Everything we give the amateur astrophotography community — in one place, free. Fifteen years of remote imaging from Arizona, New Mexico, and Chile, distilled into tools you can use tonight, real data to practice on, and guides that skip the fluff. No paywalls on the essentials. Bookmark this page — it keeps growing.
🧰 Free Tools & Calculators
Plan your session, nail your exposures, and frame your target — right in your browser, no signup.
- FOV Simulator — see exactly how your target frames in your scope and camera.
- Sub-Exposure Calculator — find your ideal sub length for your sky and gear.
- Integration-Time Calculator — how many hours to reach the signal you want.
- Critical Focus Zone — how tight your focus really needs to be.
- Autoguider Calculator — check your guiding resolution and setup.
- All-in-One Astro Calculator — the full toolbox on a single page.
- Where Is Voyager 1? — a live distance tracker, just for the wonder of it.
🗄️ The Data Vault — real master files, freeeeeee!
Practice on genuine data from world-class skies. Pre-processed LRGB and narrowband master files from our remote rigs — calibrated, registered, integrated, and ready to combine in PixInsight. Plate-solve values included on every set. Free to download and reprocess under Creative Commons — just credit us.
- Browse the Data Vault → — master files you can process tonight.
Coming soon: master calibration-frame libraries (darks, flats, bias) for QHY600 and more.
📚 Guides & Learning Paths
From your first light to advanced processing — clear guides, no gatekeeping.
- Start Here — the beginner's path, in order.
- Astrophotography Fundamentals — the core concepts that make everything click.
- Techniques & Tutorials — acquisition and processing, step by step.
- Telescope Guides — choosing and using your gear.
- Software & Processing — the tools of the trade.
- Galaxies & Deep Sky — know what you're pointing at.
- Space Science — the universe behind the pictures.
🎁 The trove keeps growing
We're steadily adding the things that normally cost money, years, or a $30k rig:
- 🗄️ Master calibration-frame libraries, by camera
- ⚙️ Ready-to-run NINA sequences and PixInsight workflows
- 📋 Downloadable cheat-sheets — image scale, filters, targets by season
- 🖼️ The community gallery and the monthly Processing Challenge
Join free to get each new drop first — and to unlock the full data downloads.
Made by imagers, for imagers. If something here helped you, pass it on. 🌌
