Nebulosity
Nebulosity (Windows and OS X) is designed to be a powerful, but simple to use capture and processing application for a wide range of astronomy CCD cameras. Many cameras are supported for capture (see below) and images from just about anything can be processed (support for many FITS formats, PNG, TIFF, JPEG, CR2/CRW, etc). Its goal is to suit people ranging from the novice imager who wants to create his or her first images to the advanced imager who wants a convenient, flexible capture application for use in the field. In it, you get a host of purpose-built powerful tools to make the most out of your images (e.g., Digital Development Processing, traditional alignment/stacking (equatorial and alt-az), Drizzle alignment/stacking, Bad Pixel Mapping, LRGB tools, real-time tricolor histograms for color balancing, star tightening via edge detection, adaptive scaling of stacks, Canon CR2/CRW RAW Bayer matrix loading, 32/96-bit accuracy, etc.)
Fitswork
A program for the treatment of pictures, namely for astrophotographical purposes. Includes batch-processing, histogram function, different filters, uvm etc…
AstroAlign 2.0
AstroAlign is a software program for unconventional (?) image processing of astronomical and other images. The program is free and may be used by anyone who finds it useful. However, read the disclaimer at the bottom of this page before you start using it.
Amateur Astronomy
1369 manually selected sites about Amateur Astronomy
Stellarium
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.
FitsPlug v1.0
FITS plugin for Adobe Photoshop for Windows from V5 to CS3
C2A Planetarium
C2A Planetarium Software allows you to build detailed views of stellar fields. An important objective of this software is to take into account the main catalogues available to professional and amateur astronomers
MicroObservatory
• Optimize an image's brightness/contrast automatically, by either linear or logarithmic scaling. • Colorize images using several false color tables. • Invert an image's color table. • Increase image contrast and detail using "sharpen" filter. • Reduce the noise in an image. • Manipulate full screen magnification. • Show image information for individual pixels by cursor placement.
Equatorial Platform - Reagan's Dob Tracker
The best of both worlds - a Dobsonian mount with the ability to track the Earth's rotation. The equatorial platform moves with the earth's rotation for up to one hour, then it needs to be rewound. The eyepiece is always in an easy location for viewing and very accurate tracking is possible.
IRIS
An astronomical images processing software
Astroart 4.0
A complete software for image processing, photometry, astrometry, CCD control and image stacking for CCD and film images.
AstroStack
AstroStack is a program that takes a series of images or a stream of video and combines them into one sharp noisefree picture. See examples. AstroStack is built on a flexible professional architecture with plugins. Works with all major operating systems (Windows, Linux and Macintosh OSX)!
Observation Manager
Observation Manager is a free and open logbook for (amateur-) astronomical observations. It's written in pure Java and runs on every plattform supporting Java 1.4 or higher. All logbook entries made in Observation Manager are stored in the free and open COMAST XML Schema.
WcRmac
Presented as an 'Easy' way to get RAW mod images out of Philips Webcams.
Messier Object Log Book
Now you can organize your observations of the 110 Messier objects. There are 4 Messier Observers Logbooks in this set! Telescope Messier Observations Log Book Messier Marathon Observations Log Book (Big and Small) Binocular Messier Observations Log Books All Messier Objects are listed by Constellations
Cheapskate Astrophotography
Cheapskate Astrophotography There's more to light than meets the eye Image Galleries Raw files are included in the galleries so you can see what you'll actually catch when photographing these objects. Unprocessed stacks of raw files can be downloaded for those who want to try their hand at processing them. When I learn a new processing technique or catch more raw images of a target I'll reprocess and post the new image.
Astro-Snap
Astro-Snap allows you to take astronomical pictures at low cost with a WEBCAM Simple image acquisition or real time frame integration (standard or loop frame integration). - Real time planetary video processing (at capture time) - Long exposure acquisition with the following cameras (modified following Steve Chambers' design) : Philips Vesta-SC, Toucam-SC, Quickcam Pro3000-SC. - Image resolution up to 800x600 - Focusing aid based on a star's apparent size (FWHM), along with sound indicator for remote tuning - Focusing aid on complex objects,along with a sound indicator for remote tuning - Image stabilization and automatic tracking of the object in the camera's field of view. - Automatic Dark or Flat-Field processing - Can let you make pseudo long exposures without tracking needed. - Automatic image selection based on each frame's quality (planetary imaging). - Manual or automatic saving of bitmaps. - Very fast and precise Polar aligning aid using two popular drift align methods : Bigourdan and King.
