Qastrocam
Qastrocam is an astrophotography camera control software for Canon DSLRs. It allows capturing long exposure images of celestial objects like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. Key features include bulb ramping, focus stacking, sequence queueing, plate solving, and guiding.
Qastrocam: Astrophotography Camera Control Software for Canon DSLRs
Qastrocam is an astrophotography camera control software for Canon DSLRs. It allows capturing long exposure images of celestial objects like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. Key features include bulb ramping, focus stacking, sequence queueing, plate solving, and guiding.
What is Qastrocam?
Qastrocam is an astrophotography camera control and image acquisition software designed specifically for use with Canon DSLR cameras. It provides advanced features to capture high quality images of deep sky objects like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters.
Some key features of Qastrocam include:
- Bulb ramping - smoothly changes exposure times during an exposure to capture details in both bright and faint areas of nebulae.
- Focus stacking - automatically takes multiple images each focused at a different point and stacks them to achieve infinite depth of field.
- Sequence queueing - create automated queues of exposures to image multiple targets without intervention.
- Plate solving - triangulates images against a star catalog to provide extremely precise goto pointing.
- Guiding - interfaces with guide cameras and mounts to correct tracking errors in real time.
Additional capabilities include live view with overlaid crosshairs, histogram, and filter info; dark frame subtraction; flexible flat fielding; and scripting support. It saves files in standard formats for processing. An active user community provides support to capture incredible astrophotos.
Qastrocam Features
Features
- Bulb ramping for long exposures
- Focus stacking for enhanced depth of field
- Sequence queueing to automate capture sessions
- Plate solving to add precise pointing information
- Guiding support for tracking mounts
Pricing
- Free
- Open Source
Pros
Full control over camera settings
Automates complex astrophotography techniques
Integrates with mounts, platesolvers and guiders
Free and open source
Cons
Steep learning curve
Requires additional hardware like mounts and guiders
Limited to Canon DSLRs
No official support
Official Links
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