The Astro List

The Astro List

  • APT - AKA AstroPhotography Tool. Can control Canon, Nikon and CCDs, It has a time-unlimited version that includes the biggest part of the features.

  • Backyard EOS - for DSLR camera control, a good value but does have all the bells and whistles of some others.

  • Stellarium - free software that lets you input your coordinates and will show you when objects will be up and at what time.

  • DeepSkyStacker - for stacking multiple exposures together into one image.

  • StarTools - post-processing software written by /u/verylongtimelurker

  • PixInsight - post-processing software

  • Photoshop CS2 - free from Adobe but requires you to make an Adobe ID

  • Registax - planetary video processing/stacking software

  • Autostakkert! 2 - planetary video stacking software

  • Microsoft ICE - mosaic/composite image stitching software

  • FITS Liberator - FIT -> TIFF file converter

  • Virtual Dub - video converting software, requires plugin for .MOV -> .AVI

  • Astrotortilla - calibrate your GoTo tracking mount, GoTo any target with arcsecond accuracy and measure your polar alignment error

  • PHD1 PHD2 - guiding software to correct mount errors for longer exposures.

  • PIPP - Planetary imaging pre-processor, good for shaving down file sizes with cropped, stabilized planetary shots

  • iMerge - Used for one-click image stitching with border feathering & Histogram

  • StarStax - used for creating star trail images

  • Lykeos - free planetary stacker (OSx)

  • EQMOD - a suite of open source applications that can provide an alternative to the hand controller

  • Sequence Generator Pro - image capture suite for astrophotography, my personal favorite and what I use.

  • SharpCap 2 - Flexible image capturing software, records in raw, uncompressed files

  • FireCapture - Simple image capturing software that re-sizes video resolution automatically & has auto align & dark frame reduction features

  • Winjupos - planetary processing software for derotation/mapping/planetary moon alignment

  • digiCamControl - Free camera control for those with Nikon DSLRs.

  • PEMPro - periodic error correction, polar alignment and backlash using your CCD Camera or Webcam

  • Sofortbild - Free capture control for mac + nikon.

  • DSLR Shutter - Free sequence capture control for Mac/PC + lots of DSLRs. You need a shutter control interface, like this one in order to use this with a nikon however.

  • Nebulosity 3 - $80 capture and processing software for Mac/PC. Supports a bunch of Canon DSLRs and astro cams.

  • MicroObservatory - A piece of software that is meant to be used to process images from MicroObservatory.org, it's not really good for much else, but it does a damned good job of teaching people the basics of processing RGB FITS data.

  • MaximDL - Great CCD Camera control software and decent processing power too.

  • CCDOPS - The software that comes with sBig CCD cameras also available separately.

  • Astronomer Control Panel - Remote imaging software.

  • CCD Stack - Stacking software for CCD images

  • SkySolve - Plate Solving software.

  • CCD Imaging Calculators - For calculating all things related to CCD imaging (FOV/pixel size/etc)

  • Gemini Controller Software - For those that use Gemini controlled mounts

  • Astro Planner - for planning/logging/visualizing astrophotography sessions

  • GIMP - post processing/image editing software

  • Lin Guider - guiding for Linux

  • sbigControl - relatively cheap sbig camera control program. can drive sbig adaptive optics devices.

  • AstroImager - AstroImager is a powerful, but easy to use image capture application for the astrophotography. (OSX)

  • AstroTelescope - AstroTelescope, is a simple planetarium and telescope control application for the astrophotography. (OSX)

  • AstroGuider - AstroGuider is a simple to use guiding application for your telescope mount. It can be calibrated semi-automatically or manually, you do not need to take care about camera orientation or pixel scale. (OSX)

Plugins for Photoshop:

Plugins for GIMP:

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