Astrometrica
Reads FITS (8, 16 and 32 bit integer files) and SBIG image files. The size of the images is only limited by the available memory. * Automatic image calibration (Dark Frame and Flat Field correction). * Blinking with automatic image alignment. * Zoom and 'Magnifying Glass' for closeup image inspection. * Automatic reference star identification. * Automatic moving object detection and identification. * 'Track and Stack' function to follow fast or very faint moving objects. * Access to the complete MPC database of orbital elements (MPCOrb). * Access to new-generation star catalogues (USNO-B1.0 and UCAC 2). * Includes Internet access (Send e-mail to the MPC, download the MPCOrb databse or query the USNO-B1.0 star catalogue at VizieR). * Online help system and tutorials.
Buiding a solar scope
I thought I'd turn my reply into a separate page in case anyone is interested in making their own solar telescope. Just be sure to follow the instructions carefully and precisely and feel free to contact me for advice or specifics. Illustrations are forthcoming, as soon as I get them scanned.
Simulation Of Comet Impact With Earth
Real (not reel) deep impacts: Sandia scientists predict what an asteroid strike would look like, really.
Nebulosity (Windows and OS X) is designed to be a powerful, but simple to use capture and processing application for a wide range of astronomy CCD cameras. Many cameras are supported for capture (see below) and images from just about anything can be processed (support for many FITS formats, PNG, TIFF, JPEG, CR2/CRW, etc). Its goal is to suit people ranging from the novice imager who wants to create his or her first images to the advanced imager who wants a convenient, flexible capture application for use in the field. In it, you get a host of purpose-built powerful tools to make the most out of your images (e.g., Digital Development Processing, traditional alignment/stacking (equatorial and alt-az), Drizzle alignment/stacking, Bad Pixel Mapping, LRGB tools, real-time tricolor histograms for color balancing, star tightening via edge detection, adaptive scaling of stacks, Canon CR2/CRW RAW Bayer matrix loading, 32/96-bit accuracy, etc.)
(Clicks: 40; Comments: 0; Added: 06-30-2008)
http://www.stark-labs.com/nebulosity.html -
Details
Fitswork
A program for the treatment of pictures, namely for astrophotographical purposes. Includes batch-processing, histogram function, different filters, uvm etc…
(Clicks: 24; Comments: 0; Added: 07-17-2008)
http://people.freenet.de/JDierks/index.htm -
Details
AstroAlign 2.0
AstroAlign is a software program for unconventional (?) image processing of astronomical and other images. The program is free and may be used by anyone who finds it useful. However, read the disclaimer at the bottom of this page before you start using it.
(Clicks: 22; Comments: 0; Added: 07-02-2008)
http://www.arnholm.org/astro/software/astroalign/AstroAlign.htm -
Details
Amateur Astronomy
1369 manually selected sites about Amateur Astronomy
(Clicks: 15; Comments: 0; Added: 08-08-2008)
http://www.cbel.com/amateur_astronomy/ -
Details
Stellarium
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.
(Clicks: 15; Comments: 0; Added: 07-14-2008)
http://www.stellarium.org/ -
Details
FitsPlug v1.0
FITS plugin for Adobe Photoshop for Windows from V5 to CS3
(Clicks: 15; Comments: 0; Added: 06-30-2008)
http://astroshed.com/fitsplug/fitsplug.htm -
Details
C2A Planetarium
C2A Planetarium Software allows you to build detailed views of stellar fields. An important objective of this software is to take into account the main catalogues available to professional and amateur astronomers
(Clicks: 13; Comments: 0; Added: 07-06-2008)
http://astrosurf.com/c2a/ -
Details
MicroObservatory
• Optimize an image's brightness/contrast automatically, by either linear or logarithmic scaling. • Colorize images using several false color tables. • Invert an image's color table. • Increase image contrast and detail using "sharpen" filter. • Reduce the noise in an image. • Manipulate full screen magnification. • Show image information for individual pixels by cursor placement.
(Clicks: 12; Comments: 0; Added: 09-30-2008)
http://mo-www.harvard.edu/MicroObservatoryImage/ -
Details
Equatorial Platform - Reagan's Dob Tracker
The best of both worlds - a Dobsonian mount with the ability to track the Earth's rotation. The equatorial platform moves with the earth's rotation for up to one hour, then it needs to be rewound. The eyepiece is always in an easy location for viewing and very accurate tracking is possible.
(Clicks: 12; Comments: 0; Added: 07-03-2008)
http://www.geocities.com/reaganjj/ -
Details
IRIS
An astronomical images processing software
(Clicks: 10; Comments: 0; Added: 07-02-2008)
http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm -
Details
Astroart 4.0
A complete software for image processing, photometry, astrometry, CCD control and image stacking for CCD and film images.
