Astro Observability Planner is a GUI program that shows when an astronomical object will be visible in the sky. Times of observability are shown as regions on a plot of time v. date. The program focuses on deep-sky objects (stars, clusters, galaxies, etc.). Astronomical object names or catalog numbers are identified using the services at CDS (http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/). Astro Observability Planner is a Tk GUI using matplotlib, pyephem, and astropy.

Versions that have been shown to work in parenthesis

• numpy (1.7.1, 1.8.2, 1.9.1)
• matplotlib, with TkAgg support (1.2.1, 1.4.2)
• astropy (0.4.2, 1.0.3)
• pyephem (3.7.5.3)
• pytz (2012c, 2013.10, 2014.10)

Uses CDS to look up the coordinates of deep-space objects. Accepts "M33", "HD125", "HIP12512", "Alpha Cent", and other designations. Coordinates are locally cached on first look up. The only solar-system objects supported are the major planets (and Pluto).

The package installs 1 GUI program:

• `astroobsplanner`: the main program of the package. It shows regions when an object is observable on a local time vs date plot, for up to 3 locations at once.

and 3 command line programs:

• `astroobsplannercmd`: same thing as astroobsplanner, just for scripting.
• `astroobsplanneraltcmd`: makes a bunch of altitude (above the horizon) of an object vs. time plots for the coming days.
• `astroobsplannerschedcmd`: For a list of objects, makes a grid of object vs. hour of the night, with a grid per night. Boxes are filled in if the object is observable that whole hour. A similar plot can be generated for months instead of hours/nights.