Recommended Software and Apps For Astronomy

This page is intended to provide a list of helpful astronomy tools and applications. Please feel free to add or edit information here.

If you would like to add content please include a link to the website for the product, if possible, as well as a short description.

Unless otherwise specified, it is assumed that all apps and products listed here are available and run under the current version of whichever operating system they are listed under.

If a program/app is available for more than one operating environment, please be sure to list it under all applicable environments.

It may also be desirable to create a separate page for some individual apps/programs/software suites. Feel free to do so if you like.

Web Apps

These tools are web-page based and should work on most browsers on any device.

• Astronomy Tools Field of view calculators, telescope calculators, CCD/Imaging calculators, weather forecasts, star charts, and more. Run by First Light Optics in England.
• The Photographer's Ephemeris

Microsoft Windows

Planetarium, Charting, Telescope Control

• The Sky by Software Bisque
• Cartes du Ciel - free/open source
• Prism
• Stellarium - free/open source

Astrophotography

Image Capture

• Nebulosity
• Backyard EOS/Backyard Nikon
• MaximDL
• SGP (Sequence Generator Pro) - limited functionality available in Sequence Generator Lite, full features unlocked with licensed Pro version.
• Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (NINA) - free/open source
• APT (Astrophotography Tool) - unlicensed "trial" version provides majority of functions, licensed version unlocks additional features.
• PHD (Push Here Dummy) Auto Guiding

Image Calibration, Stacking, and Processing

• PixInsight
• DeepSkyStacker free/open source
• Registax - free/open source
• AutoStakkert - free/open source
• Adobe Photoshop and Creative Cloud - Essentially the gold-standard for all-purpose photo editing, Photoshop and the other Adobe Creative Cloud products have gone to a subscription-based service. At present, Photoshop is available (bundled with LightRoom) for $9.99/mo and includes 20GB of cloud storage.
• GIMP - the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is an free/open-source alternative to Photoshop, available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems.

Utility

• ASCOM - The ASCOM Initiative is a loosely-knit group of developers and astronomical instrument makers that work together to bring vendor-independent and language-independent plug-and play compatibility between astronomy software and astronomical instruments on Windows (and soon Linux and MacOS) computers. ASCOM stands for the Astronomy Common Object Model. It can be used to control Telescopes, Mounts, Focusers, Cameras, Filter Wheels, and Observatories (domes/roofs).

• ASCOM Alpaca - the original version of ASCOM is windows-only based on microsoft's COM technology. ASCOM Alpaca is being developed to extend functionality to other operating environments such as Mac OS and Linux. Alpaca is independent of Windows and does not dependent on COM.

• INDI - Open Astronomy Instrumentation - INDI is an alternative to ASCOM, released under the GNU LGPL (open-source licensing) and not specific to any operating system.