Ikarus Observatory is possible thanks to a number of important Open Source technologies. Powered by Linux (Raspberry PI), INDI, and Ekos, Ikarus Observatory serves as an excellent example of the power of open source.

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Linux or GNU/Linux is a free and open source software Unix-like operating system for computers. An operating system is a collection of the basic instructions that manage the electronic parts of the computer allowing running application programs.

INDIINDI is a protocol that supports control, automation, data acquisition and exchange among hardware devices and software frontends. It enables hardware drivers for your astronomy equipment to run on multiple different clients locally and remotely and on a variety of hardware, from your personal computer or laptop, to single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi. Clients are the graphical frontends you use to control your astronomical devices.

Clients can include your planetarium program, smart phone or tablet clients, or guiding applications such as OpenPHD2...etc. INDI was designed from the ground up to be network enabled, and therefore remote control is built-in without requiring any 3rd party software. INDI Clients connect to INDI servers to show information on the devices and enable the user to control them. 

Ekos is an advanced Astrophotography tool for Linux. It is based on a modular extensible framework to perform common astrophotography tasks. This includes highly accurate GOTOs using astrometry solver, ability to measure  and  correct polar alignment errors , auto-focus & auto-guide capabilities, and capture of single or stack of images with filter wheel support. Ekos is shipped with KStars.