Need hardware and capture-train setup? → Astrophotography Gear & Imaging

Need object IDs and catalogs for annotation? → Targets, Catalogs & Databases

Beginner Technique (Widefield / Nightscapes / Camera Fundamentals)

New to widefield/nightscapes and exposure basics? See Astrophotography Software & Processing → Beginner Technique.

Lonely Speck – Beginner-to-intermediate guides for Milky Way/nightscape astrophotography (exposure basics, gear choices, field workflow, and tracker-friendly technique).

Cambridge in Colour – Photography Tutorials – Clear photography fundamentals (exposure, noise, focus, sharpness/blur control) that translate directly to beginner astro capture.

PhotoPills – Milky Way Photography Cheat Sheet – A highly practical, step-by-step planning + shooting guide (timing, composition, settings, and field workflow) that’s ideal for beginners. 

Sky & Telescope – Tips for Shooting the Milky Way – Clear, experience-based advice on noise, exposure, lenses, and (optionally) using a tracker to level up nightscapes. 

Sky & Telescope – “Rule of 500”: How Long Can You Go? – A beginner-friendly explanation of star trailing limits and why focal length + sensor/pixels matter when choosing shutter time. 

B&H Explora – Camera Star Tracker Buying Guide – A straightforward primer on what star trackers do, why you’d want one, and how to choose a sensible first tracker setup. 

Nikon – Photographing the Night Sky – Simple “starter settings” and fundamentals (aperture/shutter/ISO + focus tips) that translate well to widefield astro on any camera brand. 

PetaPixel – Step-by-Step Guide to Capturing Great Milky Way Photographs – A practical beginner walkthrough from planning through settings and execution, with a strong “do this first” flow. 

Calculators

Astronomy.Tools - Great collection of calculators for determining the field of view, image scale, camera/scope suitability, etc.

Citizen Science and Contribute-Data projects?

See: Astro Community

Platesolving

Astrometry.net (Web Upload) – Upload an image and get an automatic WCS solution with object IDs.

ASTAP – Free, super-fast local plate solver and image-analysis toolkit.

PlaneWave – PlateSolve2 Download – Lightweight stand-alone solver used by many imaging suites.

Software

Planetarium Software

Stellarium (Desktop) – free and open-source planetarium software for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Cartes du Ciel / SkyChart – free planetarium with advanced chart-printing and telescope-control features.

KStars – Free, cross-platform planetarium software with a powerful sky map; also includes the Ekos imaging suite (see KStars/Ekos under Sequence Control).

Sky Safari - This is a premium software item for the Mac universe - primarily running on IOS, but the recent high end offerings can also be run on MacOS. I’ve never used this, but it seems to have a lot of interesting features and upgrade options. (Thanks to Rich Csenge for bringing this to my attention!)

Guiding Software

PHD2 Guiding – The standard open-source auto-guiding application: easy “Push-Here-Dummy” workflow. The gold standard of guiding software. It does it all, and does it well. Free!

Turnkey Sequencing & Automation Controller Ecosystems (Phone/Tablet)

ASIAIR (ZWO Product Family) – Official entry point for the ASIAIR ecosystem (Mini/Plus) and what it’s intended to do: run an imaging session from a phone/tablet. 

ASIAIR Plus (ZWO) – Official ASIAIR Plus page with current model details and capabilities. 

ZWO Guides & Manuals – Official manuals hub; use the ASIAIR section/tab as your canonical documentation link. 

ASIAIR PRO User Manual (PDF) – Detailed manual reference (UI/workflow overlaps heavily across ASIAIR generations). 

ASIAIR & Smart Camera (ZWO User Forum) – Official forum category for ASIAIR announcements and common troubleshooting threads. 

StellarMate – A turnkey controller ecosystem built around INDI + KStars/Ekos, designed to run capture/control from mobile devices without being locked to one camera brand. 

StellarMate Manual – Official documentation for setup and imaging workflows across StellarMate hardware/app/KStars-Ekos control.  

PC Sequencing & Automation (Windows / ASCOM)

ASCOM Standards – The Windows-centric driver standard that lets apps and astronomy hardware talk to each other (mount, camera, focuser, filter wheel). If you image on Windows, ASCOM is foundational; on Mac, you’ll see it referenced mainly when comparing workflows.  

Astro Photography Tool (APT) – Affordable, user-friendly capture automation suite (Windows). This was my first sequence control package. Easy to learn. Demo available, but this is premium software, with a very reasonable price.

