Browse Code
openSkyMatch is a collection of Linux shell and Python scripts designed for the OpenScience Observatories program.
It automates the identification and matching of detected celestial objects in locally captured FITS images with entries in large-scale sky catalogs, notably Pan-STARRS1 DR2 (II/389/ps1_dr2).
The toolkit supports data preprocessing, coordinate correlation, and catalog-based validation of astronomical detections.
All tools are open-source and optimized for reproducibility and transparency in citizen science astronomy.
Features
- Match OpenScience images to PS1 DR2 catalog stars
- Also browses GAIA catalog to rule out stars with high proper motion
- Reads FITS images and extracts object coordinates
- Fast RA/Dec cross-matching via SQLite, Python tools
- Filters matches by magnitude, distance, and quality
- Lightweight—runs in any Linux shell, no heavy deps
- Outputs clean CSV or SQLite databases for analysis
- Detects missing or spurious detections in frames
- Enables photometric and astrometric consistency checks
- Ideal for OpenScience and citizen-astronomy projects
- Ready for SAOImageDS9 (ds9) visual inspection
- ds9 region files show interesting unidentified sources
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