Search code examples
google-maps-api-3astronomy

How to get positions of stars in the night sky using Google map Sky API

After viewing the documentation of Google Earth Sky API, I know that using this I can render the night sky.

However, can I get to know the exact positions and names of the stars? Furthermore, can I enumerate all the stars in the sky?

Solution

  • I do not know if the Google Sky API has a catalog of all the stars in the sky; it would not make sense that they would maintain this kind of resource because there are astronomical catalogs that do this very very well. Many of these astronomical archives also have APIs. If you want to work within the Google Sky framework then you could try looking at this KML file from the primary astronomical database of objects:

    http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/googlesky-pages/simbad.kml

    They created it a while ago, and I have not confirmed that it continues to function optimally. Stars are brought down based on tile and magnitude.