ASCOM Alpaca Simulators

A comprehensive simulator for ASCOM Alpaca devices that provides a RESTful API for testing and developing observatory control software.

Features

  • Complete Device Simulation: Supports all major ASCOM device types including:

    • Camera
    • Telescope
    • Dome
    • Focuser
    • Filter Wheel
    • Rotator
    • Safety Monitor
    • Switch
    • Observing Conditions
    • Cover Calibrator

  • Realistic Image Generation: Uses cabaret to generate authentic astronomical images for camera simulation

  • RESTful API: Fully compliant with the ASCOM Alpaca Device API specification

  • Interactive Test Interface: Web-based control panel for manual testing

  • Configurable Devices: YAML-based configuration for all device properties

Quick Start

The fastest way to run the simulator is using uv.

  1. Clone the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/ppp-one/alpaca-simulators
cd alpaca-simulators

  2. Run the simulator:

    uv run alpaca-simulators

    This will automatically install dependencies and start the server at http://0.0.0.0:11111.

Configuration & Options

The simulator supports several command-line arguments:

# Run on a different port with auto-reload enabled
uv run alpaca-simulators --port 8080 --reload

# Use a specific configuration file
uv run alpaca-simulators --config my_custom_setup.yaml

Test Interface

The simulator includes a web-based test UI at http://localhost:11111/test_interface that allows you to:

  • GET properties: Retrieve current values from any device property
  • PUT operations: Set values and trigger actions using form inputs

Device Configuration

On first run, the simulator generates src/alpaca_simulators/config/config.yaml from a template. You can modify this file to set:

  • Device names and descriptions
  • Initial property values
  • Capabilities and limits
  • Available options (e.g., filter names, camera properties)

Example API Calls

# Get telescope position
curl http://localhost:11111/api/v1/telescope/0/rightascension

# Set camera exposure time
curl -X PUT http://localhost:11111/api/v1/camera/0/startexposure \
  -d "Duration=5.0&Light=true"

# Check if dome is at home
curl http://localhost:11111/api/v1/dome/0/athome

Project links

Data verified by PyPI on Aug 13, 2026
Data provided by the project maintainers, verified at the time the release was uploaded to PyPI.

Key dates

PyPI data
Data sourced directly from PyPI's database.
  • Released:
Newer release available (1.3.0)

1 maintainer

PyPI data
Data sourced directly from PyPI's database.
Avatar for ppp-one from gravatar.com ppp-one

Credits

Author: Peter Pedersen, David Degen

GitHub Statistics

Data verified by PyPI on Aug 13, 2026
The GitHub source repository was provided by the project maintainers and verified by PyPI at the time of upload. Stars, forks, and open issues/PRs are derived from that repository and have not been independently verified.

License expression

MIT
View SPDX License List

Requires

Python >=3.10

Provides Extra

test

Tags

astronomy astrophysics telescope

Report project as malware

Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distribution

alpaca_simulators-1.2.0.tar.gz (36.8 kB view details)

Uploaded Source

Built Distribution

If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.

alpaca_simulators-1.2.0-py3-none-any.whl (48.5 kB view details)

Uploaded Python 3

File details

Details for the file alpaca_simulators-1.2.0.tar.gz.

File metadata

  • Download URL: alpaca_simulators-1.2.0.tar.gz
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 36.8 kB
  • Tags: Source
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? Yes
  • Uploaded via: twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14

File hashes

Hashes for alpaca_simulators-1.2.0.tar.gz
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 3cd31f93212dacf54e0f3ad277a0f22a357554f8d44819af503bac2e56a31be0
MD5 841f410c40138e12f30a9e342f87d04a
BLAKE2b-256 7bf39a156e98d2c6ea2db9ab24a3e5fccdc6ad5013293c19956ae22859315fa4

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for alpaca_simulators-1.2.0.tar.gz:

Publisher: publish.yml on ppp-one/alpaca-simulators

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file alpaca_simulators-1.2.0-py3-none-any.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for alpaca_simulators-1.2.0-py3-none-any.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 d244ad896af4ed65ff778aa167c1c3a2d80e4aee256da36c78fbdf6fd556c42e
MD5 44ae65d7aa9aced60455a2f7c679ea35
BLAKE2b-256 c2c55206fedc8f0587c780b89ea2357a3fd9740624c0672a8d9a01ac97b9cd56

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for alpaca_simulators-1.2.0-py3-none-any.whl:

Publisher: publish.yml on ppp-one/alpaca-simulators

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

Release history Release notifications | RSS feed

1.3.0

2 files

This release

1.2.0 This release

2 files

1.0.0

2 files

Anthropic, PBC Visionary sponsor Bloomberg Visionary sponsor Hudson River Trading Visionary sponsor Meta Visionary sponsor NVIDIA Visionary sponsor Microsoft Sustainability sponsor Depot Continuous Integration AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page