1. WebUpdater for Mac software version 2.2.1. As of September 29, 2020. Download (13.07 MB) View installation instructions. Notes: WebUpdater guides you through the process of updating the software in your GPS. WebUpdater finds the most appropriate update for your GPS from the Garmin web site and performs the update.
2. Mac OS 9 was the ninth major release of Apple's classic Mac OS operating system which was succeeded by OS X.Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as 'The Best Internet Operating System Ever', highlighting Sherlock 2's Internet search capabilities, integration with Apple's free online services known as iTools and improved Open Transport networking.

1. Astrarun Mac Os X
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3. Astrarun Mac Os Catalina

AstroImager is a member of our astrophotography tools family including AstroDSLR, AstroTelescope, AstroGuider, FITS Preview, INDIGO Server for OS X, INDIGO Control Panel, INDIGO Dashboard and Astrometry for OS X.

Post-processing astrophotography images is mandatory: you cannot avoid it. It can be a fairly long and technical process, but it is necessary to squeeze out the most you can from your images.

Everything begins with pre-processing your images, a step including image calibration and image stacking, which we have already covered in this article.

After that, it is time to post-process your stacked image with your software of choice. In this article, we will discuss the different options that are available to post-process your astrophotography images.

Note: Don’t miss the detailed video at the end of this article, It was created to help show you how to process your images with some of the software mentioned in this article.
Click here to skip to our Image Processing Demo Video.

What Does Post-Processing Mean In Astrophotography?

In astrophotography, the post-processing includes steps that are crucial to the quality of the final image. Those steps can be summarized as:

• Histogram stretching
• Gradients and light pollution removal
• Stars color calibration
• Stars reduction and Stars removal
• Sharpening and noise reduction
• Final tweaks

Of the steps mentioned above, it is worth to spend a few words on the Histogram Stretching, as it is of utmost importance in deep-sky astrophotography.

What Histogram Stretching Is And Why You Need It

With image stacking, you have combined all your light frames (the actual images of the sky) into a single image with an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio.

With deep sky astrophotography, this stacked image can be surprisingly dark, with only a few bright stars visible.

There is nothing wrong with it, as all the details and information are there, but hidden in the dark background. And this is why this process also goes under the name of background extraction.

Histogram stretching can be done manually using Adobe Photoshop or in automatic/semi-automatic way using astrophotography software such as Astro Pixel Processor, Star Tools, or His Majesty PixInsight.

A rigorous explanation on how digital data are recorded and how the histogram works can become fairly technical and is beyond the scope of this article.

To keep it simple, let’s say that when you perform the stretching of the histogram, you are broadening the histogram. Thus pushing details that were crammed in the blacks towards the middle tones.

And you do that slowly, in small steps, to ensure retaining the best possible image quality.

The process allows us to take full advantage of the image stacking process, and it results in a cleaner, brighter image with a lot of details that were not visible (or barely visible) in the single exposures.

Stars Reduction / Stars Removal

Star reduction is another process that is standard when editing deep-sky astrophotography.

While it seems odd that you want to shrink or remove stars from a photo about stars, this process aims to make the multitude of visible stars in the image less imposing and distracting.

By reducing enlarged stars due to the histogram stretching and by removing the smallest stars, you make the deep sky objects in the image more visible, as shown in the image below.

The procedure is particularly useful when shooting deep-sky objects, such as nebulae, that are in the Milky Way Band.

Software For Astrophotography Post-Processing

We can group the software for astrophotography post-processing in two categories:

1. generic photo editors, such as Photoshop, Gimp, Affinity Photo, etc.
2. Astrophotography editors, such as StarTools, Nebulosity, Astro Pixel Processor, Pixinsight, etc.

The main advantage of generic photo editors over specific astrophotography editors is versatility.

With a generic photo editor, it is easy to post-process all kinds of astrophotography, from deep-sky imaging to lunar and planetary shots, passing for star trails and starry landscapes.

In this article, for example, we discussed how to stack starry landscape images in Photoshop.

Not many astrophotography editors are this flexible.

Here is a list of software that are most commonly used to post-process astrophotography images.

Adobe Lightroom CC

Generic Photo Editor Commercial From $9.99 Subscription Plan Windows, Mac OS X, IOS

Pros

• Easy to use
• Powerful image development and image organizer
• Easy integration with Photoshop
• Can use photographic plugins

Cons

• Can’t do the complex editing needed for astrophotography (histogram stretching, Stars Reduction, etc)
• Limited to cosmetic tweaks

Adobe Lightroom is a popular, easy to use and fairly powerful RAW developer and image organizer.

