Astro Links
Links to websites providing excellent information about astronomical material and software – all free.
Weather
- Weatherforecast for Stargazers by AccuWeather. Provides also information about moon and planet rise and set times.
- Intellicast.com Great collection of very useful data including probability of precipitation, dew point and many more
Star maps
- The Evening Sky Map. Monthly overview from Skymaps.com. Two-pager that shows all visible constellations and provides useful information about current stargazing objects. Northern and Southern edition. Free pdf.
- Basic sky maps by SFA observatory, downloadable pfd. These charts are designed to work anywhere on the Earth.
- Detailed sky maps by IAU and Sky&Telescope. Objects up to magnitude 6, including data of Deep Space Objects (Galaxies, Clusters, Nebulae), downloadable pdf.
Messier
- Messier Object Mapping – Messier List of all 110 objects by Custer Observatory. The list includes also constellation maps, downloadable pdf.
Planetarium Software
- Celestia - Astronomy software, provides photo-realistic, real-time, three-dimensional viewing of the solar system, the galaxy and the universe.
- Stellarium – Open source planetarium software. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
- Cartes du Ciel - Great planetarium software that runs on virtually all platforms. It allows to drive a GOTO Telescope mount. Additional catalogs for object images and stars up to magnitude 16 are available.
Imaging Software
- Deep Sky Stacker- Software for astrophotographers that simplifies all the pre-processing steps of deep sky pictures. Includes: Registering, Stacking, Simple post processing
- GIMP- GNU Image Manipulation Program (8-bit color depth), handles many file formats, great to start astronomy image post-processing.
- Noiseware – Community Edition by Imagenomic. Great noise reduction software, input: jpeg, png, bmp, tiff, output: jpeg (commercial versions also png and tiff).
- RegiStax – Excellent software for alignment, stacking and processing of images. Many features and very powerful post processing toolbox. Runs on many platforms.
Astrophotography
- Catching the Light- Great web site on astrophotography with DLSR cameras by Jerry Lodriguss. Tons of tips and techniques, very comprehensive and easy to understand, informative with lots of descriptive images.
- Astrophotogallery – Amazing collection of images taken by amateur astronomers. Most images have descriptions about equipment they were taken with and how they were shot. Inspiring for all levels of star shooters.
