Akash Khoj is a system being developed to help people find optimal conditions for observing the night sky. It’s essentially a unified platform that analyzes environmental factors – air quality, lunar brightness, and geographic location – to identify areas with clearer skies suitable for stargazing or astrophotography.
Its purpose is to simplify the process of finding good observation spots by consolidating information currently scattered across multiple sources. Essentially, it's a tool designed to make astronomy more accessible by providing easy access to relevant environmental data. As well as giving information about the cosmos to the user by Galileo AI (A locally run LLM Chat Bot) which would help you solve your questions.
- HTML5 — The standard markup language used to structure web pages and web apps.
- CSS3 — Styling language used to design layouts, animations, and responsiveness of websites.
- JavaScript ES6+ — Modern JavaScript version with advanced features like arrow functions, modules, and async/await.
- Lenis 1.0.42 — A smooth scrolling library that creates fluid, inertia-based scroll effects.
- GSAP 3.12.5 + ScrollTrigger — Powerful animation library with scroll-based animation control.
- Three.js r128 — JavaScript library for creating 3D graphics in the browser using WebGL.
- Tailwind CSS — Utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building custom designs.
- Lucide — Open-source icon library for clean, customizable SVG icons.
- SunCalc — Library for calculating sun position, sunrise, sunset, and moon data based on location.
- Open-Meteo — Free weather API providing data like wind speed, temperature, and cloud coverage.
- AQICN Feed — API providing real-time air quality index (AQI) data for cities.
- ip-api.com — Service that detects a user's location (city, country) via their IP address.
- Browser Geolocation API — Built-in browser feature that gets a user's GPS coordinates (with permission).
- n8n Webhook — Automation endpoint that receives data and triggers workflows (e.g., for a chatbot backend like Galileo AI).
- Currently, anyone wanting to stargaze has to check multiple sources separately — weather apps for cloud cover, AQI apps for air quality, moon phase websites for lunar data, and maps for location suitability. Akash Khoj consolidates all of this into one unified platform, saving time and effort. It directly addresses the frustration of scattered information.
- Essentially, Akash Khoj is a one-stop gateway into astronomy for anyone.
- The main features of my Project is the Scroll-Driven Animation which the main page of Akash khoj uses. How it works - At its core, the entire background is a 36-frame space sequence rendered on an HTML5 Canvas — you literally control the cinematic by scrolling. Scroll slowly and the space scene drifts gently; scroll fast and it rushes past. The page preloads all 36 frames before revealing itself, so the experience is always completely smooth.
The other aspects of this are as follows:
An interactive 3D moon visualization app that shows the exact lunar phase and lighting for any selected date, along with live weather data to calculate a stargazing score based on moon brightness, wind, and cloud coverage. It also includes a calendar, circular weather gauges, and upcoming lunar events like Full Moons and Supermoons.
A real-time air quality monitoring dashboard that automatically detects your location and displays your city’s AQI instantly, alongside live AQI data from 12 major global cities. It uses a six-tier international scale (Good to Hazardous) and presents the information in a visually immersive space-themed interface.
Also special thanks to djlorenz for providing such a great data about the Light Pollution. I have read about it and it is very detailed and helpful so Thank You for this.
A virtual astronomy codex designed as an interactive 3D flipbook that mimics an ancient Roman manuscript, complete with Latin headings, classical typography, and atmospheric candlelit visuals. It delivers educational content about stars, constellations, and planets through an immersive, book-like reading experience.
It is the built-in astronomy-focused chatbot in Akash Khoj, named after Galileo Galilei. It acts as a cosmic guide that answers questions about constellations, planets, moon phases, air quality, and space science. Its intelligence comes from the n8n backend, which may use a RAG knowledge system or an AI model like GPT/Gemini with an astronomy-focused prompt.
This idea was originated by my friend. He and I were jogging in the evening and i asked him about what project should i do next. And he suggested me to build "Akash Khoj" which would help me and him to monitor the weather as well as light level condition of our surroundings. So he has a contribution to this idea whatsoever.
Initially, i have created a flow chart of how our project should look like how should it work. and after 1 month of preparations and hardwork we were able to build this website/project completely. It was a great learning experience that i got by this and i hope that i will like to work on different and innovstive projects in the future.
Also there a was a small competition in the college for presenting everyones project. At first the supervisor was very confuse about our project but later she was interested and we in detailed explained every bits of our project that how i made it and what kind of things are there in it.
She told us that this is a very unique and different project than anyother but we didnt get selected as the other PS were health related and had an impact on the medical field so we were unseen at the end. Let it be i am not sad or angry about it becuase i love the way i made it with my own efforts without any worries of fruit.
Which is why, Akash Khoj is avaiable to everyone for showcasing my learnings which i had along the way.
I have grown significantly with each part of this project helped me understand more about building apps, managing complex information and improving user experience. It was more than just making an app, it was about solving problems, learning new things and improving my skills for the future work.
The other things or features you can add or i would like to suggest is:
- AR Feature
- How to Identify the constellations easily with their signature stars ??
- Events and Alerts
- More details regarding stars and all
- I also have an idea to monetize this it goes like ads or suggessions for telescopes, lens, equipments, tents and so on
To run the project in your local environment, follow these steps:
- Clone the repository to your local machine.
- Download "
Live Server" extension from Extensions in Visual Studio Code for easily executing the code. - Now open the
akash khojfolder in that run theindex.htmlfile and enjoy the exploration.
--------------------------------------------------------------OR---------------------------------------------------------------
- Just double-click the
start.batfile so easily execute the website quickly.
This Project is licensed under MIT License
Note
There are some cons which you should be aware of :
- The scrolling animation may look a little stiff (The solution upload all the frames to a CDN server which loads it for you). I was unable because of my time constraints.
- Also paste your own n8n webhook URL in the required place as it is necessary for the AI bot to work.
- The AQI API works but the results are displayed in a wrong way so if you use it take that into account.
- If you want to remove the flipbook you can, it was always a nuisance for me but an enjoying experience it was (To explore different shits and make something out of it) It is childish and i would recommend to add something else.
- The Moon 3D model is 3-4 days going behind but there is no issue with the calender, so you have to synchronize it and use it as per.
- Add a better API for celestial events and display them neatly.
"I love the way I made it — with my own efforts, without any worries of the fruit."