FireCapture – A free capture program optimized for high-speed planetary and lunar imaging, with broad camera support and practical tools for efficient data acquisition.

KStars/Ekos – The capture/control and automation suite inside KStars (alignment, plate solving, guiding, autofocus, sequences) using INDI drivers; a strong cross-platform alternative workflow.   Thanks to Dave Kreiton for suggesting this!

N.I.N.A. – Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy(Windows only) – Powerful open-source imaging sequencer with plug-in ecosystem. An amazing and very capable sequence control suite with plug-in capabilities that bring a large set of expanded capabilities to it. This is open-source software with no fees. I am late coming to NINA, but I can tell you that I have found it very powerful and pretty easy to learn to use. Frankly, I am now sure why I would spend money on other software with this being available - but that is just my opinion.

Sequence Generator Pro – Feature-rich commercial capture suite popular with deep-sky imagers. Most of my images were captured with this software. This is premium software with a yearly license fee.

SharpCap – A popular Windows capture and live-stacking tool used for EAA, planetary/lunar capture, and polar alignment, with a friendly workflow and powerful real-time controls.

Voyager – Premium automation software noted for rock-solid reliability and advanced scripting.

Image-Processing Software

Adobe Photoshop – Industry-standard image editor often used alongside PixInsight for final finishing steps like selective contrast/color tweaks, print prep, compositing, and presentation/annotation.

Astro Pixel Processor (APP) – Commercial but widely used all-in-one package noted for easy mosaic creation, advanced gradient reduction, and excellent multi-band blending. 

AutoStakkert! – Fast, sub-pixel accurate alignment/stacker for planetary and lunar videos; pairs perfectly with RegiStax for final sharpening. 

DeepSkyStacker(Windows only) – Classic Windows freeware that excels at registering and stacking long-exposure deep-sky frames, flats, darks, and bias files. 

GIMP Astrophotography Tutorial (YouTube) – Step-by-step video showing a full deep-sky processing workflow in the free, open-source GIMP editor. 

PixInsight – Commercial astrophotography image-processing platform widely used for calibration, stacking, color calibration, and advanced post-processing workflows (with an extensive ecosystem of third-party scripts and plug-ins).

RegiStax 6 – Popular planetary/solar stacking + wavelet-sharpening program that squeezes detail out of lucky-imaging video sequences. 

Sequator – Lightweight, free Windows app for aligning and stacking DSLR night-scape frames without an equatorial mount, ideal for Milky Way shooters. 

Siril – Free, cross-platform deep-sky workflow suite (calibration → stacking → stretching) with new AI-assisted color calibration and star removal tools. 

StarTools – Signal-tracking image processor that lets you push noise levels safely; includes modules for wipe-gradients, deconvolution, and vivid star mask editing. 

Topaz DeNoise AI for Astro – Article reviewing strengths and pitfalls of AI-driven noise reduction/sharpening on nebula and galaxy images. 

PixInsight Plug-ins: Installation

How to install PixInsight add-ons (Update Repositories) – Most modern PixInsight add-ons install via Resources → Updates → Manage Repositories (add the repository URL), then Resources → Updates → Check for Updates, then restart PixInsight. 

If a script doesn’t appear after install (Feature Scripts) – Some script packages require enabling them in Script → Feature Scripts… after updates; restart PixInsight after enabling. 

PixInsight Plug-ins - Premium (Paid)

RC-Astro PixInsight Installation Instructions (BlurX / NoiseX / StarX) – Premium. Official install steps for the RC-Astro XTerminator plug-ins (add repo, update, restart). 

BlurXTerminator (RC-Astro) – Premium. AI deconvolution/sharpening plug-in for restoring detail while correcting common blur sources (tracking/seeing/optics). Install via RC-Astro repository/update workflow. 

NoiseXTerminator (RC-Astro) – Premium. AI noise reduction tuned for astro data. Install via RC-Astro repository/update workflow. 

StarXTerminator (RC-Astro) – Premium. High-quality star removal/extraction to enable separate starless processing. Install via RC-Astro repository/update workflow. 

PixInsight Add-ons - Free (Highly Recommended)

PixInsight add-on installation tip – In PixInsight, most third-party add-ons install via Resources → Updates → Manage Repositories (add the repo URL), then Check for Updates, then restart. Some script packs also need Script → Feature Scripts… enabled afterward.