Its usefulness in astrophotography is somewhat limited, as you cannot perform complex tasks such as histogram stretching, advanced light pollution, and gradient removal, star reduction, etc.

On the other hand, it is a terrific editor for the final cosmetic tweaks to your image and to organize them in collections, per tag, and location. Lightroom is also great for color proofing your images before printing them.

If you are subscribing to the Adobe Photography Plan, you also have Photoshop CC included for free. And here is where things get interesting.

To get the best from the two worlds, load your stacked images in Lightroom, organize them in collections, and call Photoshop from within Lightroom for the astro-specific editing (histogram stretching, etc.).

Then make the final tweaks in Lightroom.

Adobe Photoshop CC

Generic Photo Editor Commercial From $9.99 Subscription Plan Windows, Mac OS X, IOS

Pros

• Versatile and Powerful Photo Editor / Image Manipulation Software
• Suitable for deep sky and planetary astrophotography as well as star trails and starry landscapes
• Astrophotography Action Sets and Plugins Available
• Subscription Plan with Photography Bundle

Cons

• Lacks Some Advanced Features for Astrophotography

Photoshop is one of the most commonly used software in the field of photography editing and image manipulation, and it can be used to post-process astrophotography work.

If you are a beginner astrophotographer, you are on a tight budget or you already own Photoshop, you should give it a try as all the basic post-processing steps can be performed in this software.

If you need more advanced features, you can also expand Photoshop capabilities thanks to many astrophotography related Action Sets, Plugins, and Panels.

Finally, with Camera Raw filter and other photographic plugins (like for smart sharpening and advance noise reduction), you can perform with ease all the final tweaks an image may need.

As a Photoshop user, I tried many plugins and action sets for astrophotography, and here is my must-have extensions list.

Astronomy Tools by ProDigital

Actions Pack For Deep Sky Astrophotography Commercial $21.95 Windows, Mac OS X

A rich set of actions suitable for post-processing astrophotography images. The set includes actions such as star reduction, enhanced DSO, light pollution and color gradient removal, sharpening, and noise reduction.

Photokemi’s Star Tools by Ken Mitchel

Actions Pack For Deep Sky Astrophotography Commercial $14.95 Windows, Mac OSX

Similarly to Astronomy Tools, this action set is most useful for deep space astrophotography.

It offers advanced star removal and star reducing actions, semi-automatic histogram stretching, different sharpening and noise reduction actions, as well as actions such as nebula filters and star color enhancement.

There is also a set of extra actions, available for $6.95.

GradientXterminator by Russell Croman

Plugin For Deep Sky Astrophotography Commercial $49.95 Windows, Mac OS X

This plugin is a gradient removal tool that is easy to use and extremely effective. Despite a rather steep price (a trial is available for you to test the plugin), this is a terrific add-on for Photoshop, if you are serious about deep-sky astrophotography.

Hasta La Vista Green! (HLVG) by Regelio Bernard Andreo

Plugin For Deep Sky Astrophotography Donationware Windows

Despite its old age, this plugin is still useful, and it does an excellent job of removing green noise and the green casts such noise may cause in some images.

Astro Panel By Angelo Perrone

Panel For Starry Landscape And Deep Sky Astrophotography Commercial Windows, Mac OS X

Astro Panel consists of a rich set of functions and methods that produce high quality starry landscapes and Milky Way images.

It is also easy to process Deep Sky Photos thanks to advanced functions for reducing digital noise and hot-pixels, eliminating the gradient, managing artificial flat, and much more …

Furthermore, astronomical images aside, you can use the Astro Panel to edit classic landscape images too.

Affinity Photo

Generic Photo Editor Commercial $49.99 Windows, Mac OS X, IOS ($19.99)

Pros

• Affordable
• Powerful
• The interface and commands are similar to Photoshop for an easy switch
• Suitable for deep sky and planetary astrophotography as well as star trails and starry landscapes

Cons

• Lacks third-party actions sets, plugins and panels

Affinity Photo from Serif Lab is a great, affordable alternative to Photoshop, and you do not need to pay for a subscription plan.

With Affinity Photo, you can carry out with ease all of the basic astrophotography post-processing.

But since there are no plugins, action sets, and panels to help you out, you have to learn to do things manually, even the more advanced tasks such as star reduction.

Gimp

Photo Editor Freeware Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Pros

• Freeware
• Great community and lot of info available
• Powerful
• Suitable for deep sky and planetary astrophotography as well as star trails and starry landscapes

Cons

• Interface a bit confused
• Lacks third-party actions sets, plugins and panels

Gimp is the historical freeware alternative to Photoshop. Since it is freeware and on the market for many years, there is a big community of users, so it is easy to find relevant tutorials and guides to help you out.

