Star Life

Skyfield – astronomy for Python

Skyfield is a pure-Python astronomy package that is compatible with both Python 2 and 3 and makes it easy to generate high precision research-grade positions for planets for the stars, planets, and satellites in orbit around the Earth.

Its results should agree with the positions generated by the United States Naval Observatory and their Astronomical Almanac to within 0.0005 arcseconds (half a “mas” or milliarcsecond).

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

  • Written in pure Python and installs without any compilation.
  • Supports Python 2.6, Python 2.7 and Python 3.
  • Has NumPy as its only binary dependency, the fundamental package for scientific computing with Python, whose vector operations make Skyfield efficient.

Website: rhodesmill.org/skyfield
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Brandon Rhodes
License: MIT License

Skyfield is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.


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Read our verdict in the software roundup.


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