da-luce/astroterm
FreeA planetarium for your terminal! Explore stars, planets, constellations, and more, all rendered right in the command line—no telescope required. ✨🪐
FreeFree tier
About da-luce/astroterm
astroterm is a terminal-based star map written in C. It displays real-time positions of stars, planets, constellations, and moon phases with precise ASCII rendering. Users can configure sky views by date, time, and location to explore past, present, or future celestial events. The tool is lightweight, fast, and accessible via multiple package managers (Arch, Fedora, Homebrew, Nix, Guix) or as a prebuilt executable. It is open source and actively developed on GitHub, with contributions welcome.
Key Features
Highly customizable: choose any date, time, and location to explore past, present, or future celestial events
Accurate rendering of the moon, stars, and planets with as much precision as terminal graphics allow
Real-time moon phases with precise lunar phase calculation
Detailed constellation figures rendered in ASCII
Performance optimized: lightweight and fast ASCII rendering
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Free and open source with an active community
- Cross-platform availability through multiple package managers (Linux, macOS)
- Highly customizable views (date, time, location) for past and future skies
- Accurate ASCII rendering of stars, planets, and constellations
- Lightweight and fast performance
Cons
- ASCII rendering limits visual precision compared to graphical planetarium apps
- Requires comfort with terminal/command-line interface
- Not as visually rich as GUI-based astronomy software
Best For
Exploring the night sky from the terminal for astronomy enthusiastsEducational demonstrations of celestial objects and their positionsPlanning observations by configuring specific dates, times, and locationsGenerating ASCII art representations of the sky for creative or reference purposes
FAQ
How do I install astroterm?
astroterm can be installed via several package managers: pacman on Arch Linux, dnf on Fedora 40+, brew on macOS (Homebrew), nix-shell on NixOS, guix on Guix, or by downloading a prebuilt executable from GitHub releases. See the installation section on the repository page for detailed instructions.
Can I customize the sky view?
Yes, astroterm allows you to configure the view by date, time, and location using command-line arguments. This lets you explore past, present, or future celestial events.