Install stellarium with Homebrew Cask

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

No executable aliases were found in the local package database.

Project history

Fabien Chéreau began Stellarium during the summer of 2000. A continuing team of developers expanded it from a desktop sky simulation into an extensible virtual planetarium used by individuals, educators, researchers, museums, and projection installations.

The project eventually reached version 1.0 while continuing its established cross-platform, open-source release line.

Adoption history

The official guide describes Stellarium's use in astronomy education, amateur observing and telescope control, sky-map production, cultural-astronomy research, museum projection setups, and commercial planetarium projector products.

Its long-running open-source development and cross-platform desktop releases have made it a familiar packaged astronomy application across Linux, macOS, and Windows.

How it is used

Users set an observing location and time to explore stars, planets, constellations, eclipses, meteor showers, and other astronomical phenomena. It is also used to plan observations and control supported telescopes.

Advanced users can install landscapes and sky cultures, write scripts, enable plugins, customize rendering, and drive projection or outreach installations.

Why package nerds care

Stellarium is a durable example of a large, data-rich scientific desktop application distributed across multiple operating systems. Packagers must account for OpenGL support, extensive astronomical catalogs and imagery, plugins, translations, and platform-specific user-data locations.

For astronomy users, its value is the combination of a visually realistic sky renderer with observation planning, telescope control, scripting, extensible sky cultures, and reproducible time-and-location simulation.

Timeline

• 2000: Fabien Chéreau started the Stellarium project during the summer.
• 2022: Project literature marked Stellarium's arrival at version 1.0.
• 2026: The project remained under active development with regular cross-platform releases.

Related projects

• Stellarium uses Qt for its cross-platform user interface and OpenGL for rendering.
• Its plugin and scripting systems support telescope control, presentations, custom landscapes, sky cultures, and specialized astronomical workflows.

Sources

• Official project resources: https://stellarium.org/en/
• Official project website: https://stellarium.org/
• Official user guide: https://stellarium.org/guide/