Here’s a list of astronomy software that I’ve encountered. I’m a big proponent of free / open software so I have pruned commercial software off this list. Thats not to say vendors might offer premium versions for a cost, but the free versions are listed here.
- Astrophotography – Acquisition
- EKOS – Cross platform (INDI) sequence based imaging platform that includes mount/observatory control, plate solving for GOTO and polar alignment, focusing, integrated guiding with Linguider or via PHD2, and lots more. Nice DSLR support. (RaspPi/Linux/Mac/Windows) RECOMMENDED
- PHD2 – guiding software to correct mount errors for longer exposures. Note Linux versions available through distros. (RaspPi/Linux/Windows/Mac) RECOMMENDED
- APT – stands for “AstroPhotography Tool” for planning, collimating, aligning, focusing, framing, controlling/tethering, imaging, synchronizing, scheduling, meridian flipping, analyzing and monitoring. Has a free demo version that is not time limited and worth looking at on it’s own, plus the pay version is quite reasonable (Windows)
- digiCamControl – Free camera control for those with Nikon DSLRs (Windows)
- SharpCap 2 – Flexible image capturing software, records in raw, uncompressed files (Windows)
- FireCapture – Simple image capturing software that re-sizes video resolution automatically & has auto align & dark frame reduction features but limited camera support esp. outside Windows (Windows/OSX/Linux)
- Sofortbild – Free capture control for Nikon (OSX)
- DSLR Shutter – Free sequence capture control for lots of DSLRs. You need a shutter control interface, like this one in order to use this with a Nikon however (Windows/Mac)
- ACP Astronomer Control Panel – Remote imaging software and control software (Windows)
- Lin Guider – Guiding software now incoporated into kStars/EKOS) (Linux)
- oaCapture – a planetary imaging application (Linux/OSX)
- OpenSkyImager – a capture program written for astronomy camera operation (Linux)
- CCDciel – a free CCD capture software intended for the amateur astronomer. Supports INDI (Windows/Linux)
- Astrophotography – Processing
- SIRIL – IRIS for Linux, very comprehensive image processing package. Windows version via Ming/W. See this site for tutorials etc. (Linux/Windows) RECOMMENDED
- Planetary Imager – Imaging tool for planets – not ASCOM/INDI so limited camera support (Linux/Windows/Mac)
- DeepSkyStacker – for stacking multiple exposures together into one image. (Windows)
- GIMP – post processing/image editing software (Windows/OSX/Linux) RECOMMENDED
- StarTools – post-processing software written by /u/verylongtimelurker (Windows/OSX/Linux) Photoshop CS2 – free from Adobe but requires you to make an Adobe ID (Windows/OSX)
- Registax – planetary video processing/stacking software (Windows)
- Autostakkert! 2 – planetary video stacking software (Windows)
- PIPP – Planetary imaging pre-processor, good for shaving down file sizes with cropped, stabilized planetary shots (Windows/OSXWine/LinuxWine)
- iMerge – Used for one-click image stitching with border feathering & Histogram (Windows)
- StarStax – used for creating star trail images (Windows/OSX/Linux) Lynkeos – free planetary stacker (OSX)
- Winjupos – planetary processing software for derotation/mapping/planetary moon alignment (Windows)
- AstroImageJ – The Java ImageJ graphics software with astronomy plugins and macros installed. Great for photometry especially of exoplanets (Windows/OSX/Linux) RECOMMENDED
- Lxnstack – a program designed to align and stack astronomical images (Linux)
- Regim – a software tool for processing astronomical images including calibration (dark and flat), deblooming, registration, combination, color calibration, gradient removal and some more. (Windows/Linux)
- Planetarium Software
- KStars – open source, cross-platform with provides an accurate graphical simulation of the night sky, from any location on Earth, at any date and time. Tight integration with EKOS for imaging. (Windows/OSX/Linux) RECOMMENDED
- Stellarium – free software that lets you input your coordinates and will show you when objects will be up and at what time. (Windows/OSX/Linux)
