What is Astroberry

Astroberry Project provides Astroberry OS, a free and open-source operating system for Raspberry Pi for controlling astronomy equipment.

Astroberry OS is a Linux distribution, based on official Raspberry Pi OS system. It runs 64 bit Debian Linux 13 (Trixie) at its heart and provides a collection of software for astronomers and astrophotographers. Users can connect astronomy equipment to a Raspberry Pi, powered by Astroberry OS, and access it using a web browser.

Astroberry OS APT repository provides an online collection of software packages and updates to Astroberry OS system.

The project relies on donations, which directly support development of the system. Please consider making a donation today.

History

Astroberry project was founded in 2015 by Radek Kaczorek - astrophotographer, technology enthusiast and open-source community contributor. The first public version of an operating system for Raspberry Pi for astronomers was released in 2017. Yet another 2 generations of the system have been released since then. The latest version of the system is called Astroberry OS and was released in January 2026.

Astroberry OS v3.x

The third generation of the system, called Astroberry OS, was released in February 2026. It provides support for 64bit Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 and is built on top of official Raspberry Pi OS (Debian Trixie). An advanced user can install individual software packages manually using standard Debian packaging system. Meanwhile a system image, containing preinstalled packages, is provided for convenience. Astroberry OS features a new generation web interface, which lets you control everything with just a browser. Complete list of features of the latest version of the Astroberry OS is available here.

Astroberry Server v2.x

The second generation of Astroberry Server 2.x was released in November 2019. It supported both Raspberry 3 and 4 (32bit) and was built on the original Raspbian Buster 19.04 from Raspberry Foundation. A custom made system update mechanism was replaced by standard APT repository for Raspbian Buster. This change enabled a regular Raspberry Pi user to install Astroberry Server as a suit of Debian packages, instead downloading a whole system image and flashing micro-SD card. The system featured a modern web interface, including GPS Panel and Astro Panel (celestial almanac for your localization) and custom Astroberry drivers for various astronomy devices.

Astroberry Server v1.x

Initial version of the system was called Astroberry Server 1.x and was released in May 2017. Astroberry Server was a preconfigured desktop for Raspberry Pi 3 (32bit) with KStars, Ekos and INDI server. It was based on Ubuntu Mate 16.04, accessible from a browser, VNC client or SSH. It worked as a virtual wireless access point (VAS) and WLAN client at the same time.

Astroberry Project

It all started back in 2014 as a crazy idea to build an open-source toolset for astronomy and astrophotography. The first light of Astroberry Project was seen in early 2015. At that time it was just a collection of software published on sourceforge combined with other tools around INDI framework. It provided drivers for Raspberry Pi devices such us Astroberry Focuser - stepper motor driver with autospeed feature, Astroberry GPS - GPS driver for scope location and time synchronization, Astroberry AltIMU - accelerometer, magnetometer, gyro, atmospheric pressure sensor driver, Astroberry Board - power switch board allowing for remote powering on/off up to 4 devices. Soon it transformed into a idea of an operating system for Raspberry Pi, called Astroberry Server.