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.

Feature
OpenSkyLab
Traditional Tools
Modern web-based UI
Cross-platform (Linux + Windows)
macOS support
Coming soon
INDI device support
ASCOM Alpaca support
DSLR/Mirrorless (CR2/ARW)
Interactive sky map
WebGL 3D
Plate solver (offline)
Advanced sequencer
PHD2 guiding
Autofocus (V-curve)
Meridian flip auto
Polar alignment wizard
Live stacking
Flat wizard (auto-ADU)
Dome control
Weather safety auto-park
Target scheduler
Framing assistant
Image annotation (WCS)
Plugin system / SDK
Multi-language (i18n)
3 languages
100% offline capable
Open source
MIT
GPL / MPL
Mosaic planner
PRO
ML frame quality scoring
PRO
AI night planner
PRO
Remote access (tunnel)
PRO
Image processing pipeline
PRO
Weather forecast alerts
PRO
Full support Partial / limited Not availablePROPro plugin

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.

200+ driversLearn more

ASCOM Alpaca

Windows device ecosystem via REST API. No COM interop needed — OpenSkyLab communicates directly with Alpaca-compatible devices.

500+ devicesLearn more

PHD2

Industry-standard autoguiding via JSON-RPC. Real-time RMS stats, dither control, guide star monitoring, and calibration — all integrated.

All guide camerasLearn more

DSLR / Mirrorless

Direct raw file support for Canon CR2/CR3, Sony ARW, and Nikon NEF via libraw. No adapter software required — connect and shoot.

Canon, Sony, Nikon

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.

camera_adapter.rs
1// Implement the Camera trait to add any device
2#[async_trait]
3impl Camera for MySonyCamera {
4 async fn expose(&self, params: ExposureParams)
5 -> Result<ExposureHandle>
6 {
7 // your driver code here
8 todo!()
9 }
10
11 async fn download_frame(
12 &self, handle: ExposureHandle
13 ) -> Result<FitsFrame> {
14 todo!()
15 }
16 // ...8 more methods
17}
18
19// Register — zero config needed
20registry.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.

Rust
Zero-cost abstractions, memory safety, async Tokio runtime
React 19
Modern UI with concurrent features and server components
Tauri v2
Desktop shell with native WebView. 10x smaller than Electron
INDI
Universal adapter for Linux — 200+ driver-compatible devices
ASCOM Alpaca
Windows device ecosystem via REST — no COM interop
Three.js
WebGL sky map with 100M stars and real-time rendering
ASTAP Solver
Offline plate solver. No internet required. ~3-5s per frame
SQLite
Embedded star catalog. Hipparcos + NGC/IC stored locally
Platforms
Linux
Primary platform
Windows
ASCOM + INDI
macOS
Coming soon