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Browser extension

Every sky photo on the web, solved where you find it.

The Skyshot extension for Chrome adds Skyshot to the pages you read. Point at a photo of the night sky and see where it points, how wide it is and what it shows: on the page itself, or opened in Skyshot.

Download the extensionZIP · 1.0 MB How to install

VERSION 0.2.0 · CHROME, EDGE, BRAVE, OPERA, ARC · Developer preview

The Orion Nebula, an amateur photograph ✓ Orion Nebula · 1.72° × 1.33°05h35m10s −05°19′17″ · open in Skyshot
The Skyshot icon on a photo, and its answer after “Solve all”: the saved solve of Skyshot's Orion example.

What it does

Turn it on. Point. Know.

One click on any photo

Press the Skyshot button and every photo shows the Skyshot icon in its corner. A click opens it solved in Skyshot: objects, grid, the 3D sky.

Solve all, in place

“Solve all” identifies the photos of the page where they are. Each gets a badge with its object, field size and centre.

The right-click menu

“Solve with Skyshot” on a photo, “Open link in Skyshot” on a link to a JPEG, TIFF or FITS file, “Open this page in Skyshot” on the page.

Photos as you see them

Your browser fetches the photo, so sites that turn servers away work, and so do your own photos behind a sign-in.

Install

Developer mode, in a minute.

Until the extension is listed in the Chrome Web Store, it installs from the ZIP in your browser's developer mode. Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera and Arc all take it.

  1. Download and unzip

    Download the ZIP above and unzip it into a folder you keep, for example Documents › Skyshot extension. The browser runs the extension from that folder, so leave it there.

    Download the extension

  2. Open the extensions page

    Paste this address into the address bar. A web page cannot open it for you.

    chrome://extensions

    Edge: edge://extensions · Brave: brave://extensions · Opera: opera://extensions

  3. Turn on Developer mode

    The switch is in the top right corner of the extensions page (in Edge, on the left).

  4. Load unpacked

    Click “Load unpacked” and choose the unzipped folder, the one with manifest.json in it. Skyshot appears in the list and its welcome page opens.

  5. Pin it, allow all sites

    Click the puzzle icon in the toolbar and pin Skyshot, so its button stays in view. On the welcome page, “Allow all sites” lets the extension fetch photos from any site; without it, it works with what each page shares.

First steps

Your first five minutes.

  1. Open Skyshot once. In this browser, open Skyshot and use your key, or get a free account with your email. The extension solves with the same access. Open Skyshot
  2. Find a photo of the sky. Wide-field and deep-sky photos from amateur astrophotographers are the best start. Try these: Orion Nebula on Wikipedia · today's APOD · AstroBin
  3. Turn Skyshot on. Press the Skyshot button in the toolbar. “ON” appears on it, and the Skyshot bar in the top right of the page counts the photos.
  4. Point and click. Point at a photo: the Skyshot icon appears in its top right corner. Click it, and the photo opens solved in a new Skyshot tab.
  5. Or solve them all. “Solve all” in the Skyshot bar puts the answers on the photos themselves; a badge opens its photo in Skyshot. Esc, or the button again, turns Skyshot off.

Telescope close-ups narrower than about 0.3° (most Hubble and JWST images) are finer than the sky index: “No solution” is the honest answer there.

Privacy

What goes where.

Your photos stay in your browser.

The extension decodes a photo and finds its stars in your browser; only the star positions go to the Skyshot solver. The page you solve on is not told the result.

It acts only when you click.

Nothing runs in the background. A photo you right-click or open is fetched with your cookies for its site, as your browser fetches it to show it; pages in Skyshot's Web tab without them.

Privacy Policy, section 4Questions and feedback

Manage

Updating to a new version

Download the new ZIP and unzip it over the same folder, then press the reload arrow on Skyshot's card in chrome://extensions. This page always offers the current version.

Removing the extension

Click Remove on Skyshot's card in chrome://extensions. The panel address and the copy of your Skyshot access it kept are removed with it.

With a Skyshot panel on your own computer

The extension's options take the address of a local panel (skyshot serve), for example http://localhost:8850/. The right-click menu and the icon then open photos there.