# Getting Started

Welcome to **Astronomy API**, a web API for retrieving astronomical information.

## Obtaining an Application ID and a Secret

To make API calls, you will first need to create an account. Go to the [Signup](http://astronomyapi.com/auth/signup) page to create your free account.

After creating an account, you must obtain an `Application ID` and an `Application Secret` key by clicking the `"Create Application"` button from your dashboard. You will be directed to the "View Application" page for the application you just created.

The `Application Secret` is visible to you only once during application creation. Save it somewhere because there's no way to retrieve it back. If you lost your secret create a new application and delete the old application.

You will use the `Application ID` and the `Application Secret` to authenticate with the Astronomy API with Basic Authentication.

You can view your `Application ID` later, by clicking the name of the specific application on the [dashboard](http://astronomyapi.com/dashboard).

{% hint style="info" %}
Be sure to set the `Origin` to the domain of the website when creating an application. If you're planning to use the API on a webpage. The API will respond with a `Access Allow Origin` header with the domain you provide. 

This is needed if you're calling the API from a web page client since web browsers need CORS setup for remote requests to work.
{% endhint %}

## Basic Authentication

When making API calls to endpoints requiring authentication, you must use the above credentials to create a string that must be used as the authentication string. The algorithm to create the string is very simple. Below are implementations of several commonly used languages.

#### JS

```typescript
const authString = btoa(`applicationId:applicationSecret`);
```

#### PHP

```php
$authString = base64_encode("applicationId:applicationSecret");
```

#### Python

```python
import base64
userpass = "applicationId:applicationSecret"
authString = base64.b64encode(userpass.encode()).decode()
```

The encrypted string must be provided in the API request's `Authorization` header, after the term `Basic` followed by a space.

```markup
"Authorization: Basic YourAuthStringHere"
```

In an event of an authentication failure, a `403 Forbidden` response will be returned, which probably means you encrypted the string incorrectly, or your credentials are wrong.

Successful requests always respond with HTTP code `200`.

### Sample curl request

```bash
curl --location --request GET 'https://api.astronomyapi.com/api/v2/bodies' 
\ --header 'Authorization: Basic YourAuthStringHere' 
```

For code samples and demos go to [demo.astronomyapi.com](http://demo.astronomyapi.com)

Need help with something? or noticed a bug? [Please create a ticket on Github](https://github.com/AstronomyAPI/Samples/issues)


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.astronomyapi.com/readme.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.