stleary

This plugin displays data of interest to amateur astronomers. It is calculated from user-provided location and date information. 
The plugin is called from a WordPress shortcode, and the parameters are specified in the shortcode. The following parameters are 
required, in any order:
<ul>
<li>lat : Lattitude of location in fractional degrees (e.g. 30.8910). Positive is north, negative is south of equator</li>
<li>long : Longitude of location in fractional degrees (e.g.-98.4265). Positive is east, negative is west of the UTC line</li>
<li>timezone : Timezone name, must be value recognized by PHP. See <a href="http://php.net/manual/en/timezones.php" rel="nofollow ugc">http://php.net/manual/en/timezones.php</a></li>
</ul>
These parameters are optional:
<ul>
<li>name : The name of the location to be calculated</li>
<li>days : The number of days of data to display. Must be a value from 1 to 10. Defaults to 3 if not specified. </li>
</ul>
Shortcode Examples:
<ul>
<li>stars-at-night name=Chennai lat=13.08 long=80.26 timezone=Asia/Kolkata days=1</li>
<li>stars-at-night name=”COE Observing Field” lat=30.891 long=-97.4265 timezone=America/Chicago days=10</li>
</ul>
You can also display the individual data tables via more specific shortcodes:
<ul>
<li>stars-at-night-sun-moon name=”Mount Kilimanjaro” lat=-2.55 long=37.55 timezone=Africa/Nairobi</li>
<li>stars-at-night-planets name=”Ushuaia” lat=-54.8 long=-68.33 timezone=America/Argentina/Ushuaia</li>
<li>stars-at-night-iss name=”Mount Burnett Observatory” lat=-37.9 long=145.4 timezone=Australia/Melbourne days=7</li>
</ul>
The output consists of simple HTML tables:
<ul>
<li>Sun/Moon table: The times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, morning astronomical twilight, and evening astronomical twilight for the specified days (max 10 days).</li>
<li>Planets table: The times and visibility for the planets, for the current day.</li>
<li>ISS table: The times and directions for visible ISS passes over the specified days (max 10 days).</li>
<li>(REMOVED) Iridium flares table: The times and directions for visible Iridium flares over the specified days (max 7 days).</li>
</ul>
You can view the plugin in action here: <a href="http://johnjleary.com/notforlong" rel="nofollow ugc">http://johnjleary.com/notforlong</a>
Credits and Acknowledgements:
<ul>
<li>Lunar images by <a href="mailto://Dan@danmorgan.org" rel="nofollow ugc">Dan Morgan</a>. Used with permission. <a href="http://DanMorgan.org" rel="nofollow ugc">http://DanMorgan.org</a>.</li>
<li>WordPress framework and sunrise/sunset algorithm: https://github.com/bengreeley/sunrisesunset</li>
<li>Moonrise and Moonset class (with a correction for timezone): http://dxprog.com/entry/calculate-moon-rise-and-set-in-php</li>
<li>Moon phase class: https://github.com/solarissmoke/php-moon-phase</li>
<li>Planetary, ISS and Iridium Flare tables are obtained by sending GET requests to: http://heavens-above.com (HTTP API used with permission)</li>
<li>Per-table shortcodes implemented by Peter Lieverdink</li>
</ul>
<h3>Contributors</h3>
stleary 
Peter Lieverdink

The Stars at Night

Stars-at-night displays astronomical data for a specified location and date.

DaWoody

The Astronomy Picture Of the Day plugin fetches data from the NASA open API and specifically data from Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD). The data can then be presented within posts/pages through the use of short-codes added to the editor in text-mode. The data is fetched through javascript AJAX calls, and stored within the browser as a cookie for caching purposes. 
Currently the plugin uses the public <code>DEMO_KEY</code> for requests towards the open API, and as mentioned then stores the data as cookies for the next 24 hours, this to lessen the request load on the API and also possibly help the wordpress user to a smoother experience.
How to use: 
After activating the plugin, go to your post/page, go to editor mode, and then either add <code>[astronomy-picture-of-the-day]</code> or <code>[astronomy-picture-of-the-day-hd]</code> to generate a html block consisting of a container div, with a title, the apod image and its explanation. 
All elements receive css classes so they can be styled independently by the WordPress developer. 
Within the admin interface the specific <code>css</code> classes that gets added are mentioned.

Astronomy Picture Of the Day

A plugin that fetches data from NASA's open API regarding the Astronomy Picture Of the Day to be used within posts/pages

The Stars at Night vs Astronomy Picture Of the Day