Galileo MobileConnect
Native iOS/iPadOS and Android client apps — plus a Meta Quest 2/3 edition of the Android app — for Galileo, the cross-platform astrophotography imaging application. The apps let you watch and operate a running Galileo observatory from a tablet (the primary target) or a phone — connect equipment, find and centre targets, focus, guide, run and author sessions and schedules, and respond to safety events — without going back to the computer. They operate an observatory; they never configure one.
Status: In Design (a feasibility spike of the Meta Quest VR client on the Quest 2 has succeeded and the VR client is confirmed). The iOS app runs on the simulator against a scripted mock Master, with connection, pairing, the shell, safety and emergency, and the Overview, Equipment, Sky, Imaging, Focus, Solve, Guiding, Flip, Sessions and Safety screens: every MVP screen. It has also been tested against the draft MobileConnect plugin on Galileo's real server code with fake devices, and has paired with a mock Master from a real iPad, but hasn't yet run with real equipment. Android and Quest have not started. The design documents are drafted and under review. See Status.
What it does
| Area | From the app |
|---|
| Overview | Live state and activity timelines for every Pier of the observatory |
| Equipment | Connect devices; mount, camera, filter wheel, rotator, dome, flat panel, switches |
| Imaging | Capture, live preview with stretch, histogram, star statistics |
| Sky | Planetarium view, target search, go-to, framing and mosaics |
| Solving and focus | Plate solve and centre; manual focus and autofocus (through Galileo's focus module); polar alignment |
| Guiding and flips | Start/stop guiding, dither; see and manage a meridian flip |
| Sessions and schedule | Run, pause and stop sessions; author and edit sessions and the multi-night schedule |
| Safety | See every safety input; acknowledge an event; one-touch stop and park |
| Library | Browse recent sessions and frames as previews; history and charts |
Not in the app: equipment profiles, Observatories, safety limits, Options and plugin settings. Those stay on the desktop (or reach other nodes through Galileo's NodeConnect).
How it fits together
iPad / iPhone / Android tablet or phone
│ (this repository)
│ encrypted, paired, token-authenticated — Galileo "Connect Link"
▼
Galileo MASTER node ── MobileConnect plugin ── Control Surface ── Galileo core services
│
└── relays to paired spoke nodes (opt-in per node)
- The app talks only to the Master node and operates every paired node through it. A single-node installation is a Master with no spokes.
- Pairing is a request from the app, approved on the Master, which then issues the app a token. An unpaired app is refused.
- The server side is the MobileConnect plugin, drafted in Galileo-Plugins and not published yet; its scope is in the Galileo repository at
docs/plugins/mobileconnect/PSD.md. The wire API (api/: OpenAPI plus an event schema) is the contract between the two.
- The browser equivalent is Galileo WebConnect.
Repository layout
This is one monorepo for both platforms, sharing as much as possible below the UI. Not all of it exists yet (tools/, design/, quest/, docs/android/ and docs/quest/ are planned).
docs/ PSD, SRS and RTM (common to both apps); SDD.md = shared architecture
docs/ios/SDD.md iOS/iPadOS design
docs/android/SDD.md Android design
docs/quest/SDD.md Meta Quest 2/3 design (immersive planetarium and image viewer)
docs/analysis/ analyses, e.g. QuestVR.md
api/ the contract: openapi.yaml, events.schema.json, test vectors, mock-Master scenarios
scripts/ sync_api.py (copies the contract to each generator), gen_rtm.py
tools/mock-master/ standalone scripted Master for contract tests (planned)
ios/ Swift / SwiftUI app; Packages/GalileoAPI (generated), Packages/GalileoCore (hand-written)
android/ Kotlin / Jetpack Compose app; api-client (generated), core (hand-written, pure Kotlin)
quest/ Meta Quest 2/3 edition (reuses android/core and the Android panel screens)
design/ design tokens, icons, strings
Meta Quest edition
An edition for Meta Quest headsets (Android-based), with the Quest 2 as the primary target and initial test device — inexpensive second-hand headsets make a dedicated astronomy device realistic — and Quest 3-specific support added later according to use. Version 1 runs the operating screens as floating panels and adds two immersive scenes — a full-dome planetarium around you and a large image viewer — operated with controllers or hands, with camera passthrough one gesture away and no dependence on Google services. Its data is streamed from the Master, which must be a PC or Mac (a Raspberry Pi can be a paired spoke behind it). It has its own design document and is distributed through the Meta Horizon Store, with side-loading through SideQuest as a supported fall-back should the store no longer serve the headset. See the PSD, Section 4a, and the VR opportunities analysis.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
