This page lists free software used by amateur astronomers around the world to control their hardware.
- 1Telescope or astronomy devices control
TikTok - trends start here. On a device or on the web, viewers can watch and discover millions of personalized short videos. Download the app to get started. Nebulosity Atik traditional and modern (due to Atik’s Mac inventory problem, Mac support is still unstable) Canon DIGIC II / III / 4/5 EOS digital SLR camera. Yuying Starfish. Meade DSI, DSI Pro, DSI II, DSI II Pro, DSI III and DSI III Pro. QHY 8, 8L, 8Pro, 9, 10, 12. QSI Sixty Five Hundred Series.
There are nearly as many different astronomical set-ups as astronomers. Lots of devices are required in a set-up, and many of each type exist. Many are not supported by free software. A hardware compatibility list is being done here.
Acquisition software generally have to handle high-end cameras, DLSR and focusers. Autoguiding software generally have to handle low-end cameras and telescope motorisations, possibly focusers too. They make very different tasks and address a large range of devices.
Multiple functionality software
Super ultra ninja pig mac os. See Ekos, GoQat and Audela.
Telescope control: Autoguiding
![Mac Mac](https://i0.wp.com/www.macsoftdownload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Nebulosity.jpg?resize=800%2C500&ssl=1)
See OpenPHD Guiding, GoQat, Ekos for KStars which is using lin_guider's code. Qastrocam-g2 also has a guiding capability. What else?
Telescope control: GoTo
GoTo functionality is generally managed by cartography software. Aztec game online.
Image acquisition
The others has a list of software supporting each camera. Examples are GoQat for QSI cameras and Gphoto2 for DSLR.
Apple ios mountain lion. INDI-compatible cameras can be used with Ekos and CCDciel.
cccd is a simple astronomical CCD controller. It supports TSNK-lab ICX285AL cameras, QHY5, QHY6, QHY9, QHY8L, DSI2PRO, DSLR. Last version released in June 2017.
Qastrocam-g2: capture and simple guiding software for astronomy, using V4L2 acquisition. It also supports QHY5 and QHY6 cameras in release 4.9. Not maintained since 2013.
XmCCD is a camera capturing tool for Apogee Alta and SBIG cameras, supporting their filter wheel, compatible with INDI. It displays captured images in DS9.
oaCapture is a recently created free software that features V4L2 capturing in a Qt application. It provides many image capture controls, can demosaic images and save them in SER files. Support for other cameras than V4L2 has been introduced (ZWO ASI, QHY5, QHY6, SX Lodestar, Atik ATK-16 and The Imaging Source), as well as filter wheels on Linux (Xagyl and Starlight Xpress) and it also works on Mac OS X.
Planetary Imager is a software for planetary imaging. Its goal is to be able to get a simple, fast imaging software on Linux platforms, where there are really few reliable applications. Currently supports V4L2, ZWO and QHY devices.
Another emerging acquisition software is CCDciel, by Patrick Chevalley, the author of Cartes du ciel or SkyChart. It is multi-platform and INDI or Ascom capable. It can control the CCD/CMOS camera, focuser, filter wheel, rotator and telescope mount and uses image resolving software such astrometry.net for accurate positioning.
Other devices
Filter wheels, focusers, domes and so on. The Hardware compatibility list lists the software supporting each devices. Multiple functionality software could handle them too.
Some projects do not focus only on one particular device or even type of device, and provide abstraction layers or even try to standardize the way astronomical programs communicate with each other and with devices. An example of such an abstraction layer would be the Ascom Initiative on Windows platforms.
INDI is such a project for all kinds of devices. It is getting very popular and many devices already have INDI support. Before developing INDI, the author, Elwood C. Downey of ClearSky Institute, developed Talon, a free software for automated observatories. It seems that the project is quite dead since there is no web page about it except the old sourceforge link.
Another software for autonomous observatories, the Remote Telescope System (RTS2, now on github), also developed an abstract device layer, enabling control of all possible combinations of mounts, CCDs, photometers, roof and cupola controllers. It is also used in several observatories around the planet.
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Unicap is a way to access imagery devices, it doesn't seem to be used by many or actively developed anymore.
File format is also an important concern. Having a way to store a sequence of images in one file is very handy, in particular for planetary streams that have thousands of pictures. The SER file format aims to give a simple and strong base for uncompressed capture and processing systems for astronomy.
Introduction to ASCOM Alpaca
Please note: This is for developers and company leadership. End users please see the ASCOM FAQ for Alpaca.
For over twenty years ASCOM has enabled astronomy programs to connect to ASCOM-compatible astronomical devices through standard APIs built on Microsoft COM technology. These APIs have been (and still are) very successful and support a wide variety of astronomy programs and devices that run together on a single Windows PC.
In today's heterogeneous network-connected world this is a significant limitation and so we have introduced ASCOM Alpaca, which provides the path for: Yosemite el capitan sierra.
- Astronomy programs and devices to be connected across Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.
- Observatory systems to include programs and devices on multiple platforms
- Devices that can operate via WiFi or Ethernet and avoid the problems with USB
- Interoperability between astronomy programs and devices running under different operating systems
- Implementation of astronomy programs and device control logic written in different languages on different operating systems
- Current unmodified Windows astronomy programs to use ASCOM compatible devices connected to any networked PC or other platform via Alpaca, or a self-contained Alpaca device.
- Current unmodified Windows-resident devices (mounts, focusers, etc.) to be used by astronomy programs running on networked PCs, Macs, and mobile devices that use Alpaca for device communications.
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NOTE: Alpaca is 100% independent of Windows. Nowhere in the Alpaca ecosystem is Windows (or COM) needed.
The introduction of ASCOM Remote in 2018 began the process of extending the ASCOM ecosystem to include the internet, Linux, and Mac OS, including small embedded controllers like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi as well as astronomy software on those platforms that wish to use instruments which are hosted on Windows systems.
As of early 2019, this effort has grown into a new wave of development, with several astronomy instrument vendors embracing the implementation of the ASCOM Alpaca API as ReST end-points, reachable over the internet. This effort is much farther along that you might imagine.
For a quick peek at an example of Alpaca technology have a look at this 8 minute video. This video is suitable for company management as it includes business strategic issues, engineering advantages and justification for using Alpaca protocols. If you're a developer interested in more detail and a demo, see the second video below.
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![Atik Atik](https://indilib.org/media/kunena/attachments/784/Screenshot2019-12-21at17.38.47.png)
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For more in-depth information, including a demo using the Alpaca Linux/Raspberry Pi Rotator simulator from an unmodified copy of Software Bisque's TheSky on Windows, see the following 15 minute video. Watch the Field of View Indicator in TheSky turn the Linux rotator, and see details on the Python development process used.
If you want more info, please post to the ASCOM-Talk Developers Forum. To get started download and install the current version of ASCOM Remote to your Windows 7/10 PC and look at the included documentation which includes the Alpaca protocols and standards.