(Clicks: 10; Comments: 0; Added: 07-01-2008)
http://www.msb-astroart.com/ -
Details
AstroStack
AstroStack is a program that takes a series of images or a stream of video and combines them into one sharp noisefree picture. See examples. AstroStack is built on a flexible professional architecture with plugins. Works with all major operating systems (Windows, Linux and Macintosh OSX)!
(Clicks: 10; Comments: 0; Added: 06-30-2008)
http://www.astrostack.com/ -
Details
Observation Manager
Observation Manager is a free and open logbook for (amateur-) astronomical observations. It's written in pure Java and runs on every plattform supporting Java 1.4 or higher. All logbook entries made in Observation Manager are stored in the free and open COMAST XML Schema.
(Clicks: 9; Comments: 0; Added: 09-30-2008)
http://observation.sourceforge.net/en/ -
Details
WcRmac
Presented as an 'Easy' way to get RAW mod images out of Philips Webcams.
(Clicks: 8; Comments: 0; Added: 07-17-2008)
http://www.astrosurf.com/astrobond/ebrawe.htm -
Details
Messier Object Log Book
Now you can organize your observations of the 110 Messier objects. There are 4 Messier Observers Logbooks in this set! Telescope Messier Observations Log Book Messier Marathon Observations Log Book (Big and Small) Binocular Messier Observations Log Books All Messier Objects are listed by Constellations
(Clicks: 8; Comments: 0; Added: 07-03-2008)
http://www.astro-nut.net/molb/ -
Details
Cheapskate Astrophotography
Cheapskate Astrophotography There's more to light than meets the eye Image Galleries Raw files are included in the galleries so you can see what you'll actually catch when photographing these objects. Unprocessed stacks of raw files can be downloaded for those who want to try their hand at processing them. When I learn a new processing technique or catch more raw images of a target I'll reprocess and post the new image.
(Clicks: 8; Comments: 0; Added: 07-01-2008)
http://cheapskate-astro.net/index.html -
Details
Astro-Snap
Astro-Snap allows you to take astronomical pictures at low cost with a WEBCAM Simple image acquisition or real time frame integration (standard or loop frame integration). - Real time planetary video processing (at capture time) - Long exposure acquisition with the following cameras (modified following Steve Chambers' design) : Philips Vesta-SC, Toucam-SC, Quickcam Pro3000-SC. - Image resolution up to 800x600 - Focusing aid based on a star's apparent size (FWHM), along with sound indicator for remote tuning - Focusing aid on complex objects,along with a sound indicator for remote tuning - Image stabilization and automatic tracking of the object in the camera's field of view. - Automatic Dark or Flat-Field processing - Can let you make pseudo long exposures without tracking needed. - Automatic image selection based on each frame's quality (planetary imaging). - Manual or automatic saving of bitmaps. - Very fast and precise Polar aligning aid using two popular drift align methods : Bigourdan and King.
(Clicks: 8; Comments: 0; Added: 07-01-2008)
http://www.astrosnap.com/ -
Details
Astrometrica
Reads FITS (8, 16 and 32 bit integer files) and SBIG image files. The size of the images is only limited by the available memory. * Automatic image calibration (Dark Frame and Flat Field correction). * Blinking with automatic image alignment. * Zoom and 'Magnifying Glass' for closeup image inspection. * Automatic reference star identification. * Automatic moving object detection and identification. * 'Track and Stack' function to follow fast or very faint moving objects. * Access to the complete MPC database of orbital elements (MPCOrb). * Access to new-generation star catalogues (USNO-B1.0 and UCAC 2). * Includes Internet access (Send e-mail to the MPC, download the MPCOrb databse or query the USNO-B1.0 star catalogue at VizieR). * Online help system and tutorials.
(Clicks: 8; Comments: 0; Added: 06-30-2008)
http://www.astrometrica.at/ -
Details
Buiding a solar scope
I thought I'd turn my reply into a separate page in case anyone is interested in making their own solar telescope. Just be sure to follow the instructions carefully and precisely and feel free to contact me for advice or specifics. Illustrations are forthcoming, as soon as I get them scanned.
(Clicks: 7; Comments: 0; Added: 09-08-2010)
http://www.stargazing.net/Astroman/Solarconst.html -
Details
Simulation Of Comet Impact With Earth
Real (not reel) deep impacts: Sandia scientists predict what an asteroid strike would look like, really.
(Clicks: 7; Comments: 0; Added: 08-04-2008)
http://www.sandia.gov/media/comethit.htm -
Details
![[Link to Loch Ness Productions]](http://www.astro-links.net/lnp_logo300.jpg){kind=logo}