skycanvas 0.1.1

ASCII constellation viewer powered by astronomical data.

SkyCanvas

ASCII constellation viewer powered by astronomical data.

SkyCanvas is a lightweight command-line tool that allows you to explore constellations directly in your terminal. It renders constellations as ASCII art, displays astronomical data, compares different constellations, show currently visible constellations, and allows exporting them into image formats.

No internet connection is required after installation.

Features

• ASCII constellation rendering
• Braille based terminal render
• Constellation information tables
• Stars and their connections visualised
• Animated constellation drawing
• Comparing two constellations side by side
• Showing visible constellations for tonight
• Random constellations to discover
• Export constellation to PNG / JPG / BMP / SVG format
• Manual
• Lightweight and quite fast

Installation

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• pip

Install SkyCanvas:

pip install skycanvas

Example:

Run:

skycanvas --help

Commands

version

Show SkyCanvas version.

skycanvas version

man

Display the SkyCanvas manual.

skycanvas man

constellation

Display the constellation ASCII art and info table of choice.

skycanvas constellation <name>

constellation --animate

Display animated version of ASCII art, and info table of choice.

skycanvas constellation <name> --animate

compare

Compare two constellations.

skycanvas compare <name1> <name2>

list

Display the list of available constellations.

skycanvas list

tonight

Display constellations that are visible tonight.

skycanvas tonight

--export

Export the chosen constellation or tonight constellations to an image format.

skycanvas --export crux svg

Available image formats:

• PNG
• JPG
• BMP
• SVG

Exports are stored in:

~/SkyCanvas/Exports/

rand

Show a randomly choosen constellation.

skycanvas rand

export-help

Display export usage information.

skycanvas export-help

logo

Show a SkyCanvas logo.

skycanvas logo

Data Storage

SkyCanvas does not require any external database.

All constellation data is stored locally inside the tool.

No account or cloud synchronization requited whatsoever.

Supported Constellations

SkyCanvas currently includes many popular constellations:

• Orion
• Ursa Major
• Cassiopeia
• Scorpius
• Taurus
• Gemini
• Leo
• Cygnus
• Lyra
• Aquila
• Pegasus
• Andromeda
• Canis Major
• Canis Minor
• Draco
• Sagittarius
• Virgo
• Aries
• Capricornus
• Pisces
• Ursa Minor
• Perseus
• Cepheus
• Hydra
• Centaurus
• Crux
• Phoenix
• Libra
• Aquarius
• Cancer

Technologies

SkyCanvas is build with:

• Python
• Typer
• Rich
• Pillow
• Skyfield

Files

skycanvas/

    - main.py
    - compare.py
    - constellations.py
    - coordinates.py
    - export.py
    - logo.py
    - render.py
    - tonight.py

Development

Clone repository:

git clone https://github.com/aerissdev-dotcom/SkyCanvas.git

Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Run

skycanvas --help

License

MIT License

Author

aeriss-dev

GitHub:

https://github.com/aerissdev-dotcom

Version

0.1.1

Testing and developing OS

SkyCanvas was developed and tested on macOS. The author does not guarantee full compatibility with every operating system.

OS Compatibility

macOS

Fully tested.

Windows

Should work normally with Python installed.

Linux

Should work normally, but terminal rendering might depend on terminal font support.

Conclusion

SkyCanvas is a small terminal-based astronomy project I created to make exploring the constellations simple and enjoyable.