This presentation on software doesn’t even address the hundreds of websites that can aid in your efforts to image the night sky. ğortunately for us, I will not be covering them all!.ğortunately for us, a lot of them are FREE!!.
personal discovery is so important – there are just not enough hours in the day/week/year/your life to learn more than a handful of these titlesĪs of today, there are over 90 pieces of software that can be used in pursuit of that perfect astro image This is one of the reasons why instruction vs.AP software can be amazingly complex and has a very steep learning curve.AP is a procedurally complex and detail oriented endeavor.This post is for astrophotography ( AP) beginners and as such will only cover DSLR/ CMOS deep sky object imaging and DSLR/webcam planetary/lunar imaging software, keeping in mind that there is a huge overlap, in software features, between camera type specific approaches. Additionally, this primer does not include smartphone/tablet specific software - that is for another post currently under development. Also, all freeware is listed first and the order in which the titles appear is arbitrary. I do not provide any techniques for use or recommendations as to which title may be better than another. This is only a discussion on AP software titles. A decent f/6 to f/7 ED doublet should fit your needs perfectly.Before we begin, this material was developed by me for a class I have taught a number of times. It's worth noting that while an f/10 optic is practical at 60mm, it's a bit too long a focal ratio when you get to 80mm due to the resulting size and weight of the instrument which would make it a bit unwieldy for use as a spotting scope. If you get an 80mm scope then the larger aperture allows for proportionally higher magnifications while still enjoying a reasonably bright image so equivalent ranges would be 20-60x and 33-100x. With an 8-24mm zoom eyepiece I get a magnification range of around 15-45x or 25-75x which are both very useful, with the former being better suited to the winter months due to their being less light, and the latter giving that bit more reach when the days get brighter in spring and summer. My little scope is a Takahashi FS-60CB and I have an extender module for it so I can use it in either a 355mm f/5.9 or a 600mm f/10 configuration. Only downside is that it's not cheap, but a mount like that should give many years of enjoyment and is a good investment if your budget can stretch to it. The Scopetech is a superb mount for this kind of dual-use setup with its simplicity and light weight, but it also gives very steady views and has the convenience of being able to instantly swap between using the slow motion controls and just turning the mount by hand so it only takes seconds to get lined up on a target. I've got a 60mm refractor which I keep permanently mounted to a Scopetech Mount Zero on an old but sturdy Manfrotto tripod. Pair it with a zoom eyepiece and a suitable mount and you've got a scope that can be left permanently set up to grab a view of something interesting at a moment's notice. I'd also go for a small apo refractor in this situation for the high quality views it can deliver as well as the convenience of a relatively compact and rugged package that shouldn't ever require you to worry about things like collimation.