https://github.com/codebox/star-charts
Generate SVG star charts using Python
https://github.com/codebox/star-charts
astronomy python starchart svg
Last synced: 3 months ago
JSON representation
Generate SVG star charts using Python
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/codebox/star-charts
- Owner: codebox
- License: mit
- Created: 2016-11-07T14:32:25.000Z (almost 9 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2019-09-08T10:56:14.000Z (about 6 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-06-12T12:13:40.529Z (4 months ago)
- Topics: astronomy, python, starchart, svg
- Language: Python
- Homepage: https://codebox.net/pages/star-charts-with-python
- Size: 1.08 MB
- Stars: 104
- Watchers: 7
- Forks: 39
- Open Issues: 5
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# Star Charts
This Python script will generate SVG star charts, like the ones shown below:
The constellation Orion, showing stars down to magnitude 8 [original SVG](https://codebox.net/assets/images/star-charts-with-python/orion.svg)
The script reads data about the position and brightness of stars from a CSV file like [this one](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/codebox/star-charts/master/stardata.csv).
Each row in the CSV file contains information about a single star in 4 columns as follows:
* Right-Ascension: the star's angular distance eastward from the vernal equinox (0 to 24)
* Declination: the star's angular distance northward from the celestial equator (-90 to +90)
* Magnitude: the star's brightness
* Label: an optional field used to add labels to stars (see the Greek letters in the example chart above)
For example
```
5.91937636,+76.86957095, 8.07
5.91952477,+07.40703634, 0.45,α
5.92011402,+61.86673905, 8.60
5.92045102,-73.15075170, 7.72
```
The area to be covered by the chart is specified using a SkyArea object, which must be referenced the main.py file. A few pre-defined areas are included, such as complete northern and southern sky maps:
Maps of the Northern and Southern skies, showing stars down to magnitude 7 (original SVGs: [North](https://codebox.net/assets/images/star-charts-with-python/northern_sky.svg) and [South](https://codebox.net/assets/images/star-charts-with-python/southern_sky.svg)
The script is run by simply executing the main.py file, as follows:
```
python main.py
```
The SVG file will be created in the current directory, and will be named star-chart.svg
Please note that the script is designed to be run using Python 3, it will not run correctly with Python 2.