PanoRyseCredits and data sources
Every picture, catalogue, model and online service that PanoRyse or this website uses and did not make itself: who made it, its licence, what we changed, and whether it is included or an optional download from its provider.
This page follows the credits inside the program (Help > About, the Sky Atlas Credits section and Settings > Models & Data Packs) and the file THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md that comes with PanoRyse. Licence terms were checked on each provider's own web page on 11 November 2026. Where the program's notes still list a catalogue as shipped, this page is the newer statement: the release ships no data that needs the provider's permission.
- On this website
- Built into the program
- Catalogues and data packs
- Online services
- Code and patents
- A note on catalogue terms
On this website
- Screenshots are rendered from PanoRyse 3.5 itself.
- Pictures inside the screenshots, the illustrations and the artwork are Aetheler Labs' own: AI-generated pictures made by Jim Jose (Aetheler Labs) for PanoRyse with Grok (xAI). We cropped the generator's logo off each one. The alpine lake panorama and the aerial mosaic are stitched from overlapping frames cut out of one picture each. The icon is Aetheler Labs' own work.
- Cosmos screenshots: the galaxies are PanoRyse's own models, and the distances on their labels are published measurements. The corner line credits the program's Earth picture: NASA Visible Earth, Blue Marble (Reto Stöckli, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; enhancements by Robert Simmon), not subject to copyright in the United States (NASA media guidelines); its use does not imply NASA's endorsement.
- No picture on this site draws stars from the Hipparcos, Tycho-2 or Gaia catalogues. Screenshots that did are withdrawn until they are rendered again with open star data.
Built into the program
These are part of PanoRyse.exe. Every one is Included: our own work, published facts, public domain, or under an open licence that needs only the credit given here (and, for the lens profiles, that our derived table keeps the same licence).
| What | Made by | Licence | What we changed | Used for | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Constellation stick figures (15 KB) | Olaf Frohn, d3-celestial (2015) | BSD 3-Clause | Converted to PanoRyse's own binary format | Constellation lines in the Sky Atlas and plate-solve overlays | Included |
| IAU Catalog of Star Names (9 KB) | IAU Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) | CC BY 4.0 | Names and Hipparcos numbers only, as a table | Star names | Included |
| All-sky Milky Way picture (184 KB) | ESO/S. Brunier, eso0932a | CC BY 4.0 | Point stars removed, rotated 3.8 degrees to fit the Hipparcos stars, resampled to 2048 x 1024 | The Milky Way in Earth Sky and Cosmos | Included |
| Earth picture (106 KB) | NASA Visible Earth, Blue Marble, record 57752 (Reto Stöckli; Robert Simmon) | Public domain in the United States (NASA guidelines) | Resized | The Earth globe | Included |
| Planet positions 1800 to 2200 (603 KB) | Fitted by PanoRyse to NASA JPL's DE440 ephemeris (Park et al. 2021, AJ 161, 105) | JPL publishes DE440 without stated restrictions; treated as public domain, credit JPL | Our own Chebyshev series, within 0.47 arcseconds of DE440 | Planets and Pluto, offline | Included |
| Moon theory | ELP-2000/82 (M. Chapront-Touzé and J. Chapront 1983), main terms as tabulated in J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms (1998) | Published coefficients (facts) | Written into our own code | The Moon's position and phase | Included |
| Dwarf planets and large asteroids | Orbital elements from the JPL Small-Body Database, queried 27 October 2026 | NASA/JPL, no stated restrictions | A few elements per body in our code | Orbits in the Cosmos view | Included |
| Deep-sky objects (201, reduced table) | Positions from CDS SIMBAD; distances from the published papers named in the table and from NED | Facts, with acknowledgement | Compiled by PanoRyse; the RC3 galaxy sizes are not built in (see packs) | Deep-sky labels and distances | Included |
| Info card facts of named bodies | Discoveries (IAU Minor Planet Center; history), albedos, rotation periods and measured shapes from the papers cited on each card | Facts | Summarised in our own words | The Sky Atlas info cards | Included |
| Lens profiles (1.2 MB) | The Lensfun contributors, lens database | CC BY-SA 3.0; our derived table is under the same licence | Converted from XML to compact JSON; vignetting reduced to the largest focus distance per focal length and aperture | Automatic distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration corrections | Included |
| XFeat feature network weights (2.6 MB) | G. Potje, F. Cadar, A. Araujo, R. Martins, E. R. Nascimento, "XFeat" (CVPR 2024) | Apache 2.0 | Tensors written as 32-bit floats in our format; the fine matcher left out. Run by PanoRyse's own code | The XFeat matching options | Included |
| Camera colour matrices (52 bodies) | Fitted by PanoRyse from rawtoaces-data (Academy Software Foundation) and the CIE 1931 colour-matching functions (CIE 2019) | Apache 2.0; CIE data CC BY 4.0 | Our own fit; the spectral data is not shipped | Camera RAW colour | Included |
| Rotation poles, prime meridians, planet magnitudes | IAU WGCCRE report (Archinal et al. 2018); Mallama and Hilton (2018) | Published facts | Written into our own code | Planet orientation and brightness | Included |
| Asteroid, Kuiper and Oort belts | Shaped after Murray and Dermott (1999), Bannister et al. (2018, OSSOS) and Oort (1950) | Published facts | Statistical models, labelled so; not individual asteroids | The belts in Cosmos | Included |
Catalogues and data packs
Optional data lives outside the program, in a models folder, and is managed from Settings > Models & Data Packs. Each item is one of two kinds:
- Included: open data (our own, public domain, CC0, or an open licence that needs only credit), shipped with PanoRyse and credited here with its licence.
