Peak national observatory. Apparently Forth was commonly used in observatories; I have no idea whether that’s still true.

https://www.forth.org/KittPeakForthPrimer.pdf

We use Astra with an old radio telescope in Germany. It's great software if you have the use for it.

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.

EPICS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPICS

Now we’re talking. I just need to acquire my own particle accelerator and I am in business.

Lots of large observatories use EPICS. Like Gemini, Keck, Kitt Peak, LIGO, etc.

mfw the rocket company is too irrelevant for name collisions

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