The full upstream README, mirrored here for reference. Install config, tool schemas, adoption signals, and an original overview live on the Usno Astronomy listing page.
Solar eclipses, local eclipse circumstances, Moon phases and the seasons from the US Naval Observatory's Astronomical Applications API. Answers "when is the next solar eclipse", "what time does the eclipse start in Madrid", "when is the next full moon" and "when is the summer solstice" from the official ephemeris.
Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1684+ live data sources.
usno_solar_eclipses(year?) — the solar eclipses in a year with date and
type (total, annular, partial, hybrid). With no arguments it returns the
next eclipse after today. Lunar eclipses are not published by this API.usno_eclipse_circumstances(date, lat, lon, height?) — what a solar eclipse
looks like from one place: magnitude, obscuration, duration, and the UT
time, Sun altitude and azimuth of each contact. found:false with
reason:"not_visible" when the eclipse cannot be seen from there.usno_moon_phases(year? | date?, count?) — every New Moon, First Quarter,
Full Moon and Last Quarter in a year, or the next count phases from a
date, plus next_full_moon / next_new_moon.usno_seasons(year?) — equinoxes, solstices, perihelion and aphelion for a
year, with northern-hemisphere season names attached.Keyless.
/api/moon/phases/date?date=YYYY-MM-DD&nump=N — Moon phases.Things the next person would otherwise rediscover:
time_note.{"error": ...}. Every error, including "eclipse not visible
from selected location", comes back as 200 + error, so the pack reads
the body rather than the status.height must be an integer number of metres; a decimal is rejected.loc= place-name form of the circumstances endpoint answers "Please
supply valid coordinates" — pass coords=lat,lon and resolve place names
first./api/eclipses/lunar/* is 404).Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):
tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/usno-astronomy/mcp returns the tools in the table
above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx,
discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the
gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a
single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the
pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and
is the authoritative answer for a given day.
This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a
scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via
ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a
second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without
them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth,
connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.
Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:
Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1684+ data sources. The
only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx
reaches all of them from either one.
No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/usno_solar_eclipses. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.
This package also runs as a local stdio MCP server — no Pipeworx account, no gateway round-trip:
Or run it directly to confirm it starts:
It speaks MCP over stdin/stdout and answers initialize/tools/list/tools/call
for only this pack's tools — none of the shared meta-tools the gateway
connection above adds. Same source, same tools, no ask_pipeworx routing.
Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:
The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.
MIT