setiastrosuitepro 1.6.1

Seti Astro Suite Pro - Advanced astrophotography toolkit for image calibration, stacking, registration, photometry, and visualization

Seti Astro Suite Pro (SASpro)

Author: Franklin Marek

Website: www.setiastro.com

Other big contributors:

• Fabio Tempera
• Joaquin Rodriguez

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Overview

Seti Astro Suite Pro (SASpro) is an advanced astrophotography toolkit for image calibration, stacking, registration, photometry, and visualization. It targets both amateur and professional users by offering a graphical user interface, batch processing scripts, and extension points for automation.

Key goals:

• Produce repeatable, high-quality astrophotography results
• Expose advanced algorithms through an approachable GUI
• Keep the codebase modular and extensible for community contributions

SASpro is distributed as donationware — free to use, with an optional suggested donation.

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Features

• Multi-format image support: FITS, XISF, TIFF, RAW, PNG, JPEG
• Calibration pipelines (bias/dark/flat), registration and stacking
• Star detection, aperture photometry, astrometry helpers
• Color calibration, white balance, background neutralization
• Blemish removal, aberration correction, and AI-based tools
• Batch processing and scripting interfaces
• Catalog support and CSV-based custom catalogs
• Export and integration helpers (e.g., AstroBin)

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Architecture and Project Layout

This project follows a modular layout. High-level modules and responsibilities:

• pro/ - Primary application modules, UI, resources and business logic.
• imageops/ - Image processing utilities and algorithms.
• ops/ - Application-level operations, settings, and script runner.
• scripts/ - Example scripts and small utilities that demonstrate automation.
• data/ - Bundled data files and catalogs. (See data/catalogs/ for CSV files.)
• logs/ - Runtime logs produced during development or packaged runs.
• config/ - Packaging specs and configuration files.
• build/ - Packaging and distribution scripts.

Files of note:

• setiastrosuitepro.py - Application entrypoint used for development and direct runs.
• setiastrosuitepro_mac.spec - PyInstaller spec for macOS packaging.
• SASP_data.fits - Large dataset used by the app.
• astrobin_filters.csv and other CSV catalogs are under data/catalogs/.

Example tree (abridged):

setiastrosuitepro/
├── pro/
├── imageops/
├── ops/
├── scripts/
├── data/
│   ├── SASP_data.fits
│   └── catalogs/
│       ├── astrobin_filters.csv
│       └── celestial_catalog.csv
├── logs/
├── config/
├── build/
├── requirements.txt
├── setiastrosuitepro.py
└── README.md

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Quick Start — Development (Windows PowerShell example)

This section shows a minimal reproducible development setup using a Python virtual environment.

1. Open PowerShell and navigate to the project root.

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

python -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

3. Upgrade pip and install dependencies:

python -m pip install --upgrade pip
pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run the application (development mode):

python setiastrosuitepro.py

Notes:

• Use Activate.bat on Windows CMD, or source .venv/bin/activate on macOS/Linux.
• If you run into permission issues with Activate.ps1, you may need to change the execution policy temporarily:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process

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Dependency Management

This project uses Poetry for dependency management. The requirements.txt file is automatically generated from pyproject.toml to maintain backward compatibility with users who prefer pip.

For maintainers/contributors:

• Dependencies are defined in pyproject.toml
• After modifying dependencies, regenerate requirements.txt:

  poetry run python ops/export_requirements.py
  

• Or manually: poetry export -f requirements.txt --without-hashes --without dev -o requirements.txt

For users:

• Continue using pip install -r requirements.txt as usual
• The requirements.txt file is kept up-to-date and ready to use

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Running a Packaged App

• Packagers like PyInstaller or similar are used to create distributables. See setiastrosuitepro_mac.spec and create_dmg.sh for packaging examples.
• When packaged, resources such as SASP_data.fits and astrobin_filters.csv are expected under the internal resources path. The application code resolves their paths using the pro.resources helpers.

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Data & Catalogs

• All CSV catalogs and reference data are in data/catalogs/.
• Large dataset files (e.g. SASP_data.fits) are in data/ and are added to .gitignore when appropriate to avoid committing large binaries.
• If you add custom catalogs, follow the existing CSV schema and update pro/resources.py or use get_data_path() helper to resolve them.

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Logging

• During development the app writes saspro.log into the project logs/ directory (or into per-platform user log directories when running installed builds).
• Log file location logic is implemented in setiastrosuitepro.py — keep logs/ writeable for easier debugging.

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Testing

• Unit and integration tests can be created under a tests/ directory and run with pytest.
• Example:

pip install pytest
pytest -q

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Packaging Notes

• The repository contains a PyInstaller .spec file and helper scripts for macOS packaging.
• Typical packaging flow (example with PyInstaller):

pip install pyinstaller
pyinstaller --clean -y config\setiastrosuitepro_mac.spec

Adjust spec paths to include data/ and data/catalogs/ as needed.

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Contributing

• Fork the repository and create a feature branch.
• Keep changes atomic and include tests when possible.
• Open a pull request describing the change and the reasoning.
• See CONTRIBUTING.md for repository-specific guidelines.

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Troubleshooting

• If the app cannot find a CSV or FITS file, verify the data/ and data/catalogs/ directories are present in the project root or that packaged resources are included during build.
• Common issues:
  • Missing dependencies: run pip install -r requirements.txt.
  • Permission errors when writing logs: ensure logs/ is writeable or run with elevated privileges during packaging.

If you hit a reproducible bug, open an issue and attach the saspro.log file.

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License

• SASpro is licensed under GNU GPLv3. See LICENSE for details.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the open-source projects and contributors used by SASpro.

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Contact & Links

• Website: https://www.setiastro.com
• Source: https://github.com/setiastro/setiastrosuitepro
• Issues: https://github.com/setiastro/setiastrosuitepro/issues

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