Stellarium Sidekick: a small Windows Python companion tool for Stellarium

[hongming]

Hi everyone,

I’d like to share a small experimental Python script I recently made: Stellarium Sidekick — a simple companion observing assistant for Stellarium.

It uses Stellarium’s RemoteControl API to read the currently selected object, then uses an AI service to generate a short description and visual observing suggestions. The generated information should be treated as AI-assisted and may need to be checked. It can also use local text-to-speech narration.

This is not a native Stellarium plugin or a polished standalone app. It is just a small sidekick tool that runs alongside Stellarium. At the moment it is mainly tested on Windows, and it uses some Windows-specific APIs, so it will not run directly on mac.

Code and basic notes are here:

https://github.com/hongming/stellarium-sidekick/

[gzotti]

Looks interesting! Is there a way to get a few deepseek credits for testing? I only get HTTP 402. :-( What will be price per query?

[hongming]

Thanks for trying it!

I added OpenAI and Google Gemini support today, so DeepSeek is no longer required for testing. You can choose the AI provider in Settings and use your own OpenAI or Gemini API key. Pricing depends on the provider/model, but each query should be very small. The app only sends selected object info, such as name, designations, and localized_name, and asks for a concise observing suggestion.

[richardchen874-sys]

This is a good use case for DeepSeek credits because each request should be very small.

If the app only sends selected object metadata and asks for a concise observing suggestion, the cost per query should stay low. The main things to watch are:

• prompt length
• whether previous history is included
• max output tokens
• retry behavior after 402 / rate-limit errors
• provider fallback when one key has no balance

For testing, a small amount of DeepSeek credit should be enough to estimate real cost per query.

I’m working around lower-cost DeepSeek / OpenAI-compatible API access for small AI tools, so I’d be happy to share a small test credit if you want to compare cost and stability.