Software Stacks & Community Tools

Software plays a vital role across all my observing, imaging, and community outreach efforts. My software ecosystem is divided into three functional stacks.

SWatnight.jpg My control panel behind ΒΌ" red acrylic

1. Visual Observing Stack

  • Target Logging & Charting: SkyTools 4 serves as my primary database for target selection and visual logging. For real-time sky maps, I use Cartes du Ciel and I am actively transitioning toward KStars due to CDC's stagnation.
  • Mount Control: Custom StarMaster ASCOM Driver interfaced via a serial-to-Bluetooth wireless adapter for wireless go-to and tracking control.
  • Plate-Solving Hardware: PiFinder standalone plate-solver for instant position verification at the eyepiece.

2. Astrophotography & Processing Stack

  • Deep-Sky Acquisition: Driven primarily by N.I.N.A. for sequence execution, automated polar alignment, and focusing, paired with ASTAP and PlateSolve3 for plate solving.
  • Guiding & Mount Control: PHD2 for auto-guiding, interfaced with Green Swamp Software (GS Server) for mount kinematics.
  • Solar Capture: FireCapture, IMPPG, and AutoStakkert! for high-speed solar frame stack analysis.
  • Utilities: SharpCap for sensor analisys.
  • Post-Processing: PixInsight enhanced with the RC-Astro plugin suite (BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator).

![[IMAGE PLACEHOLDER: Screenshots of Clear Sky Alarm Clock and Tonight's Sky web interfaces]]

3. Community Web Applications & Freeware

I develop and host custom web applications designed to solve real-world observing challenges for the broader amateur astronomy community:

Clear Sky Alarm Clock (CSAC)

Born out of my own desire never to miss a rare night of exceptional transparency and seeing. The tool monitors local weather model forecasts automatically and sends email-based alerts when clear sky conditions are predicted. Following the passing of Attilla Danko (creator of Clear Dark Sky / Clear Sky Charts), plans are underway to transition stewardship of this tool directly to the Clear Dark Sky team.

Tonight's Sky

A custom astronomical ephemeris utility rewritten in 2024. Unlike standard planetarium tools that simply list object positions, Tonight's Sky calculates whether specific targets are actually observable through your specific telescope aperture under your local sky light-pollution conditions. It is a first step toward planning a night under the stars.

Star Hop

An interactive star-chart generation utility designed specifically for manual deep-sky visual hunting. It generates clean, step-by-step visual star-hopping paths between bright reference stars and faint target fields.

Astro Helper

A beginner-focused target finder. Currently covering Messier and Caldwell objects, Astro Helper is staged for a full architectural rewrite that will integrate directly with Tonight's Sky and Star Hop.

PiFinder Open-Source Contributions

As an active contributor to the open-source PiFinder project on GitHub, I write custom dataset loaders (including catalog intake scripts for the Harris Globular Cluster Catalog and Lynga Open Cluster Catalog) and am currently developing intake code for quasar datasets.