Okay, this list can be a bit overwhelming and picking the right tool can be frustrating for beginners. I) A stacking software: a sort of doped Photoshop that can perform typical astrophotography treatments like stacking, dark/flats substractions etc. H) An autoguiding software: (for OATs with the guider, or scopes that include one) This processes the guider's video feed, processes it and re-adjusts the OAT's coordinates to follow a given objects.

(remember that the North star is not exactly at the celestial pole) Although polar/drift alignment can be done approximately with the OAT's basic functions, it will be necessary to do it more precisely as you want to take longer exposures. G) A polar alignment/drift alignment tool: the goal is to align the RA axis with Earth's rotation axis.

Ideally, this program should include a sequencer/intervallometer function so you don't need to trigger a new picture every 2 minutes manually as it can do it automatically for you. This is important in astrophotography because the tiniest vibrations can spoil your long exposures. Now what? To see the beautiful galaxies, nebulae and star clusters, you need to assemble a few things:Ī) Your OAT: the robot that will point your camera to celestial coordinates and cancel out Earth's rotation so you can perform long exposures.ī) Your Scope/Camera: what will capture the light from celestial objectsĬ) OAT ASCOM driver: the drivers that will enable communication between astronomy software and a telescope mount.ĭ) An planetarium software: to answer the question: What interesting object can I see tonight? (or anytime in any location)Į) A mount control software: the program running on your laptop that will remote control the OATį) A camera control software: the tool so you don't have to physically touch your camera to capture images and change the camera settings.

Okay so, you've 3d-printed all the parts, bought all the electronics and put your OAT together. ¶ How to use your OAT for astrophotography

Open source planetarium software