- Carte du Ciels – nice free planetarium and telescope control program (Windows/OSX/Linux) RECOMMENDED
- Xephem – Motif based ephemeris and planetarium program for Unix-like operating systems. Supports INDI. (Linux)
- Celestia – free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions (Windows/OSX/Linux)
- Misc Imaging Utilities
- FITS Liberator – FIT -> TIFF file converter (Windows/Mac)
- Virtual Dub – video converting software, requires plugin for .MOV -> .AVI (Windows)
- SkySolve – Plate Solving software (Windows)
- Misc Mount Tools
- EQMOD – a suite of open source applications that can provide an alternative to the hand controller (Windows)
- Misc Observing Tools
- Astro Planner – for planning/logging/visualizing astrophotography sessions (Windows) RECOMMENDED
- Virtual Moon Atlas – Free software for Moon observation or survey (Linux/Windows) RECOMMENDED
- Virtual Planets Atlas – free software for planets observation and study (Linux/Windows)
- Distributions
- Astronomy Linux – a live 64-bit DVD based on Ubuntu Linux that includes virtually all astronomy software used by amateurs available on Linux. Updated automatically via apt. (Linux) RECOMMENDED
- Stellarmate OS – A version of Raspian Linux with a large variety of software (particularly INDI based) integrated for use as a telescope / imaging controller. Cost is $4(USD but saves gobs of time setting up a Raspberry Pi. (RaspPi) RECOMMENDED
- Distro Astro – a project to create a Linux distribution for astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts. Distro Astro 2.0 has been released, codenamed Pallas. (Linux)
On the queue to take a look at:
- AstroCC Coordinate Converter (convert astronomical coordinates)
- Astronomy Clock 2 (display UT, local mean time, sidereal time)
- Astronomy Lab 2 (simulate a host of astronomical events)
- Gravity (gravitational simulator)
- iMerge (create mosaics from images)
- IRAF Terminal (Image Reduction and Analysis Facility)
- PyRAF (Python-based IRAF terminal)
- Meteoracle (predict and observe meteor showers)
- Nightshade (desktop planetarium)
- OpenRocket (design and simulate model rockets)
- OpenUniverse (simulate travel through the solar system)
- Planets (simple orbital planetary simulator)
- Radio Meteor Analyzer (analyze radio meteor data)
- Registax (align, stack, and process images)
- SkyGlobe (desktop planetarium)
- StarPlot (detailed star chart viewer in 3-D)
- XTide (view tide and current predictions)
- THELI GUI is a powerful and easy-to-use package for astronomical image reduction, offering e.g. Free.
- Observation Manager is a free and open logbook for (amateur-) astronomical observations. It’s written in pure Java and runs on every platform supporting Java 1.4 or higher.
- 18. C-Munipack is the software package, which offers the complete solution for reduction of images carried out by CCD camera, intended on a observation of variable stars. Each step of reduction process can be run from the command line or via simple and intuitive graphical user interface.
- VStar is a multi-platform, easy-to-use variable star observation visualisation and analysis tool. Data can be read from a file or the AAVSO database, light curves and phase plots created, period analysis performed, and filters applied. Plugins can be developed, e.g. to make additional observation sources available.
- EqmodGui is a user interface for Linux INDI Eqmod telescope driver. It allow to easily set the main parameters require to use this driver and manage the alignment data. Free. Supports INDI.
- INDI Starter is a user interface to run a INDI server. You can configure different profile for your astronomical equipment. The INDI server can be launched locally or remotely on another computer. In this last case a ssh tunnel is established to allow local client connection. Free.
- astrofocuser is a very simple tool written with Qt 4.5 to help star focusing in astrophotogaphy. This tool applies an FWHM by transparency on the background window. Free.
- Fv: The Interactive FITS File Editor is the easy to use graphical program for viewing and editing any FITS format image or table. Fv can be used with the DS9 image display.Free.
