Gaia Sky

Gaia Sky is a real-time, 3D, astronomy visualisation software that runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. It is developed in the framework of ESA's Gaia mission to chart about 1 billion stars of our Galaxy in the Gaia group of the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (ZAH, Universität Heidelberg).

• Free and open source - Open source and free, and will stay this way. Contribute to the development and translations.
• High object count - The MS-LOD technique enables the real-time exploration of billions of objects.
• From Gaia to the cosmos - Explore from high-z galaxies to small asteroids in a seamless manner.
• Virtual Reality - Visit the whole Universe in VR!
• 6D exploration - Observe star positions but also proper motions and radial velocities, if available.
• Planetary surfaces - Explore surfaces with elevation maps (using tessellation, if available).
• Procedural planets - Procedurally generate planet surfaces, clouds and atmospheres.
• Advanced graphics - Virtual textures, screen space reflections, shadows, HDR, ray-marched distance fields, dynamic resolution, etc.
• Eclipses - Real-time eclipse representation in all bodies.
• 3D-ready - 6 stereoscopic modes: Anaglyphic (red-cyan), VR headset, 3DTV (H and V), cross-eye and parallel view.
• 360 mode - Spherical (equirectangular), cylindrical and Hammer projections available, plus many reprojection modes.
• Planetarium projection mode - Azimuthal equidistant (dome master) projection for single-projector setups. MPCDI for real-time usage in multi-projector systems. Ready to produce videos for full domes from the desktop app.
• Gaia - Observe Gaia in its orbit and discover its movement in the sky and its attitude.
• Use your data - Download pre-packed datasets (Gaia DR3+, NEARGALCAT, SDSS, Open Clusters catalog, etc.) or use your own, in VOTable, FITS, CSV and other formats (STIL).
• Real-time filters - Filter any dataset by distance, magnitude, galactic, ecliptic, equatorial coordinates, and more.
• SAMP aware - Use SAMP to interoperate with SAMP-ready software such as Topcat and Aladin.
• Navigate the galaxy - Use your favorite controllers and gamepads to navigate the Galaxy. Piece of cake!
• Camera paths - Record and play camera paths off-the-shelf.
• Scriptable and extensible - Use Python to script and extend the capabilities of the Gaia Sky.
• Internationalised - Translated to English, German, Spanish, French, Catalan, Slovenian and Bulgarian.