Calibrate, stack and finish your deep-sky images.
AfterNight is a free, open-source astrophotography processing suite for Windows and Linux: one native application from the first calibration frame to the finished image.
From a folder of subs to a finished image.
Image Integration is one guided workflow: drop your frames, match the calibration, and let the stages run. Every artifact is stamped, so a rerun reuses what is still valid. Process windows then finish the master.
01Calibrate
Bias, dark and flat masters, cosmetic correction, debayer and CFA tools. Calibration matching is decided from the frame metadata, not guessed.
Image calibration →
02Register and solve
Star detection, sub-pixel registration and plate solving with SIP distortion. Astrometric overlays show the solution on the image.
Image registration →
03Integrate
Sigma-clipped and weighted stacking, normalization, rejection maps and drizzle, as one multi-stage workflow with a project file and autosave.
Image integration →
04Finish
Gradient removal, photometric and spectrophotometric colour calibration, stretches, noise reduction, sharpening, star reduction and masks. Most process windows preview their result before it is applied, and every applied step stays in the image history.
Process reference →
M20, the Trifid Nebula
An emission nebula split by dark dust lanes beside a blue reflection nebula, in a dense star field towards the centre of the Milky Way.
How it is built, written down
The author's blog explains the engineering behind AfterNight, post by post: the problem, the code, the measured numbers, and what did not work.
The Building AfterNight series →Bring the tools you already use.
Extensions are Python packages installed from the Extension Manager inside the app. The official repository publishes adapters for popular external tools, and you can write your own.
Cosmic Clarity
Cosmic Clarity denoise, satellite trail removal, dark-star, sharpening, and super-resolution workflows hosted through the extension runtime.
GraXpert AI
GraXpert background extraction, denoise, and deconvolution processes hosted through the extension runtime.
RC-Astro XTerminators
Adapter for user-installed RC-Astro BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, and NoiseXTerminator CLI tools.
VeraLux Suite
VeraLux astrophotography post-processing suite ported from the original VeraLux scripts.
AfterNight 1.0.0
64-bit builds for Windows 10/11 and Linux. The installer bundles Qt, the Python runtime for extensions and the offline user guide.
SHA-256 checksums, release notes and previous versions are on the GitHub release page. All releases