Use Cases
Built for every astronomer
Whether you're imaging faint galaxies from a remote observatory or showing the Moon to your astro club, OpenSkyLab adapts to your workflow.
Deep-Sky Imager
Galaxies, nebulae, star clusters
Full LRGB and narrowband workflow. Advanced sequencer handles multi-target, multi-filter sessions with dithering, meridian flip, and auto-recovery. Live stacking shows your target building up in real time.
Planetary ImagerPRO
Moon, planets, Sun
High-speed SER video capture optimized for lucky imaging (Pro plugin). Fast frame acquisition, ROI support, and detailed exposure control for planetary, lunar, and solar work.
Remote Rig Operator
Backyard or remote observatory
Control your rig from any browser on the local network. Weather safety auto-parks on bad conditions. CLI scripting for headless operation. Pro Relay for access from anywhere without port forwarding.
Visual Observer
GoTo, search, plan
Interactive WebGL sky map with 100M+ stars, 530+ deep-sky objects, 35 constellations, planets, and time travel. Search any catalog, GoTo with one click, plan sessions with the altitude chart.
SpectroscopistPRO
Stellar spectra analysis
Dedicated spectrograph capture UI with wavelength calibration, emission/absorption profile fitting, and reference star comparison (Pro plugin). Niche but complete.
Astro Club / Outreach
Teaching, demos, events
Beautiful web UI makes live demos impressive. Multi-language support (EN/PT/ES) for international groups. Guided tour and contextual help in every panel. First-run wizard gets beginners started in minutes.
Comparison
How does it compare?
Feature-for-feature parity with traditional tools in the free core, then AI and ML capabilities no other platform offers.
Compatibility
Works with your gear
If it works with INDI or ASCOM, it works with OpenSkyLab. Hundreds of devices supported out of the box — no custom drivers needed.
INDI
200+ device drivers on Linux/macOS. Universal protocol for mounts, cameras, focusers, filter wheels, domes, weather stations, and more.
ASCOM Alpaca
Windows device ecosystem via REST API. No COM interop needed — OpenSkyLab communicates directly with Alpaca-compatible devices.
PHD2
Industry-standard autoguiding via JSON-RPC. Real-time RMS stats, dither control, guide star monitoring, and calibration — all integrated.
DSLR / Mirrorless
Direct raw file support for Canon CR2/CR3, Sony ARW, and Nikon NEF via libraw. No adapter software required — connect and shoot.
Tested Manufacturers & Brands
Cameras
ZWO ASI, QHY, Atik, Moravian, Player One, Touptek, Altair, SVBony, Canon, Sony, Nikon
Mounts
Sky-Watcher (EQMod), Celestron, iOptron, Losmandy, Paramount, 10Micron, ZWO AM, Rainbow Astro
Focusers
Pegasus Astro, ZWO EAF, MoonLite, Optec, Baader, Lacerta, myFocuserPro
Filter Wheels
ZWO EFW, QHY CFW, Atik, Starlight Xpress, Pegasus Falcon
Domes
NexDome, MaxDome, ScopeDome, Astrohaven, Technical Innovations
Weather
AAG CloudWatcher, Boltwood, Davis, Lunatico, SQM
Any INDI or ASCOM Alpaca compatible device will work. This list is not exhaustive.
Open Source
Community-driven at the core
OpenSkyLab is built on a transparent, extensible architecture. The hardware abstraction layer is fully public and documented.
MIT Licensed
The entire core is MIT licensed. Use it, modify it, ship it in your product.
Plugin SDK
Build custom panels and device adapters with the public osl-plugin-sdk crate.
DAL Architecture
Device Abstraction Layer means adding a new adapter is just implementing one Rust trait.
Community First
Issues, PRs and discussions are public. Feature decisions happen in the open.
1// Implement the Camera trait to add any device2#[async_trait]3impl Camera for MySonyCamera {4 async fn expose(&self, params: ExposureParams)5 -> Result<ExposureHandle>6 {7 // your driver code here8 todo!()9 }1011 async fn download_frame(12 &self, handle: ExposureHandle13 ) -> Result<FitsFrame> {14 todo!()15 }16 // ...8 more methods17}1819// Register — zero config needed20registry.camera = Some(Arc::new(MySonyCamera::new()));
Under the hood
Built with the best tools
Performance-first stack. Rust backend, React frontend, and a real astronomy device ecosystem.
