The Pi Pico Planetarium is a compact, low-cost astronomy viewer built around the Raspberry Pi Pico 2W and a 480x320 ST7796 TFT display. Designed with both beginners and experienced hobbyists in mind, it offers a hands-on introduction to microcontrollers, electronics, and astronomy, while remaining flexible and expandable for more advanced use. The device displays a real-time map of the night sky, including stars, constellations, planets, the Moon, and deep sky objects. By using Wi-Fi to retrieve accurate time data via NTP, the planetarium keeps the star chart aligned with the user’s current time and location.
git clone https://github.com/dawsonjon/Pico-Planetarium
For technical details refer to the technical documentation.
A 3D printed enclosure can be found here, including stl files and FreeCAD design files.
The SSTV code is written in pure C++, but a demo application is provided as an Arduino sketch. The Arduino Pico port by Earle Philhower is probably the easiest way to install and configure a C++ development environment for the Raspberry Pi Pico. Its possible to install the tool and get up-and running with example applications in just a few minutes. Refer to the installation instructions and the online documentation to get started.
This project uses the following libraries:
- Bright Star Catalog
- Marc van der Sluys - Contellation Lines
- Greg Miller - Constellation Lines
- Greg Miller - Common Star Names
- Eleanor Lutz - Mesier and NGC Objects