Messierism

Messierism is a Python script that calculates the visible Messier objects in the night sky for a given location and date. It uses the astropy and pyongc libraries to perform astronomical calculations and retrieve data from the Messier catalog.

Features

Calculates the start of the astronomical night based on the sun's position
Determines the visible Messier objects above a specified minimum altitude
Displays the results in a formatted table using the rich library
Allows customization of location, date, and minimum altitude through command-line arguments

Requirements

Python 3.x
astropy library
pyongc library
rich library

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/your-username/messierism.git

Navigate to the project directory:

cd messierism

Create a virtual environment:
- For Windows PowerShell:
```
python -m venv venv
```
- For Linux:
```
python3 -m venv venv
```
Activate the virtual environment:
- For Windows PowerShell:
```
.\venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
```
- For Linux:
```
source venv/bin/activate
```
Install the required libraries:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

To run the script, use the following command:

python messierism.py [--lat LATITUDE] [--lon LONGITUDE] [--alt ALTITUDE] [--date DATE] [--angle ANGLE]

--lat LATITUDE: Latitude of the location in degrees (default: 40.4168, latitude of Madrid, Spain)
--lon LONGITUDE: Longitude of the location in degrees (default: -3.7038, longitude of Madrid, Spain)
--alt ALTITUDE: Altitude of the location in meters (default: 0)
--date DATE: Date in YYYYMMDD format (default: current date)
--angle ANGLE: Minimum angle above the horizon in degrees (default: 10)

Example:

python messierism.py --lat 40.4168 --lon -3.7038 --date 20230415 --angle 20

Output

The script will display a formatted table showing the visible Messier objects for the specified location and date. The table includes the following columns:

Messier: Messier catalog number
Notation: Common notation for the object
Name: Name of the object
RA (J2000): Right Ascension in J2000 epoch
Dec (J2000): Declination in J2000 epoch
Azimuth (°): Azimuth angle in degrees
Altitude (°): Altitude angle in degrees
Size major (arcmin): Major axis size in arcminutes
Size minor (arcmin): Minor axis size in arcminutes
PA: Position angle

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you find any issues or have suggestions for improvements, please open an issue or submit a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

imigueldiaz/astro-shoots-messierism