Cosmic Photons (Mike Cranfield) – PixInsight Scripts & Modules – Free. Excellent PixInsight add-ons and process modules I see used everywhere, including NBColourMapper, NarrowbandNormalization, StarReduction, ScreenStars, DrawAnnotation, BatchFITSKeywordEdit, and more (install details/repositories listed per tool).

Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (GHS) – Free. One of the best stretch tools available for PixInsight: controlled, contrast-preserving stretching with a repository install option—great for dialing in faint detail without blowing out highlights.

GraXpertSuite for PixInsight (DeepSkyForge) – Free. Bring GraXpert-style gradient/background correction into PixInsight so you can do background modeling/cleanup without leaving your PI workflow.

SkyPixels (HVB) – PixInsight Scripts Collection – Free. A well-known PixInsight script bundle distributed via the HVB repository, including tools like GAME (interactive mask editor), plus other masking/utility helpers.

StarNet (Star Removal) – Free. Widely used star removal tool for PixInsight workflows—handy for starless processing, separate star control, and clean recombination/blending.

Seti Astro – PixInsight Script Repository – Free. Big, actively updated PixInsight script pack with lots of practical workflow helpers (star handling, background/gradient tools, masking/utilities, and convenience automation), installed via repository updates.

Planetary (Moon & Planets)

FireCapture – Free capture software designed specifically for lunar/planetary imaging (high frame rates, ROI control, camera tuning).

SharpCap – Popular capture tool that works well for planetary and lunar recording, especially if you already use it for other astronomy workflows.

AutoStakkert! – Widely used free stacker for “lucky imaging” that ranks and stacks the best frames from your planetary videos.

RegiStax – Classic free tool for wavelet sharpening of stacked planetary images; ideal for bringing out detail after stacking.

WinJUPOS (PVOL / Planetary Virtual Observatory & Laboratory) – Overview and download pointers for WinJUPOS from the planetary imaging community; use as the secure reference link for derotation workflows.

Processing Tutorials

PixInsight Tutorials

Adam Block’s Free YouTube Channel – Adam Block’s free YouTube Channel. Adam’s stuff is the best, in my opinion.

Adam Block’s Studio – This is Adam Block's premium Pixinsight instruction service. VERY pricey, but worth it if you really want to get a better understanding of how to use Pixinsight effectively.

Another Astro Channel - This is Bill Blanshan’s channel - he creates great Pixinsight Scripts.

Cosgrove’s Cosmos 2-Minute Tutorials Series on YouTube. This is a series of short videos (ok, not quite 2 minutes - some go longer!) that take one aspect of Pixinsight and focus on a short practical tutorial on it. A more organized and curated view of this series can be seen on this website HERE.

Pixinsights’ Channel on YouTube –A great set of introductory videos for Pixinsight.

Pixinsight Part 1 of 12  total beginners tutorial. – Mitch's YouTube Tutorial Series - a GREAT place to start your Pixinsight journey.

Inside PixInsight - An Amazon link to Warren Keller’s Book “Inside Pixinsight.”

PixelMath Narrowband Combinations - some nice stuff on band blending and mixing.

Russel Croman’s Cannel- Russel Croman’s Channel - the man behind RC Astro’s great line of AI software tools!

SETI Astro – Tools and resources for astrophotography image processing and workflow support, including software offerings and tutorials.

Processing Tutorials for Non-PixInsight Software

Affinity Photo Astro Workflow Guide – Community thread + video links demonstrating stacking, gradient removal, and star-shaping in Affinity Photo. 

Photoshop Astronomy Tools Action Set (Video Overview) – 15-minute walk-through of the popular one-click action bundle that automates star shrink, noise reduction, and H-alpha boost in Adobe Photoshop. 

Deconvolution Tutorials

Sky & Telescope Deconvolution Article - A well-written article by Ron Brecher on the use of deconvolution, which appeared in Sky & Telescope.

The Use of Regularized Richardson-Lucy Deconvolution Article - A really useful article written by Jon Rista, where he describes the use of Wavelet Regularization to handle noise rather than an object mask.

Cosgrove’s Cosmos Deconvolution Series - My own articles on the use of Deconvolution - a series in 7 parts.

PixInsight Deconvolution Example - written by Juan Conejero of PixInsight, offering a Deconvolution and Noise Control Example with M81/82.

Need hardware and capture-train setup? → Astrophotography Gear & Imaging

Need object IDs and catalogs for annotation? → Targets, Catalogs & Databases