- Optional: you download it from the provider; their terms apply. Anything under a non-commercial licence, anything that needs the provider's permission, and anything whose terms are unclear. PanoRyse does not ship it, host it or pass on a converted copy. When you ask, PanoRyse shows the provider, the licence with a link, and that the data comes from them under their terms, then downloads it straight from the provider's own address to your computer and processes it there.
PanoRyse is moving its built-in stars to an open catalogue (for example the Yale Bright Star Catalogue, if its terms allow), so star charts work before you download anything.
| Item | Source | Size | Licence or terms | Used for | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Learned star remover | PanoRyse's own network, trained on our own synthetic skies and on star-stripped open pictures (credits below) | 3.9 MB | Aetheler Labs' own weights; training pictures CC0, public domain, CC BY 2.0 and CC BY 4.0 | Star Tools, learned engine | Included |
| Depth model | Depth Anything V2 Small, L. Yang, B. Kang, Z. Huang, Z. Zhao, X. Xu, J. Feng, H. Zhao (NeurIPS 2024); encoder from DINOv2 (Meta AI) | 49.6 MB | Apache 2.0 (the Small model only; the larger models are non-commercial and not used). Changed only to half-precision floats | Develop > Depth & Lens Blur, depth masks | Included |
| Subject selection model | U²-NetP, X. Qin et al. (Pattern Recognition 2020) | 4.7 MB | Apache 2.0 weights; the licence of the pictures it was trained on is not stated | Select Subject, Select Sky | Optional: you download it from the authors, github.com/xuebinqin/U-2-Net; their terms apply |
| Deep star catalogue | Tycho-2 (E. Høg et al. 2000, A&A 355, L27; ESA) | About 25 MB once read | The provider's terms: CDS gives it free for scientific use with acknowledgement; commercial use depends on its origin (ESA) | Plate solving telescope fields under 6 degrees | Optional: you download it from CDS Strasbourg, catalogue I/259; their terms apply |
| Hipparcos star catalogue | The Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues (ESA 1997, ESA SP-1200); PanoRyse reads the 82,984 stars to magnitude 9 | About 1.3 MB once read | The provider's terms: free for scientific use with acknowledgement; ESA's archive licence is CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO | Plate solving, star charts, the Sky Atlas | Optional: you download it from CDS Strasbourg, catalogue I/239 (or its VizieR mirrors at IDIA and the CfA); their terms apply |
| Hipparcos parallaxes | F. van Leeuwen (2007, A&A 474, 653) | About 330 KB once read | The provider's terms: free for scientific use with acknowledgement | Star distances in Cosmos | Optional: you download it from CDS Strasbourg, catalogue I/311; their terms apply |
| Constellation boundaries | N. G. Roman (1987, PASP 99, 695) | About 6 KB once read | The provider's terms: free for scientific use with acknowledgement | Which constellation a point is in; boundary lines | Optional: you download it from CDS Strasbourg, catalogue VI/42; their terms apply |
| Galaxy sizes | RC3 (G. de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991, Springer) | About 23 KB once read | The provider's terms (scientific use) | Galaxy outlines and magnitudes | Optional: you download it from CDS Strasbourg, catalogue VII/155; their terms apply |
| Nearby stars | Gaia DR3 (ESA, Gaia DPAC), a selection you choose | 16 bytes a star | CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO: non-commercial | Fainter stars at their real places in Cosmos | Optional: you download it from the ESA Gaia Archive; their terms apply |
| Light pollution grid | VIIRS Day/Night Band night lights (Earth Observation Group, NOAA, NASA) | Planned | To be confirmed per product (many are CC BY 4.0) | Bortle class and sky brightness, offline | Optional (planned): you download it from the Earth Observation Group; their terms apply |
| World places | GeoNames cities | Planned | CC BY 4.0, credit "GeoNames (geonames.org)" | Place names from coordinates, offline | Included when published (open licence with credit) |
| Depth grid | A grid you make | Your own | Your own data | Moves the photo surface in 3D View | Your own file, placed in the models folder |
Pictures the learned star remover was trained on
The network learned from pairs our generator made: rendered stars added to a starless background. The backgrounds are our own procedural nebulae and these open-licence pictures, with their stars removed first. None of the pictures ships with PanoRyse.
