INDIGO A1

This is a superb integrated piece of software that does everything; camera control, mount control, guiding control, and control of whatever you decide to attach to your setup. You can run everything directly on your Mac, or use a raspberry Pi at your scope (running a free image) and sit inside on your Mac/iPad and see the magic unfold. The software is largely self explanatory, but if you need some help, app support is fast, friendly and awesome. If you play in the MacOS sandbox, and refuse to buy an inferior computer to run your rig, Indigo is the way to.

My only regret is not discovering the Indigo suite earlier. My only complaint is that the existing documentation expects a level of familiarity that entry-level astro people simply won’t have. If you go in expecting a high learning curve and understanding that you will need to scour discussion forums, manuals, and online errata for all of your equipment (welcome to amateur astronomy!), then you’ll be well prepared to dive in. One note: This suite *does* include plate solving functionality, but it does *not* include the Astrometry app, which is a *free* download from the Cloudmakers website. If you want to use plate-solving, you will need to download that program and run it in the background while you’re running Indigo A1. Otherwise you’ll get an error that Indigo Astrometry failed to start. Clear skies!

Can’t say enough. It’s native Mac. It’s a great place to start with astronomy and astrophotography. You can use it to control a camera (DSLR or Astro). You can use it to control a mount. It can guide. The capability is all there, and its utility expands with your astrophotography experience. The way an iPad works with it is amazing. You can connect all your astro hardware directly to your Mac, or you can add a Raspberry Pi server and easily make a WiFi link to your hardware (no more cables). Can’t say enough good things about it. And if all that isn’t enough, the developers pay close attention to requests from users and will develop an update to resolve an issue or add a feature very quickly. It’s actively maintained. Great.