inoribea/astroquery-mcp-server

Astroquery MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides access to astronomical data through the astroquery-cli tool, enabling AI assistants to perform professional astronomical queries.

🌟 Features

• Complete astroquery-cli integration: Access all astronomical databases (SIMBAD, Gaia, VizieR, MAST, NED, IRSA, ALMA)
• Dynamic command discovery: Automatically detects available commands and subcommands
• Zero maintenance: Updates automatically when astroquery-cli is updated
• Async execution: Supports long-running queries with timeout protection
• Rich output formatting: Preserves all output formatting and error information

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• astroquery-cli installed and accessible in PATH

Installation

# Install astroquery-cli if not already installed
pip install astroquery-cli

# Install the MCP server
pip install -e .

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to your Claude Desktop config file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "astroquery": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "astroquery_mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PATH": "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
      }
    }
  }
}

📚 Usage Examples

Once connected, you can ask Claude to perform astronomical queries:

• "Query SIMBAD for information about the Andromeda Galaxy M31"
• "Search for stars in Gaia catalog near coordinates RA=12h30m, Dec=+41°16'"
• "Cross-match my observation data with the 2MASS catalog"
• "Get ALMA archive data for NGC 1068"

🛠️ Available Tools

The server provides these MCP tools:

• astroquery_simbad: Query the SIMBAD astronomical database
• astroquery_gaia: Search the Gaia star catalog
• astroquery_vizier: Query VizieR catalog service
• astroquery_mast: Access MAST (Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes)
• astroquery_ned: Query NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
• astroquery_irsa: Access IRSA (Infrared Science Archive)
• astroquery_alma: Query ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) archive
• astroquery_execute: Execute any astroquery-cli command directly

🔧 Development

Local Development Setup

git clone https://github.com/inoribea/astroquery-mcp-server.git
cd astroquery-mcp-server
pip install -e .

Running the Server

python -m astroquery_mcp

📖 Documentation

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• astroquery-cli - The underlying astronomical query tool
• Model Context Protocol - The protocol that makes this integration possible

⭐ Support

If you find this project useful, please consider giving it a star on GitHub!