Introducing Astro Planner: web tool for astrophotography planning and recommendations - Forums

Topic starter

New contributor

3 days ago

Hello everyone,

I’d like to introduce a small tool I’ve built over the last few weeks for my own imaging nights: Astro Planner – a web-based planning tool for astrophotography that helps answer the question: "What is actually worth shooting tonight?"

You can try it out here: https://astro-planner.adfr.io/

What is it about?

While I always had lists of galaxies, emission nebulae, and star clusters, the decision in practice almost always depends on the same factors:

Is the object actually high enough above the horizon for a sufficient amount of time tonight?

Does it fit my field of view (focal length, sensor)?
How much will the moon and light pollution interfere?
Is broadband or narrowband more suitable?

This is exactly where Astro Planner comes in: instead of clicking through individual objects, the tool evaluates a large number of deep-sky objects specifically for the chosen night and generates a sorted recommendation list.

What does Astro Planner take into account?

Depending on the configuration, the tool considers:

Observation date (including astronomical night).

Moon phase/altitude and its impact on brightness/interference.
Location.
Rough horizon restrictions (blocked directions).
Light pollution.
Optics (aperture/focal length) and camera/sensor.
Filters (e.g., broadband vs. narrowband).

The result is not just a "visible/invisible" toggle, but a practical ranking based on "what is worth it tonight with my specific setup."

How is it evaluated?

The ranking uses practical heuristics such as:

Minimum altitude above the horizon + time spent above that limit.

FOV/Framing (compatibility with sensor and focal length).
Object brightness/magnitude limits.
Moon penalty in combination with filter suitability.
An "Imaging Ease" score depending on the setup.

Catalog

Currently, Astro Planner uses a catalog of over 7,000 deep-sky objects (galaxies, nebulae, star clusters), consistently evaluated against your setup and conditions.

New Features

I have recently added several new features:

Object Search: Quickly find specific targets.

Weather Integration: Displays a forecast for the selected night and automatically adjusts the usable time window based on conditions.
Planning Mode: Shows the best time windows over the coming year to capture a specific object, including a calendar export function.

Feedback Welcome

I use the tool regularly myself and would love to hear your feedback: What are you missing? What edge cases are important to you? Which criteria would you weight differently?

I’ve described more details (including background and motivation) here:

https://adfr.io/thoughts/20260126_introducing_astro_planner

Clear skies!

Martin S.

3 days ago

Hi Frank, it looks very interesting!

Just playing with it for a few minutes under cloudy sky - so no recommendations for me today :-(
Anyway, some quick comments:

- Providing coordinates manually should be improved to understand more formats (e.g. xx°xx'xx.x"N x°xx'xx.x"E). I had to use some converter and even after it refused to accept the number because it had too many decimal points.

- For me the most missing part is a thumbnail for recommended objects. Unfortunately, a catalog number is not so helpful for me. Or at least direct link to wiki or some other source.

- A star map might be useful too.

Thanks for sharing it. I will add it to my bookmarks ;-)

Regards,
Martin

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John Tucker

3 days ago

Love it. Bookmarked and will use instead of Telescopius. Agree with Martin that some pics would add a lot to the app.

apennine104

3 days ago

Hi Frank, amazing job developing this tool! I think the UI is very aesthetically pleasing and straightforward. I agree adding an image of the object and perhaps their “common names” could add to the usability.

Maybe make an option to not filter the objects out by focal length, or an option to select frame fill desired. I think it’s set to 50% by default? For example, I set mid-March and for galaxies and a focal length of 749mm, it recommends no galaxies. But, if I set it to 1000mm then M81 appears. In my opinion, M81 look good in a wide FOV image, and other galaxies too.

For the object types, perhaps an “uncheck all” option, so if you just want to look for reflection nebula, you don’t have to uncheck everything individually. But, very minor…

Thank you for making this,

Chris

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Tony Gondola

Frequent contributor

2 days ago

Not a useful tool for me as it doesn’t include the 585 in the list of sensors.

Well Written

Frank Adler

Topic starter

New contributor

2 days ago

Tony Gondola · Feb 4, 2026 at 04:15 PM
Not a useful tool for me as it doesn’t include the 585 in the list of sensors.

Can easily be added and you can input the details manually already (custom sensor).

Guillermo (Guy) Yanez

2 days ago

Nice job. I would recommend a new name for your online app as Astroplanner is already in use. It is an old trusty piece of software for planning (https://www.astroplanner.net/). Consider asking AI to provide a comprehensive list of cameras and filters for your drop-down menu bar. An option to uncheck every object from the drop-down menu would be nice too.

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Tony Gondola

Frequent contributor

2 days ago

Frank Adler · Feb 4, 2026, 04:24 PM
Tony Gondola · Feb 4, 2026 at 04:15 PM
Not a useful tool for me as it doesn’t include the 585 in the list of sensors.
Can easily be added and you can input the details manually already (custom sensor).

Great, I’ll give it another look…

Frank Adler

Topic starter

New contributor

8 hours ago

Thank you for all your ideas - I’ll work on them =)

Today, I’d like to share a next step for me - a new name and a proper domain. The app is now named Skywarden and is accessible at https://skywarden.app.