Software for Astrophotography
Between imaging, guiding, planning your night's session, and processing, there are a number of good programs out there that are quite useful, if not necessary for bringing the best out of your images. Among the ones I use most often are :
This is used for stacking images, which when using a DSLR is a vital piece of software. Stacking eliminates much of the "noise" inherent in DSLR's and allows a number of short exposures to be "added" together to give a single long exposure.
Post-Processing software that is also indispensible when working with astro photos.
A great little application that shows a photo of all Messier objects, along with a map and an observing log. It also has a database of 110 of the best NGC objects as well as Multiple stars.
A very cool program for anyone interested in the moon. Shows names and information for virtually every crater and feature on the moon. From size, position, height and even history of the feature itself. Tons of info here.
Another great program for stacking and aligning astro photos. Also has applications for capturing AVI's with webcams as well.
A great guiding program that is simple to use and works great as well. Makes autoguiding a breeze.
A program that can change the tint or hue of your computer screen so that you can keep your night vision in tact while using a computer at the scope.
A planetarium program that is very useful with planning an imaging session or just becoming more familiar with the night sky.
Another planetarium program that is a great tool for either learning the night sky or planning an imaging or observing session.
M13 is a unique application that helps you visualize the locationa and physical properties of deep sky objects, in and around the galaxy by using a 3D aspect to locations relative to an observer.
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