Planetarium programs will allow you to control and point your Go To mount. You'll also be able to see your images at a larger size on your computer screen compared to the LCD on the back of the camera. You can use software metrics to help you focus as well as program in a series of long exposures and pauses between them. The price to be paid for this, however, is additional complexity, powering a laptop computer at the scope at a dark-sky remote observing location, dealing with USB connection issues, and cable routing.Ĭamera control software will allow almost complete control of the camera while you sit at the laptop computer. Dithering is changing the scope pointing a small amount between exposures to help deal with noise and hot pixels in the images. Once you get a little more advanced, using a laptop at the scope can make pointing and camera control a little bit easier and also allow more advanced techniques such autoguiding, and dithering.
I didn't even have a Go To mount, I just used setting circles and star charts. I shot without a computer at the telescope for 20 years back in the days of film before digital cameras. You can focus with Live View, and then take test exposures to determine the correct exposure and framing of the object you want to shoot. When you first start out it is much easier to skip the computer. You don't really need a computer and software at the telescope to shoot astrophotos.
