Explore the night sky with the open source astronomy app KStars

Gaze at the stars from your Linux desktop or Android device with KStars.

I have always been fascinated by the night sky. When I was young, the only reference materials available were books, which seemed to depict a different sky than the one I saw from home.

More than five years ago, I wrote about my experience using two open source planetarium apps, Celestia and Stellarium. Recently, I learned about KStars. It is an amazing open source app that helps children (and adults) engage in science and astronomy. Its website says:

“KStars is free, open source, cross-platform astronomy software. It provides an accurate graphical simulation of the night sky from any location on Earth, at any date and time. Displays include up to 100 million stars, 13,000 deep sky objects, all 8 planets, the Sun and Moon, and thousands of comets, asteroids, supernovae, and satellites.”

KStars is part of the KDE Education Project. The latest version, available for Linux, Windows, and MacOS, integrates StellarSolver, a cross-platform SExtractor program that can build a catalog of objects from astronomical images.

Install KStars

KStars is freely licensed under the GPL 2.0 protocol. The source code can be viewed at the official KDE GitLab instance (a read-only mirror of GitHub). The KDE Education Project has excellent installation documentation.

I use Pop!_OS and can find this app in Pop!_Shop.

KStars can be installed on Linux from your distribution's software repository. On Android devices, KStars Lite for Android can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. The KDE project maintains an excellent KStars manual to help users.

Using KStars

After installation, launch the program from your Applications menu. The startup wizard will guide you through the initial setup.

KStars Startup Wizard

The instructions were easy to follow. The wizard will prompt you to set the location of your home. Unfortunately, my little village was not listed, but a larger community nearby was.

KStars Location Settings

You can also download additional data and extra features for the program.

KStars Extension

There are a lot of options available here. I selected "Common images displayed in the detail window".

Once you've set it up, KStars will present you with a map of the night sky based on your location.

KStars Night Sky Display

The current time zone is shown in the upper left corner (in this picture it is 5:58 p.m. on November 30, 2020).

Using the left mouse button, you can move the display left, right, up, and down. You can zoom in and out using the mouse wheel. Place the mouse cursor over a celestial object and right-click to view a description of the current object.

KStars Description

participate

KStars is actively seeking help with bug reports, astronomy knowledge, code, translations, etc. The main developer and maintainer is Jasem Mutlaq. If you would like to contribute, please visit the project website or join the mailing list to learn more.