Messier Planner is a free astrophotography planning tool. Learn all about it below from its creator, Tom McCrorie.
How Messier Planner Came About
When I first started planning my astronomy and astrophotography sessions, I did what most people do:
- I scribbled notes in notebooks
- I bookmarked websites
- I kept half-finished lists of objects I meant to image “sometime soon”
Then every clear night I found myself wasting precious dark hours trying to remember what I’d already done, what I’d planned, and what was actually worth pointing the telescope at.
I felt there needed to be a better, more visually exciting and engaging way to track the stuff and log stuff I had imaged.
Messier Planner was designed out of that frustration.
I didn’t want another bloated astronomy tool.
I definitely didn’t want something that felt like it had been built by people who’d never stood outside at 2am wondering whether clouds were about to roll in.
So I designed the Messier Planner tool as a free, forever-usable web-based astro-planning and digital log tool — something that helps you spend the right amount of time planning and to give you more time under the stars.
What is Messier Planner?
At its heart, the Messier Planner is a digital observing logbook and session planner.
But that description doesn’t really do it justice anymore.
Sure, it started with the Messier catalogue — because let’s be honest, Messier objects are where most of us cut our teeth. But it quickly grew beyond that.
Today, Messier Planner includes:
- Full Messier catalogue
- Full Caldwell catalogue
- Full Sharpless
- Full GUM catalogue
- All but most of the RCW
- A highly curated IC catalogue list
A perfectly curated selection of NGC, LBN and LDN objects, some of the good ones and some of the lesser known ones to challenge you. Some PGC coming soon!
And the best thing, it has the backing and support of some of the best amateur astronomers and astrophotographers, imaging some of the most amazing galaxies and nebula:
- Mike Selby
- Craig Stocks
- Adam Block
- Nick Fritz
- Chuck Ayoub
And many more amateur astronomers and astrophotographers who have been kind to let me use their image data to help populate the site. Thanks to you all!
How does it work?
All in all, you’re looking at close to 1,200 deep-sky targets — from bright beginner-friendly showpieces to faint, challenging nebulae that will test your patience, gear, and processing skills.
And crucially: it’s not just a list. It’s a purposeful astro-planning system.
This gives you a brilliant overview of what the object actually looks like, which of course inspires us more.
You can view them in so many easy and visually engaging ways on the web site; an easy to use planetarium or a searchable and filterable catalogue of some of your favourite objects.
One of my main goals was to make Messier Planner feel useful whether you have:
- a basic Dobsonian,
- a small refractor,
- or a full-blown imaging rig with filters, automation, and plate solving.
- or are a visual astronomer
You can:
- Intuitively plan upcoming observing or imaging sessions,
- Easily log what you’ve already observed or imaged,
- Easily track progress through different catalogues,
- and quickly see what’s left to tackle.
Instead of asking “What should I image next?” — the planner starts answering that question for you:
- Clear night coming up? You already know what targets you’ve shortlisted.
- Limited horizon? You’ve already filtered your options.
- Working through a catalogue? Your progress is right there.
It removes friction — which matters far more than people realise. and makes logging and planning a visually rich experience on your desktop computer or mobile device.
Most planning tools fail for one simple reason: they’re a pain to keep updated and silly feel too complex visually. Messier Planner is designed to be quick, informal, and forgiving. You can log:
- visual observations,
- imaging attempts,
- partial successes,
- total failures (we all have them),
- and future revisit notes.
- Future planning sessions and much much more.
You don’t need to write an essay unless you want to. A few notes for each session is enough.
The point is to capture your journey through the night sky — not to impress anyone else.
And because it’s web-based, it’s always there:
- Laptop in the observatory
- Tablet indoors
- Phone while you’re packing away at dawn
You can of course save it to your desktop as a PWS if you like using apps too. I know I do.
Can Beginners Use It?
If you’re new to astronomy or astrophotography, Messier Planner won’t overwhelm you.
You don’t need to understand everything straight away. You can:
- explore objects naturally,
- easily see when objects rise and set including a cool visibility timeline which highlights moon rise and set times alongside each object
- see your horizon LIVE using the Sky Atlas in the southern or northern Hemisphere.
- learn catalogue names as you go,
- and build confidence session by session.
At the same time, if you’re more experienced, the depth is there.
The broader object catalogues, the challenging targets, the long-term mega projects — it scales with you rather than boxing you in.
That balance was intentional.
With easy to reference tags and object descriptions with at your finger tips intro, it’s quickly becoming a hit with a lot of the community already.
Messier Planner is free to use today, tomorrow, and long into the future.
There are some ads on there that will hopefully help to fund it too.
There are no “upgrade now” banners screaming at you.
I wanted it to feel like a quiet corner of the internet where astronomy still feels calm and purposeful — a tool you return to because it helps, not because it nags.
Who Are You?
I’m Tom McCrorie — an amateur astronomer on @aztronoob and @picastroapp on insta, astrophotographer, and the founder of Picastro.
This started off as my personal project and the Messier Planner grew out of the same mindset as Picastro: build astro tools that respect the craft, the community, and the joy of discovery.
While Messier Planner sits happily on its own, it’s very much aligned with that wider philosophy:
- better tools, less noise, more time under the stars, amazing images!
- If you’ve ever found:
- forgotten what you’ve already observed,
- Got bored with endless lines of text in a CSV
- wasted a clear night deciding what to image,
- or felt your planning tools were working against you…
- or you’re always losing your bits of paper or Apple notes just isn’t visual and engaging enough then the Messier Planner was built for you.
You can start using it for free today at www.messierplanner.co.uk
No commitment. No pressure. Just a better way to plan, log, and explore the night sky — starting with tonight.