astroterm

astroterm is a terminal-based astronomical visualization tool written in C that renders star maps directly in the terminal using ASCII characters. It displays the real-time positions of stars, planets, constellations, and moon phases for any specified date, time, and geographic location. The tool supports both past and future celestial events, making it useful for astronomical planning and historical reference.

The application offers extensive customization options through command-line flags, including adjustable star magnitude thresholds, constellation stick figures, azimuthal grids, and Unicode/braille character support for enhanced visuals. Users can specify observer coordinates manually or select from a database of cities, set custom date/time parameters in UTC, and control animation speed and frame rates. The tool includes features like terminal color support, metadata display, and shell completions for bash.

astroterm is particularly useful for astronomers, educators, and astronomy enthusiasts who want quick access to sky maps without specialized software. The tool's lightweight design and precise calculations make it suitable for both casual stargazing reference and more serious astronomical work, with the ability to verify historical celestial events or plan future observations from any location on Earth.

Installation

# via Homebrew
brew install astroterm

# via Arch Linux
pacman -S astroterm

# via Fedora
sudo dnf install astroterm