About AR00.space

AR00.space is a free, open-source astronomical calculator that brings professional-grade celestial computations to everyone — from amateur stargazers to astronomy students.

The name AR00 comes from Ascensione Retta 00h 00m (Right Ascension 0h 0m) — the celestial coordinates of the Vernal Equinox, also known as the First Point of Aries (γ). This is the origin of the equatorial coordinate system, the zero-point from which we measure the positions of every star, planet, and galaxy in the sky.

It felt like the perfect name for a project that also started from zero.

This project has roots that go way back. As a teenager, my very first program — written in GW-BASIC and saved on a 3.5″ floppy disk — calculated the sunrise and sunset times. I still remember my father patiently dictating the code listing while I typed it, line by line, on my Olivetti M80.

Since that day, I've always had the itch to build my own astronomy library, fueled by all those books on computational astronomy I'd collected over the years — Meeus, Smart, the USNO Almanac… But life got in the way, and those books gathered dust on the shelf for a long time.

Now, finally, that small dream is fulfilled. AR00.space is the result of a passion that was born on a floppy disk and grew through decades of curiosity. From GW-BASIC to .NET 10 — the journey was long, but the stars were always there, waiting. 🔭