Astra: An open-source observatory control software

2026-03-0616:1410226github.com

Astra: an open-source observatory control software. - ppp-one/astra

NameName

License: GPL v3 Python 3.11 uv Tests Docs

Astra (Automated Survey observaTory Robotised with Alpaca) is an open-source observatory control software for automating and managing robotic observatories. It integrates seamlessly with ASCOM Alpaca for hardware control.

Astra themed art

  • Fully Robotic — Schedule once, observe automatically with error and bad weather handling
  • ASCOM Alpaca — Compatible with your existing ASCOM equipment
  • Cross-Platform — Python based, runs on Windows, Linux, macOS
  • Web Interface — Manage your observatory from any browser, use cloudflared or similar to access outside your network
  • Comprehensive Docs — Setup, usage, and module reference
Observatory overview

Observatory overview

System logs

System logs

Weather monitoring

Weather monitoring

Controls tab

Controls tab

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md or the contributing guide.

Released under the GNU GPL v3.

If you use Astra in published research, please cite it as:

@software{Pedersen_Astra,
author = {Pedersen, Peter P. and Degen, David and Garcia, Lionel and Zúñiga-Fernández, Sebastián and Sebastian, Daniel and Schroffenegger, Urs and Queloz, Didier},
license = {GPL-3.0},
title = {{Astra}},
url = {https://github.com/ppp-one/astra}
}

DOI 10.5281/zenodo.18890151

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Comments

  • By blackhaz 2026-03-0620:502 reply

    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!

    • By pppone 2026-03-0620:56

      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

    • By malfist 2026-03-0622:37

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

  • By albert_e 2026-03-0618:242 reply

    Astra

    Astral (maker of uv)

    Astro (javascript web framework)

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

    • By defined 2026-03-0623:26

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

    • By petee 2026-03-0618:51

      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

  • By joshumax 2026-03-0618:181 reply

    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.

    • By pppone 2026-03-0618:281 reply

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

      • By petee 2026-03-0619:151 reply

        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

        • By pppone 2026-03-0619:25

          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.

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