ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY SOFTWARE & WEBSITES

Astrophotography software is essential for planning, capturing, and processing images of celestial objects. Here’s a list of highly regarded software tools across different stages of the astrophotography process:

1. Planning Websites & Software

  • Stellarium (Free): A popular open-source planetarium program that provides a realistic night sky simulation. It helps plan viewing times, check object visibility, and set up for your imaging sessions.
  • SkySafari (Free/$): A mobile app that serves as a comprehensive planetarium tool with advanced planning features, object databases, and telescope control capabilities.
  • Clear Outside (Free): A weather forecast app specifically for astronomers, providing cloud cover, moon phase, and visibility information to help plan sessions.
  • Telescopius.com: Useful in identifying various celestial objects visible from your area.
  • Astronomy.tools: Allows you to check your field of view of a specific target with a particular telescope+camera combination. The site has other helpful tools as well.
  • Astrometry.net. Very useful site funded by NASA and other US and Canadian government science entities. Particularly useful for plate solving nearly any astronomical image to verify location and precisely measure image scale (which can be used to calculate focal length) at nova.astrometry.net.

2. Image Capture and Control Software

  • BackyardEOS / BackyardNIKON ($): Software for controlling Canon (EOS) and Nikon DSLRs, allowing for automated image capture, focusing assistance, and temperature regulation. Ideal for astrophotographers using DSLRs.
  • NINA (Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy) (Free): A feature-rich software for capturing deep-sky images, NINA integrates with various telescopes, cameras, and filter wheels for seamless automation.
  • APT (Astro Photography Tool) (Free/$): A tool for camera control, focusing, and automated imaging sequences. It’s compatible with various DSLR and CCD cameras, offering tools like plate-solving and GoTo control.
  • SharpCap (Free/$): Designed for live stacking and real-time imaging, SharpCap is popular for planetary, lunar, and deep-sky imaging. The Pro version provides advanced features like polar alignment and sensor analysis.
  • Sequence Generator Pro (SGP) ($): Advanced imaging automation software that handles everything from focusing and framing to complex sequencing. It’s compatible with most astrophotography equipment and is well-suited for deep-sky imaging.

3. Autoguiding Software

  • PHD2 Guiding (Free): A widely-used guiding software for autoguiding during long exposures, PHD2 is user-friendly and works with most guide cameras and mounts. It includes features like calibration, multi-star guiding, and guiding analytics.

4. Stacking and Calibration Software

  • DeepSkyStacker (Free): A popular tool for stacking images, particularly for beginners. It combines light frames, dark frames, flat frames, and bias frames to enhance image quality.
  • Siril (Free): An open-source stacking and processing software that offers advanced calibration, registration, and image stacking, with tools for processing and color adjustments.
  • PixInsight ($): A professional-grade software with powerful tools for image stacking, processing, and enhancement. It’s highly customizable and widely used by experienced astrophotographers.
  • Astro Pixel Processor (APP) ($): Known for its intuitive interface and excellent stacking algorithms, APP is ideal for deep-sky processing. It includes tools for calibration, light pollution removal, and gradient reduction.

5. Post-Processing Software

  • Photoshop ($): A powerful image-editing software commonly used in astrophotography for post-processing. It’s useful for color balancing, sharpening, and applying advanced adjustments like layer masks.
  • GIMP (Free): An open-source alternative to Photoshop, GIMP offers many similar features and plugins specific to astrophotography, like layer adjustments, filters, and gradient removal.
  • Affinity Photo ($): A one-time purchase alternative to Photoshop, with robust editing tools, including astrophotography plugins for stacking, noise reduction, and star enhancements.
  • Topaz DeNoise AI ($): A noise-reduction software that uses AI to remove noise while preserving fine details, making it ideal for cleaning up noisy astrophotography images.
  • PixInsight ($): A professional-grade software with powerful tools for image stacking, processing, and enhancement. It’s highly customizable and widely used by experienced astrophotographers.
  • StarTools ($): Dedicated astrophotography post-processing software with an emphasis on user-friendly, semi-automated processing. It includes tools for contrast, color, and detail enhancement.
  • RC Astro: Image enhancement plug-ins for Photoshop and PixInsight

6. Specialized Tools

  • RegiStax (Free): A stacking and processing software mainly used for planetary and lunar images. It’s well-known for its wavelet sharpening, which brings out fine details in planetary images.
  • AutoStakkert! (Free): Specialized software for planetary imaging that stacks video frames to create sharp, detailed images of planets and the Moon. Often used alongside RegiStax for post-stacking enhancement.
  • GradientXTerminator ($): A Photoshop plugin for removing gradients in astrophotography images, particularly useful for light pollution gradients in deep-sky imaging.
  • Astrometry.net (Free, online): An online tool that can identify the field of view of an image (plate-solving), making it useful for identifying objects in wide-field shots or centering specific targets.

ACCESSORIES

Accessory equipment can be instrumental in achieving good results. These include:

Focus Assistance: Electronic Auto-focus devices, Bahtinov mask

Polar Alignment accuracy

Power supply devices

Dew prevention

Filter wheels and drawers that allow rapid change of filters during an imaging session

Guidescopes and cameras allow for accurate object tracking

Off-axis guiders (OAG) helpful for object tracking, as an alternative to a guidescope.

Collimation devices that allow precise adjustment of telescope lenses and mirrors