The software has a slightly confusing interface, particularly if you are trying to switch from Photoshop, but it is powerful enough to let you edit your astrophotography images with ease.

Unfortunately, there are no third-party action sets, plugins, or panels to help you automate some tasks. As with Affinity Photo, you have to learn how to do everything manually.

Star Tools

Astrophotography Post-Processing Tools Commercial $45 Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Pros

• Affordable
• Multiplatform
• Offers many advanced tools
• Trial without time limit

Cons

• Interface bit confusing
• Convoluted workflow
• Slower than other software

StarTools is a deep-sky post-process editor that does everything you need except the initial light frame calibration and stacking.

Once you have the stacked image from, say, Deep Sky Stacker, you can post-process it in StarTools, taking advantage of the many tools the software has to offer.

The interface is a bit confusing, and it may take a while to get used to the convoluted editing workflow.

Fortunately, the trial version never expires, so you can take all the time you need to experiment with StarTools before deciding if it is for you or not. The only limitation of the trial is that you cannot save your results.

SiriL

Multipurpose Astrophotography Editor Freeware Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Pros

• Freeware
• Multiplatform
• Active Development
• Suitable for different kinds of astrophotography
• Fairly easy to use
• Powerful full-grown astrophotography software

Cons

• Develop the image is a lengthy process
• Interface a bit confused

I’m no expert with SiriL, but it is probably the only full-grown astrophotography editor that is freeware and multiplatform.

Siril will allow you to perform all the essential steps in your astrophotography editing workflow, from image calibration and stacking to (manual or auto) histogram stretching and post-processing.

Since it is free, if you are looking for an astrophotography package, SirilL is worth downloading and having a go with it.

Nebulosity

Deep Sky Astrophotography Editor Commercial $95 Windows, Mac OS X

Pros

• Capable full astrophotography editor
• Can calibrate and stack your images
• It offers many advanced tools

Cons

• Not abandonware, but development is somehow slow
• The interface feels old and not very user friendly

Nebulosity 4 was my first software specific to astrophotography. It is intended for deep sky astrophotography and is fairly easy to use.

It offers a good way to calibrate and stack your images, and you can use it for stretching the histogram, tighten the stars, calibrate the background colors, and perform sharpening and noise reduction.

But the interface is not as intuitive, it looks “old,” and while development is there, it is not as quick compared with other software.

Astro Pixel Processor

Deep Sky Astrophotography Editor Commercial €60/Yr (Renter’s License) Or €150 (Owner’s Renter) Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Pro

• Great deep sky astrophotography package
• Powerful
• Easy to use
• Batch processing
• 30-days free trial available
• Suitable for creating stunning mosaic with ease
• Active development
• Rental license available

Cons

• Vignetting removal tool could be better
• No Stars Reduction methods available

Astro Pixel Processor is my goto software for my deep sky astrophotography and I decided to go with the renter’s license to always work with the latest version of the software.

The interface is easy to navigate, options are explained by text messages that appear when you hover on the options with the mouse, and the different tabs are numbered.

This means that there is no guessing in establishing the best workflow: just follow the numbers from 1 to 6 and jump at the tab number 9 for post-processing the stacked image.

You can run all the steps once at a time or set them up and run all with a batch processing: this way, you can do other stuff while the software calibrates and stacks your images.

If you are looking for a way to edit your deep-sky images and create mosaics, I vouch for Astro Pixel Processor.

PixInsight

Multipurpose Astrophotography Editor Commercial €230+VAT Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Pros

• The best and most complete astrophotography editor on the market
• Multiplatform
• Suitable for Planetary and Deep-Sky astrophotography
• 45-days free trial available

Cons

• Expensive
• Extremely steep learning curve
• Requires a powerful computer to run smoothly and conveniently fast

I will be honest with you: I requested a trial (and it was granted twice), but both times I ran away from PixInsight screaming in despair.

Not that PixInsight is bad or lacks crucial functions, but because it is very complicated to use for beginners and the learning curve is very steep.

Granted, PixInsight, being the software of refinement for the category, there are tons of tutorials and guides online (Light Vortex Astronomy has some of the best ones and are free). But you need to spend a lot of time in front of your computer, particularly if you have an old one.

But if you can master it, you will be rewarded with Pro-grade deep sky astrophotography images.

A Comprehensive Video About Post-Processing

In this video, I show you how to post-process a deep sky image using some of the software discussed in this article.

