Astroscope 
v.1 - September 2026

Astroscope is an HP Prime astronomy app designed to help observers locate and follow Messier objects and the major planets from any geographic location. The user can save their observing latitude, longitude, and UTC offset, then enter a date, time, and viewing direction to see which objects are above the horizon and where they appear in azimuth and altitude. The app includes interactive sky plots, object selection, short-term trajectory plots covering approximately ±4 hours, yearly position plots sampled throughout the year at a fixed 21:00 UTC reference time, and catalogue/detail views for Messier objects. Planetary positions are calculated dynamically from orbital elements, while Messier objects use stored celestial coordinates, allowing both deep-sky and Solar System observing tools to be combined within a single Astroscope application. This is not high-precision astrometry but suitable for general observational pointing.

Note:
When you open the app in either the Messier catalog view or the Solar System view, press 'Help' to see the guide. 

Nikos Koskinas
nikoskinas@hotmail.com

Installation Instructions for Hardware HP Prime
1. Open the HP Connectivity Kip
2. Connect your HP Prime to the computer
3. Drag the folder 'Astroscope.hpappdir' and drop it into the HP Connectivity Kit in the Application Library section.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Nikos Koskinas

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
