About AfterNight

An astrophotography processing suite written from scratch, by an astrophotographer who writes down every algorithm: the problem, the code and the numbers.

The project

AfterNight started in 2022 as a second engineering project for its author, Ezequiel Ruiz, a software engineer who processes his own deep-sky data. It is written in C++20 with a Qt 6 interface, runs on Windows and Linux from one codebase, and covers the whole path from calibration frames to a finished image: masters, registration, stacking, gradients, colour calibration, stretching, noise, stars and masks. A command-line tool ships beside the application, and Python extensions add tools from other projects.

The engineering behind it is written up on the author’s blog, in the Building AfterNight series: each post states the problem, shows the code, gives the measured numbers and says what did not work.

Licence and credits

AfterNight is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0. The source is on GitHub. It builds on open-source libraries and on algorithms ported from other projects; every derived file credits its upstream in the source, and the full list of dependencies and their licences is in the application’s About dialog and in the repository.

Privacy

This site sets no cookies and shows no consent banner. It is a static site hosted on GitHub Pages; GitHub’s servers see the requests, as for any website. If visitor counting is enabled it uses GoatCounter, which stores no personal data and needs no banner.

The application has no account, no telemetry and no cloud service. Calibration, stacking and processing run on your computer, and the bundled user guide opens without a connection. AfterNight goes online only for the features that need a network:

  • After startup it checks the official extension repository for updates. The check is on by default and never installs anything by itself; Settings > General > Check for extension updates on startup turns it off.
  • The Extension Manager downloads the packages you choose to install.
  • Web plate solving, online object lookup and Gaia or SPCC catalog downloads contact their services only when you choose those routes; the local alternatives work offline.
  • Help > User Guide opens the online guide only when the bundled copy cannot be opened.

The user guide lists these under optional tools, services and data and describes the extension update check. Extensions that call external tools or download their requirements say so on their own pages.

Contact

Bugs and feature requests go to the issue tracker. For anything else, the author can be reached through the contact details on ezequielruiz.com.