While it is not a complete tutorial in post-processing deep sky images, it gives you a feeling of how easy (or not) is to use those software and where they differ.

Conclusions

Stacking astrophotography images is only the first step in the lengthy astrophotography editing process. In this article, we have discussed the different software that is available to post-process the stacked image to obtain a compelling image of the night sky.

Some are free, some are commercial, some are specific to deep sky astrophotography while others are generic photography editors, and they all have their pros and cons.

This guide will help you to decide which software is best for you.

Personally, I am a fan of Astro Pixel Processor for deep sky astrophotography, as it is powerful and easy to use, and of Photoshop for its flexibility.

Thoughts on switching from Mac to Windows

I’ve been a Mac user since 1993, so it was personally a big deal when I decided to make the switch to Windows this past year. The drastic change was instigated when my company, Astropad, began developing our products to bring them cross-platform (you can follow our Windows progress here). As the CEO of Astropad, I knew I needed to become intimately familiar with Windows so that we could port our products in a way that would respect the Windows environment. I believed that the only way to do that was to dive head-first into running Windows in my own workspace.

When I first made the switch, I used Windows as my daily driver for a few months. I was surprised when I ended up preferring my Windows laptop over my Mac for certain tasks, especially for writing. Once I was comfortable in the Windows environment, I molded my workflow to accommodate both Mac and Windows. These days, I have both my Mac and PC set up in my home office, and I switch between them nearly every day.

As I reflect on my journey to Windows, here are some of the significant hardware and software considerations I made along the way.

Exploring Windows hardware

Choosing a model

My first impression of the Windows world was that shopping for a PC was a complete nightmare. The PC ecosystem is a total Cambrian explosion of models, configurations, and special offers. People complain about how confusing Apple’s product line up is, but it seems rather straightforward when compared to the PC market.

I had to consult a multitude of tech review sites before I ultimately settled on the Lenovo X1 Extreme —otherwiseit would have been near impossible to pick. These days, our entire engineering team is running on an array of PC laptops. When choosing models, a few of the review sites that we found the most helpful were: Windows Central, Tom’s Hardware, and Linus Tech Tips.

Price

What first struck me while purchasing a Windows laptop is how much computer I could get for my money. For the same price as a MacBook Pro, you can get a PC laptop with more CPU cores, more memory, a better graphics card, and a bigger hard drive. So it’s no surprise that creative pros that shop for performance have started buying PCs to replace Macs, especially those who work in 3D modeling.

And that’s only looking at laptops! When you start looking at desktop towers, the price-to-performance ratio is even greater. Apple’s Mac Pro looks like an overpriced boondoggle compared to what you can get in a reasonably priced PC tower.

Design and features

My Lenovo X1 Extreme is a 15” laptop with the black utilitarian design you’d expect from Lenovo. I’ve heard that Lenovo’s design gets mixed reviews, but I’ve personally always liked it. I appreciate that my Lenovo laptop has its own unique appearance — separate from my MacBook Pro — as opposed to the all of the copycat MacBook-lookalikes you see from many other PC manufacturers.

As far as the Lenovo keyboard design goes, I actually prefer it over my Macbook Pro when I’m doing a lot of writing. My Mac has one of the much-derided butterfly keyboards with poor travel and sticky keys. In comparison, the Lenovo keyboard is an absolute dream. I think it might be the nicest laptop keyboard I’ve ever used – it’s clicky and just so smooth.

Another great feature of the Lenovo is its full set of ports — no more USB-C dongles! It’s been incredibly convenient to have common ports on the computer, so I don’t have to parade around with USB-C dongles and hubs. They’ve also managed to keep it quite thin, which makes me wonder why Apple insisted on fetishizing design over usability by excluding everything but USB-C ports on their latest machines.

My Lenovo also has the features we’ve come to expect in a laptop; they’re fine, but nothing exhilarating. It has a decent trackpad but not nearly as nice as the Mac’s. It also has a fingerprint scanner that works most of the time, but again, it’s not as accurate as the Mac’s. It comes with touchscreen and stylus support, but the ergonomics are so weird and awkward that I never use it.

Speed

Major upside: the Lenovo is wicked fast. With 32GB of RAM, an NVidia GPU, and an 8 core Intel Core i9 CPU, this thing screams. For development work, the Lenovo has more than enough horsepower. The NVidia card is also powerful enough to drive my LG 5K Display, which was an important consideration for me, and the reason why I didn’t go with it’s more svelte sibling, the Lenovo X1 Carbon. When I’m using the laptop directly it has a built-in 4K HDR display that looks good and has drawn numerous compliments from family and friends.