- SAOImage DS9 is an astronomical imaging and data visualization application. DS9 supports FITS images and binary tables, multiple frame buffers, region manipulation, and many scale algorithms and colormaps. It provides for easy communication with external analysis tasks and is highly configurable and extensible via XPA and SAMP. Free.
- Aperture Photometry Tool (APT) is software for astronomical research, as well as for learning, visualizing and refining aperture-photometry analyses. Image overlays, graphical representations, statistics, models, options and controls for aperture-photometry calculations are brought together into a single package. Free.
- AstroAviBrowser is a small tool for astronomy imaging processing. With AstroAviBrowser, you may open a video file, select the good frames and save the new sequence in a new avi file. It also debayer your raw sequences. Free.
- Audela is a free and open source astronomy software intended for digital observations (CCD cameras, Webcams, etc.). Its concept is entirely new, because whilst it features advanced image processing and acquisition functions like existing software, its originality lies in the fact that it is entirely reprogrammable using simple scripts. It has been written for both Windows and Linux platforms and can control many telescope mounts and cameras or DSLRs. Free.
- SER Player is a video player for playing LuCam Recorder SER files. SER files are used for planetary, lunar and solar captures and this player allows these captures to be viewed in the same way AVI files are viewed with a standard video player. SER Player also supports basic processing and will save frames in other file formats.
- cvastroalign (video align tool for astrophotography) is a program that loads a video sequence, aligns and stacks the selected frames obtaining an image as result of this process.
- Aladin is an interactive sky atlas allowing the user to visualize digitized astronomical images or full surveys, superimpose entries from astronomical catalogues or databases, and interactively access related data and information from the Simbad database, the VizieR service and other archives for all known astronomical objects in the field.
- Gpredict is a real-time satellite tracking and orbit prediction application. It can track an unlimited number of satellites and display their position and other data in lists, tables, maps, and polar plots (radar view). Gpredict can also predict the time of future passes for a satellite, and provide you with detailed information about each pass.
- GCX is an astronomical image processing and photometry application written in C using Gtk+-1.2, and provided under the Gnu General Public License. It was tested on Linux, FreeBSD and OS/X (using the X Window System)
- Entangle provides a graphical interface for “tethered shooting”, aka taking photographs with a digital camera completely controlled from the computer.
- wxAstroCapture is a free capture program primarily intended for astronomical use, it is developed as a joint effort between Martin Burri (Switzerland) and Carsten Arnholm (Norway).
- Geomview is an interactive 3D viewing program for Unix. Geomview lets you view and manipulate three- and higher-dimensional objects, and can also be used as a display engine by other programs to animate objects. Geomview supports OpenGL and uses a Motif X interface.
- TOPCAT is an interactive graphical viewer and editor for tabular data. Its aim is to provide most of the facilities that astronomers need for analysis and manipulation of source catalogues and other tables, though it can be used for non-astronomical data as well. It understands a number of different astronomically important formats (including FITS, VOTable and CDF) and more formats can be added.
- GoQat is a hardware control and data acquisition program for astronomy on the Linux platform. It has an INDI client to control any device with an INDI driver and has native support for any CCD camera from Quantum Scientific Imaging and any Starlight Xpress USB 2.0 camera. It can also control Starlight Xpress filter wheels. GoQat can guide mounts via a serial/USB port, parallel port or autoguider port.
- Where is M13? is a unique application that helps you visualize the locations and physical properties of deep sky objects in and around the Galaxy.
- BoPlanets is a virtual planetarium showing the planets relatively to any observing planet. The planets can be viewed in ecliptical-, equatorial- or horizontal view. The times of rise, transit and set of a planet can be determined.
- JSky package contains java classes for displaying astronomical images, searching astronomical catalogs and plotting catalog symbols on images. The jskycat application is also included and makes use of most of the features.
- Specview is a Java GUI_based application for 1-D spectral visualization and analysis of astronomical spectrograms generated by a variety of observatories and instruments.
- INDIprop provides a generic user interface for browsing device properties published by an INDI server.
- Plugins for GIMP: