Software is going to be a vital part of your astrophotography hobby. From planning in advance, controlling your equipment, processing your data and finally the weather. Here is the best software for astrophotography I’ve found.
- Planning
- Image Acquisition
- Processing
- Weather
Planning
Planning your night is essential. These apps will let you know what objects will be able to scene at a given time and date. As the seasons change, so do the planets and deep sky objects in their position in the night sky. Don’t forget a full moon as well.
Stellarium
Stellarium is my go to planetarium application. Stellarium will show you the sky from your location. You can add your telescope or lens which will allow you to preview how a target will appear in your FOV. Stellarium can also control your mount.
Download Stellarium for free here.
SkySafari
SkySafari is what I use on my phone. Under search it has a “Tonight’s Best” section which includes all objects that will be in the night sky at some time during the night. I’ve paid for the “Plus” version to also allow control of my mount.
Image Acquisition
Now image acquisition software probably won’t be needed if you are just using a DSLR on a tripod or a telescope without a motorized mount. However if you have a GOTO mount, dedicated astrocam, etc. you are probably going to need a computer to control everything. You can use a laptop, Raspberry Pi based computer (Astroberry, ASIAIR) or an Intel NUC which connects directly to your equipment.
Image Processing
After you have collected a night’s worth of data, you are going to need software to stack all your photos together , post process your data to see what your naked eye can not.
Siril
Siril is my favorite program to stack and pre-process my data. Siril is free and open source and is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS.
GIMP
While GIMP doesn’t have all the fancy bells and whistles of Photoshop it certainly gets the job done. GIMP is free and open source and available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS.
StarNet
StarNet aka StarNett++ is a tool to remove the stars from your image. This is useful to bring out more detail in nebula and leave your stars intact when you combine the data together.
Download StarNet for free here.
Weather
Cloudy skies are a astrophotographers worst nightmare. While I recommend looking at multiple forecasts to get a educated best guess, weather forecasting is not an exact science. These tools listed here combine the weather forecast and how it will effect view of the night sky.
ClearDarkSky.com
Well as you can see here cloudy skies and bad weather is the forecast for me. This site also has light pollution maps for your location.
Clear Outside
The Clear Outside app is what I use on my phone, It is especially valuable for when the moon will effect your astrophotography.