Gaia Sky Downloads

Release candidates

Gaia Sky 3.5.0-RC4 (2023-05-24) – New release candidate for Gaia Sky 3.5.0 is now available. Release candidates are usually testing versions published before a stable release is made in order to help iron out bugs and problems. You can try them out and report bugs if you encounter them.

(March 15, 2023) Current stable version: 3.4.2

Gaia Sky supports VR since version 2.2.1! However, the VR renderer is currently in alpha. Use the CLI argument gaiasky -vr or use the gaiaskyvr.exe executable (on Windows) to run it. You need an HDM supporting OpenVR.

System		Package	SHA256
	Linux	DEB package (99 MB) RPM package (99 MB) Linux/Unix installer (51 MB) AppImage (95 MB) AUR package - gaiasky Flatpak (Flathub link)	a8637c2417d72ab91173ea2e4a7f492ac8d144742e9254a75769a56ae5f378bb a6b4dd3aceb9a7051f0ebda0b37b4e9bf156ccceeb8a3aae8b13c8c18c86e4a3 cdfc84762638886e19eefe1854e847f3e7c8c48b30bca663c5620925932a6d55 c7719d09fb22c2f442643aaa08316eff4cc538c0b7a2f850e6327bd9b3400bfa - -
	Windows	64-bit installer (96 MB)	7f355f7c2fd70d20bb0672ccb992ff249a9df32006a356eeec0dd4e81f9beb0d
	macOS	DMG package (105 MB)	0dbcbfd48b1a67785cc0aaee81fcad14d91809f0d157a7cf8ff9eace8b9aad8b
	Archive file	TAR.GZ archive file (48 MB)	cae91ce792427234a0f5d3c144cc428287ceea7bf1168e233b26a7b16141cce9
	GIT repository	Source code	-

Release notes  •  Change log  •  Get old versions

Installation instructions

Windows installer

Download the installer and double-click on it. Follow the on-screen instructions. In Windows 8/10 SmartScreen may block the installation. If so, just click on More info and then on Run anyway.

macOS installer

Download and open the DMG file. Drag the Gaia Sky.app application from the mounted drive to your /Applications directory. Our package is not signed, so you may want to have a look at how to open apps from "unidentified developers".

TGZ installation

Uncompress the archive in POSIX systems using:

tar -zxvf gaiasky-[version].tar.gz

DEB package

Run the following in a terminal:

dpkg -i gaiasky-[version].deb

RPM package

Run the following in a terminal:

rpm -ivh --nodigest gaiasky-[version].rpm

AUR package

Use any tool capable of installing packages from AUR. The package name is gaiasky. For example, with yay:

yay -S gaiasky

Flatpak

To install, just do:

flatpak install flathub de.uni_heidelberg.zah.GaiaSky

Run with:

flatpak run de.uni_heidelberg.zah.GaiaSky

AppImage

The AppImage package does not need to be installed. Just download the file, optionally check the digest, give it execution permission, and run it.
Check digest:

sha256 ./GaiaSky_[version].appimage

Give execution permission to your user:

chmod u+x ./GaiaSky_[version].appimage

Run with:

./GaiaSky_[version].appimage

How to run...

Gaia Sky

Use the shortcut provided by your Operating System, or use the gaiasky command from your favourite CLI. If using the Flatpak, see instructions above.

Gaia Sky VR

Use the 'Gaia Sky VR' shortcut in the start menu or gaiaskyvr.exe (Windows) or $ gaiasky -vr from CLI.

Getting the data

The Gaia Sky installation only contains the raw program. If you actually need to run Gaia Sky you will need to download some data (catalogs, 3D models, textures, etc.). To do so, Gaia Sky contains an integrated download manager which pops up at startup. In case you need to run Gaia Sky in a machine without an internet connection or have problems with the built-in downloads, we offer direct downloads for all versions of all data packs. As a general rule of thumb, you should always get the most recent version.

• Gaia Sky data repository