Astrophotography Lab

What is Astrophotography Lab?

Astrophotography Lab (APLab) is a free program intended for anyone interested in astrophotography. It has two main purposes:

1. Interpreting data extracted from your astrophotos to produce useful information.
2. Using this information as a help for further improving your imaging results.

Here are some of the things you can do with APLab:

• Automatically estimate the optimal ISO and exposure time for the object you want to image.
• Automatically calculate gain, read noise, full-well capacity and other sensor characteristics of your camera.
• Calculate the signal-to-noise ratio, skyglow, dynamic range etc. simply by selecting areas of an image.
• Find out how camera settings and imaging conditions will affect your images by plotting graphs or simulating a synthetic image.
• Measure the field of view or angular distances in your image.
• Get useful information about your camera, optics, image and imaging conditions.
• Explore potential imaging targets by viewing their size in the field of view, and obtaining information about their location in the sky.

The program consists of five main tools: an analyser tool, a calculator tool, a simulator tool, a plotting tool and a field of view tool. The tools are connected, allowing you to transfer information between them, and easily go all the way from measuring your camera's sensor to finding the optimal settings and target for your next imaging session.

APLab supports a wide range of CCD and DSLR cameras and telescopes by default, and you can easily add the necessary information for your own equipment.

Check out the user guide for more information and download instructions.

New in v0.4.x:

• The Field of View Calculator.
• More reliable image handling in the Image Analyser.
• A more pleasant background colour.
• Other minor and less visible changes and fixes. See the latest readme for details.

History

29-03-2017: Version 0.4.2 released.
27-03-2017: Version 0.4.1 released.
11-03-2017: Version 0.4.0 released.
16-09-2015: First Ubuntu release.
12-09-2015: Version 0.3.0 released.
01-09-2015: User guide available.
26-08-2015: Update for v0.2.0 released.
19-08-2015: Version 0.2.0 released.
01-08-2015: Version 0.1.1 released.
27-07-2015: Initial release.