- Poly Haven HDRI rogland_clear_night (CC0 1.0).
- ESA/Hubble heic0406a (NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team); ESA/Webb weic2205a, weic2208a (NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI) and weic2216a (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; J. DePasquale, A. Koekemoer, A. Pagan (STScI)); ESO eso0932a (ESO/S. Brunier). All CC BY 4.0.
- From Wikimedia Commons: Chuck Ayoub (six pictures), Stephen Rahn, Astroclubkosova and Andrew Coelho (CC0); Rogelio B. Andreo with NASA, ESA and STScI, and Joshua Tree National Park (public domain); Andy Weeks (CC BY 2.0); CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/B. Tafreshi, KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/B. Tafreshi, Zdeněk Bardon/ESO, D. Gadotti/ESO, ESO/B. Tafreshi, G. Hüdepohl/ESO, ESO/S. Brunier, R. Wesson/ESO, Aruncmohan1987 and Manikantan Karyavattom (CC BY 4.0).
Online services
PanoRyse works offline. It contacts these services only when you ask, through one guarded connection that sends the program's name and version and what the request needs (for example the place or sky area you asked about), nothing else about you or your computer. The one exception is the licence check, below. The size is the largest reply PanoRyse accepts.
| Service | Operator | Size | Terms | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Map tiles | OpenStreetMap (tile.openstreetmap.org, vector.openstreetmap.org), data © OpenStreetMap contributors | 4 MB a tile | ODbL; tile usage policy | Drone flight maps, building outlines |
| Building heights | OpenFreeMap (OpenMapTiles, OpenStreetMap data) | 4 MB a tile | Free, with credit to OpenFreeMap, OpenMapTiles and OpenStreetMap | 3D buildings in the drone and terrain views |
| Building outlines | Overpass API servers (overpass.kumi.systems, overpass-api.de, maps.mail.ru) | 32 MB | OpenStreetMap data, ODbL; each server's usage policy | Buildings when the vector tiles do not arrive |
| Terrain heights | Mapzen / AWS Terrain Tiles (SRTM, GMTED, ETOPO1 and national elevation data) | 4 MB a tile | Open data; credits per source in the attribution list | The real horizon, terrain under flights |
| Place search | OpenStreetMap Nominatim | 1 MB | ODbL; at most one request a second | Finding a place by name |
| Satellite orbits | CelesTrak (T. S. Kelso), from the US Space Force's public catalogue | 64 MB | Free access; usage policy on how often to download | Satellite passes and trail names |
| Comet and asteroid orbits | IAU Minor Planet Center | 64 MB | Made freely available by the MPC | Comets and asteroids in the Sky Atlas |
| Star catalogues | CDS Strasbourg (VizieR), with the mirrors at IDIA and the CfA | 128 MB | Free for scientific use with acknowledgement; see the catalogues above | Downloading the optional catalogues you choose, straight to your computer |
| Name lookup | CDS Sesame and SIMBAD | 16 MB | Free, with acknowledgement | "Look up online" in the Sky Atlas |
| Archive observations | STScI MAST | 16 MB | Most MAST data CC0; some collections have their own terms | Archive images that cover a solved field (off until you turn it on) |
| Blind plate solving | Astrometry.net (Lang et al. 2010) | 16 MB | The service's own terms; your key stays in memory | Solving a field with no hint (off until you turn it on; sends a star list, a picture only if you choose) |
| AI providers | Google Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, with your own key; or a model server on your computer | 16 MB | The provider's terms, under your own account | AI Assist, only when you choose a cloud model and press Send |
| Update check | GitHub releases | 1 MB | GitHub's terms | Check for Updates, when you choose it |
| Licence check | Aetheler Labs' licence server (not switched on yet) | 16 KB | Our own service | At most every 20 days while a Pro licence is active; sends the licence ID, a hash of a random value made at install, and a one-time number |
Code and patents
- This product includes DNG technology under license by Adobe, under Adobe's royalty-free DNG Patent License.
- Some RAW decoders are adapted from LightCraft (ArtCraft Team and the LightCraft contributors, MIT); PanoRyse is replacing them with its own.
- Formats our own decoders do not yet cover are read with rawler and rawloader (LGPL 2.1), and JPEG XL tiles in DNG files with jxl-oxide (MIT or Apache 2.0).
- The other Rust libraries PanoRyse is built with are listed, with their licences, in the files that come with the program.
A note on catalogue terms
Several star catalogues come from the European Space Agency through CDS Strasbourg. CDS gives them free for scientific use with acknowledgement and says commercial use depends on the origin; ESA's terms for its science archives use the CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO licence, and so do Gaia data. So PanoRyse ships none of these catalogues. You download them yourself from the provider, PanoRyse first shows whose data it is and under which licence, and the data stays under the provider's terms on your computer.
Questions about credits, or a credit we got wrong? Write to support@panoryse.com.