Astro Imaging and support apps

Telescope Flashlight

operating system: android

Best for: Helping you find your equipment in the dark

level of astronomer: Beginner to advanced cost: Free The number of times that every astronomer has wished they had a red-light torch and found that the batteries were dead, or that they’d lost or left it somewhere is huge. Having a phone or tablet in your pocket that can light up that dark field and not destroy your night vision would be ideal. The only issue with this is that if you have to turn your phone on first to launch the app, the glaring-white screen may have killed it anyway.

Telescope Calc

operating system: android

Best for: Helping astronomers work out parameters for their scopes and eyepieces level of astronomer: Beginner to advanced cost: Free

Again, one of those handy little apps that does a lot and very simply. This app is one pretty much every astronomer could use, with options to set up optimal eyepiece and telescope combinations for specific observations. If you want to know the magnification or field of view your eyepiece will deliver in the scope you add it to, this is a very handy app to have.

Field of View Calculator

operating system: ios

Best for: Helping ccd imagers (especially those with atik cameras) work out their imaging options level of astronomer: Intermediate to advanced cost: Free

Atik are renowned for making superb cameras and intuitive imaging software. This is a nice, free app for iOS devices that calculates the field of view for many popular objects relative to your telescope, its optical configuration and the CCD you are using. Knowing the spec of the CCD, this app could be used to support many other cameras setups too.