KStars

KStars
Screenshot of KStars showing the night sky from Tbilisi, Georgia
Developer(s) KDE developers
Stable release
2.8.9 / 16 December 2017 (2017-12-16)
Repository
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Operating system Unix-like, Windows, Android
Platform KDE
Type Educational software
License GPLv2[1]
Website http://edu.kde.org/kstars/

KStars is a freely licensed planetarium program using the KDE Platform. It can be used on most Unix-like computer operating systems, as well as on the Microsoft Windows platform using 'KDE for Windows'.[2] It provides an accurate graphical representation of the night sky, from any location on Earth, at any date and time. The display includes up to 100 million stars (with additional addons), 13,000 deep sky objects, constellations from different cultures, all 8 planets, the Sun and Moon, and thousands of comets and asteroids. It has features to appeal to users of all levels, from informative hypertext articles about astronomy, to robust control of telescopes and CCD cameras, and logging of observations of specific objects.

KStars supports adjustable simulation speeds in order to view phenomena that happen over long timescales. For astronomical calculations, Astrocalculator can be used to predict conjunctions, and perform many common astronomical calculations. The following tools are included:

  • Observation planner
  • Sky calendar tool
  • Script Builder
  • Solar System
  • Jupiter Moons
  • Flags: Custom flags superimposed on the sky map.
  • FOV editor to calculate field of view of equipment and display them.
  • Altitude vs. Time tool to plot altitude vs. time graphs for any object.
  • High quality print outs for sky charts.
  • Ekos is an astrophotography suite, a complete astrophotography solution that can control all INDI devices including numerous telescopes, CCDs, DSLRs, focusers, filters, and a lot more. Ekos supports highly accurate tracking using online and offline astrometry solver, auto-focus and auto-guiding capabilities, and capture of single or multiple images using the powerful built in sequence manager.

KStars has been packaged by many Linux/BSD distributions, including Red Hat Linux, OpenSUSE, Mandriva Linux, and Debian GNU/Linux. Some distributions package KStars as a separate application, some just provide a kdeedu package, which includes KStars. KStars is distributed with the KDE Software Compilation as part of the kdeedu "Edutainment" module.

KStars participated in Google Summer of Code in 2008,[3] 2009,[4] 2010,[5] 2011[6] 2012,[7] 2015[8] and 2016.[9] It has also participated in the first run of ESA's Summer of Code in Space in 2011.[10]

It has been identified as one of the three best "Linux stargazing apps" in a Linux.com review.[11]

The latest version of KStars is 2.8.9 which included additional support for guide star images, drift errors, and RMS values.[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "KDE QuickGit". kstars.git.
  2. ↑ "KStars". The KDE Education Project. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  3. ↑ List of 2008's successful participants Archived 2011-12-23 at the Wayback Machine., Google Summer of Code, KML file
  4. ↑ Google Summer of Code 2009 Accepted Projects Archived 2011-04-01 at the Wayback Machine., accessed 2011-04-23
  5. ↑ Google Summer of Code 2010 Accepted Projects Archived 2011-04-01 at the Wayback Machine., accessed 2011-04-23
  6. ↑ "GSoC 2011 - Accepted Projects". Google, Inc. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  7. ↑ "GSoC 2012 - Accepted Projects". Google, Inc. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  8. ↑ "GSoC 2015 - Accepted Projects". Google, Inc. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  9. ↑ "GSoC 2016 - Accepted Projects". Google, Inc. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  10. ↑ Selected mentoring organizations Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine., ESA Summer of Code in Space 2011. Accessed 2011-07-29.
  11. ↑ "Explore the Universe: The Three Best Linux Stargazing Apps".
  12. ↑ Mutlaq, Jasem (2017-12-16). "Jasem's Ekosphere: KStars 2.8.9 is released!". Jasem's Ekosphere. Retrieved 2017-12-24.
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