The downsides

What don’t I like about the Lenovo X1 Extreme? It guzzles power and can overheat. I first noticed that my computer started to feel laggy when I had it in clamshell mode attached to my 5K display. When I realized that the computer was getting far too hot, I opened it up and it went back to its usual performance.

Another downside — the webcam is pretty terrible. Most laptop cameras aren’t great, but it’s worse than what’s on the Mac.

While this computer is powerful, it doesn’t have the greatest battery life – but that wasn’t a major concern for me. If it had been, I would probably have gone with the Lenovo X1 Carbon over this model. I can live with the shorter battery life, though, because the computer’s agility and slick keyboard make up for it. The software, however, is more of a mixed bag…

Adapting to the software

The biggest bummer about a PC laptop is Windows. After using Windows 10 for a few months, I’ve adapted enough to become productive. But in a perfect world, I would love to have PC hardware running MacOS — that would be the best of both worlds.

In college, I worked as a hospital technician, and we ran Windows XP. I can tell that Windows has come a long way since then, but it still leaves much to be desired. For example, high DPI displays are a bummer on Windows. On my built-in 4K display, some apps look super crisp and fantastic, while others are a jumble of fuzzy and blurry text. Even within Microsoft’s own apps, there’s inconsistent support for rendering high DPI text.

Default and cross-platform apps

The default apps on Windows 10 are also not the most reliable. For example, on the Mac you get a great Notes app, text editor, PDF viewer, and more, right out of the box. On Windows, I immediately had to go searching for third-party replacements.

For the most part though, the selection of native apps on Windows hasn’t interfered with getting work done because most of the apps I use are web-based and work great consistently on both (Mac and Windows) platforms. Under the hood, apps like Slack and Notion are actually powered by web technologies, which means you get the same experience across Mac and Windows.

Additionally, many of the apps I already use regularly are cross-platform, which made my switch to Windows pretty easy. These apps include Chrome, Slack, Notion, Zoom, Excel, Dropbox, Google Apps, Photoshop and 1Password. Plus, nearly all of these apps have cloud-based sync, making it easy to flip-flop between Mac and PC whenever I need to.

What I miss about macOS

That being said, there have been a few Mac apps that I’ve had to substitute as I’ve gone cross-platform. I had to switch from Textmate to Visual Studio Code, replace Sketch with Figma, and drop Agenda for OneNote. In most cases, the switch hasn’t been too bad and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with both Visual Studio Code and Figma.

There’s one Mac app for which I haven’t been able to find any replacement I like as much: Keynote. I make a lot of presentations and I’m fast at it. I have a prebuilt Astropad theme and the muscle memory to prove I’ve used Keynote a lot. What separates Keynote from alternative tools is how easy it is to create beautiful slides. I’ve tried other tools like Google Slides and Powerpoint, but they feel downright clunky. So for now, I stick with my Mac when I need to make a presentation.

In general, I also miss the seamless integration of the Apple ecosystem. I love how smooth it is to switch between my Mac and iPhone when it comes to iMessage, AirPods, and iCloud sync. The PC ecosystem just isn’t set up to offer the same harmony.

Development workflow

Astrarun Mac Os X

As a developer, I’ve been able to find a new normal on Windows. I’ve found Powershell to be a decent replacement for Terminal, but I really miss having the full Unix subsystem. I’ve been playing with the Windows Subsystem for Linux, but it’s too early to say whether it’s an adequate substitute. Visual Studio Code is a fantastic editor and Visual Studio is a highly capable IDE, even if it still feels a bit foreign. On the Mac, I used Homebrew to install packages and on Windows I’ve found Chocolatey to be a pretty reasonable alternative. Of course, if I’m doing any iOS development, I have to use my Mac, but that’s to be expected.

My final verdict

So, would I recommend other Mac users switch to Windows? The answer is, it depends.

If you’re someone like me who uses a lot of web-based apps and cross platform tools, making the switch is definitely worth a try. That’s especially the case if you work in graphics, audio, video, or 3D production, all of which benefit from the additional horsepower that a PC rig can provide. You’ll find a way more powerful computer for the equivalent cost of a Mac.

If you’re a Mac user who uses a lot of boutique third-party apps, you’re going to have a hard time. If you’re looking for the simplest possible computer and don’t want to fiddle with settings, you should also reconsider switching.

But for those of us that want a really powerful machine, use lots of cross-platform apps, and don’t mind fiddling — it’s worth checking out a PC!

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