Astara

The Ultimate Open-Source Mobile Planetarium & Stargazing Companion

An advanced mobile planetarium application built on Stellarium Web Engine for Android. Astara provides a high-performance, offline-first sky map that fits in your pocket.

Notable Features

• Gyroscope Mode — Point your phone to scan the sky in real-time using device sensors.
• AR Camera Overlay — Seamlessly overlay star maps onto your camera feed for easy identification.
• Direction Tracking — Intuitive visual guides help you locate specific celestial objects.
• Comprehensive Database — Search over 60,000 stars, planets, DSOs, and satellites.
• Offline First — No internet connection required; all sky data is bundled locally.
• Privacy Focused — Completely open-source with no tracking or ads. For all features, see docs/features.md.

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Documentation

Explore the technical details and user guides:

• Documentation Index — Complete documentation overview
• User Manual — comprehensive guide to using Astara
• High-Level Design — System architecture and design choices
• Low-Level Design — Detailed technical specifications and implementation
• Architecture — Codebase structure and component interaction
• Frontend Guide — Vue.js components, services, and state management
• Setup Guide — Detailed build instructions (Docker, Web, Android)
• Upstream Relationship — Differences from Stellarium Web Engine

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Quick Start (Docker)

The recommended way to build Astara is using Docker, which handles all dependencies (Emscripten, Node.js, etc.) automatically.

1. Clone the repository (if you haven't already):

   git clone https://github.com/DesolateSea/Astara_stellarium-web-engine.git astara
   cd astara

2. Install emscripten SDK:

   git clone https://github.com/emscripten-core/emsdk.git

3. Setup and Build

   cd apps/web-frontend
   
   # Compile the engine and install frontend dependencies
   sudo -E make setup
   
   # Builds the production web frontend
   sudo -E make build

4. Create Android APK Set required environment variables:

   export CAPACITOR_ANDROID_STUDIO_PATH=/path/to/android-studio/bin/studio.sh

   export JAVA_HOME=/path/to/java-21-openjdk
   export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

   Sync with Capacitor:

   make sync-android

   Build the debug APK:

   make build-apk

For a detailed guide, please refer to the Setup Guide.

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Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see the upstream Stellarium Web CLA before submitting pull requests.

For questions, feature requests, or bug reports, please open a GitHub issue.

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License

Astara is licensed under the AGPL-3.0, inherited from Stellarium Web Engine.

See LICENSE-AGPL-3.0.txt for the full license text.