AR developer (Flutter)

We’re building an AR Milky Way overlay for BortleBuddy, a dark-sky park finder & astrophotography planning app. We need an experienced AR developer (Flutter) who knows celestial mechanics and can deliver a reliable MVP quickly — with potential for long-term collaboration.

🔭 Project Summary

Create a Flutter-based AR feature that overlays the Milky Way (and other sky information as needed) accurately on a live camera view. Think Star Walk / Sky Map but optimized for astrophotography planning (precise position for composition, framing, and timing).

Outcome: Working AR Milky Way feature integrated into the existing Flutter app.

🛠 What You’ll Build

• Real-time AR overlay of the Milky Way polygon (provided mw.json) aligned to the device camera.
• Accurate celestial coordinate transforms (RA/Dec → Alt/Az) using device sensors (GPS, gyroscope, magnetometer).
• Smooth sensor fusion and drift compensation for reliable overlays.
• UI hooks for toggling overlays, time scrub, and basic calibration tools.
• Integration with the existing Flutter codebase (native ARCore/ARKit via plugin such as ar_flutter_plugin or custom platform channels if needed).

📚 Must-Have Experience

• AR development with ARCore/ARKit (or ar_flutter_plugin) and Flutter integration.
• Strong knowledge of astronomical calculations (coordinate transforms RA/Dec ↔ Alt/Az).
• Proven experience building planetarium/sky apps or celestial positioning systems.
• Familiar with sensor fusion (compass, gyro, GPS) and dealing with noisy mobile sensors.
• Clean, testable code and experience shipping cross-platform mobile features.

👍 Strongly Preferred

• Experience with astronomy libraries (Astronomy Engine, VSOP87, astronomia, etc.).
• Knowledge of Jean Meeus algorithms or equivalent accuracy methods.
• Experience using visualization tools like d3-celestial (or similar) for reference.
• Prior work optimizing AR for battery and performance.
• Open-source contributions to astronomy or planetarium projects (bonus).

🏁 Development Approach & Timeline

We follow a rapid, iterative vibecoding pace:

• Week 1 — POC: Basic AR overlay working in simple scenes (sensor fusion + mw.json overlay).
• Week 2 — Accuracy: Improve astronomical accuracy, time scrubbing, calibration.
• Week 3 — Polish: UI/UX polish, smoothing, visuals, and performance tweaks.
• Week 4 — Ship: Integration, QA, documentation, handoff.

Estimated effort: ~70–90 hours across 4 weeks.

📦 Deliverables

• Integrated AR Milky Way feature in the Flutter app (iOS & Android).
• Source code, build instructions, and platform channel/native code if used.
• Short technical doc describing algorithms, calibration approach, and known limitations.
• Sample test scenarios and a checklist for QA (accuracy tests, device list).

💡 Why This Project?

• You’ll build a feature used by the astrophotography community to plan real shoots.
• Short, focused MVP with clear scope and fast feedback loops.
• Opportunity for continued work on BortleBuddy after MVP.

Let’s build a precise, beautiful sky overlay for astrophotographers. 🌌