Resources

WHATS IN THE SKY TONIGHT

Astronomy Friends New Braunfels – Our club’s FaceBook page.

Metroblue Astronomy Weather Forecast including seeing at your location!

TPML Clear Sky Chart  – Forecast of viewing conditions in the vicinity of the Tye Preston Memorial Library in Canyon Lake, TX.

Sky an Telescope Interactive Sky Chart  – Create a chart of the night sky for any evening.  Allow location access or enter your zip code.

Tonight’s Sky  – Create a viewing plan containing stars, planets, galaxies, nebulas, etc.  Be sure to update the lattitude to 29.85 and the longitude to -98.1.

Heavens Above  – Track satellites, the ISS, comets, asteroids, planets, etc.  Coordinates are set for Comal County, TX.

Sky Maps – Download a monthly PDF of whats in the night sky.

IAU Minor Planet Center  – Learn about and track near earth astroids.

NOAA Space Weather  – Heading North?  Check out this link for the daily aurora forecast.

Astronomy Magazine  – Anything and everything related to astronomy from space telescopes to backyard viewing.

Sky and Telescope Magazine  – Another Anything and everything site related to astronomy.

Astronomy Tools – Resources and calculators.  The link goes straight to a field of view calculator to see what an object will look like in your eyepiece or camera.

DARK SKIES

Comal County Friends of the Night Sky  – Our local group working to preserve the night sky by addressing light pollution in the area.  Also on FaceBook.

Hill Country Alliance – Night Skies  – The Hill Country Alliance night sky initiative

McDonald Observatory Dark Sky Initiative 

International Dark-Sky Association  – Protecting the night sky for future generations.

Light Pollution Map  – Visual interpretation of light pollution in Comal County as well as anywhere in the world.

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

Skies and Scopes  – How to use your smart phone for astrophotography.

Amateur Astrophotography – Getting started with Astrophotography

DSLR Astrophotography – Using your DSLR for Astrophotography – settings, tips, etc.

Astrophotography Tool  – Camera and accessory control and image recognition, even with your old Cannon or Nikon DSLR (Free!).

N.I.N.A  – Camera and accessory control and image recognition (Free!).

Deep Sky Stacker  – Register and stack multiple sub frames to improve your photos (Free!).

PixInsight  – Post processing of astrophotography images.

PHD2  – Guide your equatorial telescope mount with your computer (Free!).

 

SMART PHONE APPS (CHECK YOUR APP STORE)

Best Star Gazing Apps for IOS and Android – Outline of various apps.

Sky Safari  – Whats that in the sky?  Hold your phone up to see what it is (iOS and Android).

Polar Scope Align Pro  – Easily set up your equatorial telescope mount to point at the true celestial pole (iOS).

Polar Finder Pro  – Easily set up your equatorial telescope mount to point at the true celestial pole (Android).