ABSTRACT
If you think that astronomy hardware has evolved rapidly in the last decade, that is nothing compared to astronomy software. In the same period the depth, breadth and platform support has increased exponentially and continues to do so. Interestingly, software development has been equally active on two fronts, amateur and professional. It is evident that several mount manufacturers emerged from purely mechanical engineering origins and their Achilles’ heel is software and firmware. In a few cases, some drivers and applications written by amateurs, often without commercial gain, outclass the OEM versions. At the same time, inexpensive applications for tablets and smart phones offer useful portable utilities. This explosion in software titles presents a fantastic opportunity and a bewildering dilemma at the same time. I hope the chapter on imaging equipment simplified some aspects. What follows is a high-level guide to installing, calibrating and using astronomy software for image capture. As you can imagine, no two installations are the same but at the same time there are many common threads that run through any system.
