Celestial Storyteller — The AI That Explains The Night Sky

“Travel through time and see the sky from anywhere on Earth — with AI narrating what you would see."

Comment

Inspiration

The inspiration for Celestial Storyteller came from my curiosity about observing the night sky and wanting to truly understand what I was looking at. Many astronomy tools show technical star charts, but they don’t explain:

  • how the sky actually appears at a specific place and time
  • how the Moon's phase and brightness after visibility
  • how ** clouds and atmosphere ** influence what we see I wanted to build something that combines:
  • astronomy
  • real world observation
  • AI natural-language explanation so the sky isn't just displayed visually - It is interpreted and narrated like a story. This project was inspired by:
  • nights spent watching the Moon and planets
  • curiosity about how the sky changes over the time
  • the idea of small time-travel window to the universe that lets users explore the night sky from any moment in time.

What it does

Celestial Storyteller lets users:

  • choose a location, date and time
  • stimulate how the night sky appears
  • visualize the moon and visible planets
  • understands weather the Moon is:
    • visible
    • below the horizon
    • or obscured by clouds The application:
  • computes real astronomical sky positions
  • displays a circular sky viewport
  • detects atmospheric cloud cover
  • determines moon brightness and visibility It then uses AI narration to explain:
  • Moon phase and illumination
  • Sky visibility conditions
  • whether clouds affect viewing
  • which planets are visible The AI also generates an optional voice narration, making the experience immersive and accessible.

How we built it

The project was built using:

  • ** Python + Streamlit** - core application and UI
  • Skyfield - precise astronomical calculation
  • ** Customer sky renderer ** - circular night-sky view
  • ** Weather layer** - cloud cover estimation
  • ** AI interpretation module ** - natural-language sky summary
  • ** AI voice generator ** - spoken narration output Key technical components:
  • computation of alt-az coordinates for moon and planets
  • visibility logic for: - horizon checks - cloud obstruction
  • automatic and manual location selection
  • AI text generation tuned for explanation style
  • UI with: - info tiles - sky display - full width AI storytelling panel The entire system works together to transform raw astronomy data into an ** interpretable narrative experience**.

Challenges we ran into

Some of the biggest challenges include: ** Astronomical accuracy**

  • Understanding sky coordinate systems
  • handling illuminations and lunar phase logic
  • verifying altitude and horizon visibility ** Rendering sky visually**
  • mapping sky geometry into a circular projection
  • determine when objects are vissible/hidden
  • blending planets and moon effects ** Cloud visibility logic**
  • integrating cloud-cover influence
  • deciding when the moon "obscured" ** AI formatting issue** The AI sometimes produced:
    • nested elements
    • broken html formatting which caused UI rendering issues I solved this by:
  • cleaning and sanitizing text output
  • removing invalid HTML safety ** UI and layout tuning**
  • eliminating unwanted Streamlit spacing
  • stabilizing layout across resolutions
  • positioning full-width narration panel ** Edge cases tested**
  • Moon below horizon
  • fully cloudy sky
  • no visible planets
  • historic date simulations These helped improve stability and user experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am proud that this project:

  • goes beyond astronomy calculation
  • turns the night sky into an interactive story
  • explains celestial behavior in a human-friendly way Major accomplishments include:
  • integrating astronomy + weather + AI + voice in one app
  • accurate visibility + horizon + illumination logic
  • immersive narration experience
  • clean UI design with intuitive visual storytelling I am especially proud that this was built:
  • from scratch
  • within a hackathon timeline
  • while learning new tools & systems and still resulted in a polished, meaningful project.

What we learned

Through this project I learned: - how real-world sky mechanics work in practice - how the Moon’s: - altitude - azimuth - illumination after true visibility I strengthened skills in: - modular system design - debugging complex data flows - combining UI + AI + science computation - thinking from the user perspective, not just data This project showed us how powerful and meaningful technology becomes when it is: - interactive - educational - immersive instead of purely technical.

What's next for Celestial Storyteller — The AI That Explains The Night Sky

This project is only the beginning. Future Enhancements: - constellations & star-path overlays - meteor showers & comets - satellite passes and ISS tracking - Milky Way visibility regions - light-pollution awareness - atmospheric color scattering effects AI storytelling roadmap: - adaptive narration for: - beginners - students - astronomy hobbyists - guided sky-tours - scientific explanations - cultural & historical sky context - multilingual narration I also plan to: - develop a ** mobile-friendly version** - support live sky -view interpretaion - allow voice-guided exploration outdoors My goal is to make astronomy: - more accessible - more magical - more human so every night sky becomes a story waiting to be heard

Built With

Share this project:

Updates