This 'Astroberry' System For Raspberry Pi Helps You Control All Your Astronomy Equipment
As beautiful as the field of astronomy can be, it can also be a bit of a hassle and a headache. While you can capture spectacular astrophotography shots with an iPhone, high-level astronomy, requires the use of a lot of different pieces of equipment, not to mention a commitment to staying outside all night to operate all of it. If you're looking to consolidate your astronomy setup, as well as operate all of it from the comfort of your home or heated camping tent, there is a special system available to help facilitate that. All you need is a Raspberry Pi.
The Astroberry System is an open-source, pre-assembled framework for operating a full suite of astronomy tools, all powered by Raspberry Pi and Linux. Using Astroberry, you can wirelessly keep tabs on any and all connected pieces of equipment, operating them remotely through a regular internet browser. Not only does this eliminate the need for you to sit right next to your telescope all night, it also makes minute adjustments and readings so much simpler.
How it works
When loaded onto a Raspberry Pi, the Astroberry System grants you access to a gigantic suite of carefully-curated software, each offering a convenient upgrade to your astronomy setup.
To give a few examples, the SkyChart planetarium program helps you to prepare sky charts for your observations, as well as choose your eyepieces and find your object. The FireCapture planetary imaging program helps you to tailor your telescope's view to capture particular stars and planets, adjusting lenses and filters to see them as true to life as possible.
Through the use of these programs and more, you can remotely control and optimize any computer-connected astronomy equipment, including telescopes, focusers, cameras, and more. A wireless hotspot is also included in the Astroberry setup, allowing you to remotely connect to it and your equipment from just about anywhere. You could have a telescope set up on your balcony and operate it from your office, or have it set up on a nearby hill. As long as you're within wireless signal range, you have control.
Astroberry is maintained by an extensive network of over 5,000 users located in 83 different countries. If you've got valuable information to contribute, be it fresh astronomical data or coding know-how, you too can help out with the system's ongoing development.
The Astroberry software, as well as all relevant documentation, is available for download on the project's official website.