0.12 Release Notes

Changes since 0.11, grouped by task. For the main features and upgrade advice, start with New in 0.12.

Review calibration and match flats

The new Calibration page replaces the library dialog. Browse sessions or flat groups, inspect frames, and open masters with their source frames and the projects that use them. Open Calibration from a project to see the calibration it uses, or widen the view to the rig's whole library.

• Grade every calibration frame. Bias, dark, dark-flat and flat frames receive OK, suspect or poor grades. Measurements compare each frame with suitable peers for clipping, level, noise, banding, hot pixels, light patterns and changing spots. Poor frames stay out of masters and WBPP exports.
• Control which frames are used. Keep out excludes a frame even if a later regrade passes it. Use anyway overrides poor or suspect grades, including stray light in darks. Clear restores automatic grading. Catalog transfers preserve these choices.
• Find affected lights. The Library shows Poor and Check calibration badges. Images and Sequence show calibration chips and filters. A light's Calibration panel explains each finding, the proposed master inputs, and why frames were used or excluded. Coverage reports link to the affected lights and leave rejected lights out unless you include them.
• Match flats by measurement. PSF Guard groups nights whose flats measure alike and separates them when dust or illumination changes. Lights use flats from their side of a change. Their pixels can help resolve which side they belong to; uncertain or unsuitable matches receive a Check.
• Account for rotator changes. Flats that measure alike can form a response family across angles. Matching checks evidence before using another angle, tolerates small rotator drift, and can resolve missing angles or a re-homed rotator. Flats taken with different optical setups stay separate.
• Inspect dust and illumination. Compare a flat with its session, show small spots, large faint disks and donuts, and inspect their depth and estimated distance from the sensor. Focus-related dust motion and rotating guider shadows no longer count as new dust. Stars in tracked sky flats no longer trigger dew or frost findings.
• Edit flat groups. Split or join groups, place a light before or after a change, or assign a group's flats to selected lights with Flat side…. Your choices override the measurements. The group view shows neighbouring changes, comparisons, masters and affected lights.
• Tune checks per rig. Set matching tolerances, dark choices, frame-grade limits and light checks globally or for one rig. A light check can flag, advise or be off. Presets cover sky flats, a dark library and no darks. The light's panel explains which settings applied.
• Repair duplicate records. New imports catalog duplicate calibration files once and follow a remaining copy if the original disappears. For older duplicates, preview Repair duplicates before merging records. Checks and repairs run as jobs with progress and Stop; they do not move or delete files.
• Keep calibration current. Grading and flat measurements follow imports, syncs and uploads in the background. Flat measuring reports its progress and supports Pause and Resume. Unchanged sessions are not measured again; missing or unreadable files are retried when their availability changes. Calibration health updates as lights arrive or missing files return.

Read Grades & Coverage, Flats & Dust Changes, and Masters & Settings.

Review images and score sessions

• Use observing nights. Images, Sequence and Calibration split nights at each rig's local noon, using frame sites where available. Dawn sessions stay together. Set a rig's time zone when headers lack a site, or choose one cutoff for all rigs. Night and hour marks can be shown or hidden.
• Compare like rigs. Sequence scoring and statistical grading compare each Target Scheduler profile with itself when a catalog contains several profiles. Two projects with the same name remain separate in Project groups.
• Set scoring defaults. Save penalties and reject limits under Settings → Review → Sequence scoring. A toolbar change applies to the current view and linked project views; save it as a default when wanted. New HFR rise and Star loss penalties measure deterioration against the night's good frames.
• Select by score, stars or HFR. Sequence's Cutoff supports all three measurements. Grade dots below the chart show accepted, rejected and pending frames. A Select rule stays active as you adjust the cutoff or rescore, while preserving manual selection changes. Poor calibration selection waits until its check is current. After rejection, the rule stays active with no selection and excludes rejected frames. Undo restores their counts without selecting them.
• Find frames behind an issue. Sequence's suspect pills open frame lists with times and scores. Click a frame to move to it without changing selection. Each filter's All sessions tab now starts its row with a distinct color bar, tint, bold label and date-range icon. Toolbar pills open their lists when clicked on the label or chevron as well.
• Keep Sequence charts in view. The summary, suspect pills and score chart stay below the toolbar as you scroll. On short windows they scroll with the page to leave room for frames. Click a Solved pointing point, or focus it and press Enter, to move to its frame without changing your selection. Collapse or expand the chart from its heading; PSF Guard remembers the choice in this browser.
• Review recent captures first. Choose Newest first; keyboard navigation, Compare and the detail view follow that order. New frames have a dot until your next visit from the Library. Images and Sequence remember separate thumbnail sizes.
• Keep view choices across browsers. Signed-in users retain sorting, grouping, thumbnail sizes, chips and Library layout across devices. Links still override those defaults. Desktop and servers without accounts keep preferences in the browser.
• Use more of the screen. Compact Library rows align their columns and adapt to small screens. Image cards follow the sensor's shape. Images, Sequence and Calibration share compact filter toolbars; mobile filters collapse behind one button. The header uses icons and a single account menu.
• Keep your place. Detail panels fold and remember their state. Image navigation preserves sidebar scroll position, including in Safari and the macOS app. Calibration's session sidebar stays in reach; flat comparison keeps its mode and zoom. Forgetting a calibration frame opens the next frame.
• Use keyboard and accessibility controls reliably. Rapid navigation, thumbnail resizing and selection changes no longer lose updates. Enter and Space activate the focused button without also changing image selection. More controls announce their active choice to screen readers, and reduced-motion settings stop loading spinners from rotating.

Read Library & Grader and Quality Screening.

Edit mosaics and activate plans

• Open planning for the selected project. The Planning button works for image-folder imports and opens catalog warnings with Retry planning when no plan is available. Catalog copies that share an identity no longer leave the button disabled or show incorrect missing-GUID guidance.
• Place panels individually. Add panels beside a target, around a mosaic, or into gaps. Drag, nudge and rotate each panel, undo edits, and check overlap. Snap keeps the minimum overlap; you can override it when needed.
• Keep dragged panels in their row. With Snap on, dragging a mosaic panel along its row no longer moves it into a diagonal neighbour's row.
• Preserve captured fields. Panels with frames start locked at their captured position, size and angle, using plate solves when available. Moving or rotating an unlocked captured panel far enough creates a new Target Scheduler target and preserves the old frames.
• Frame several rigs together. Switching rigs no longer resizes an existing mosaic without a choice. Shared and separate framings check their combined coverage and overlaps. Panel angles account for sky position; each rig receives the panel's angle, with or without a rotator.
• See what activation will change. Plans show Activated or Needs activating, with a reason. The dialog previews automatically: what will run, what will turn off and why, and what will turn back on. Unsaved edits require Save and activate….
• Control the rig's exposure plans. Activation enables the plans you chose and disables other exposure plans in that project, preserving frames and counts. Objectives for the same target, template and exposure combine their requested counts. Take Target Scheduler's values imports separate exposure lengths as separate objectives when you want to retain them.
• Handle changes and offline sites. Activation detects edits made in N.I.N.A., checks the current database before writing, and refreshes stale previews. A remote site that missed activation remains marked as needing it, offers a retry, and receives it automatically when contact resumes. Conflicting scheduling edits require a reload before another save.

Read Framing and Exposures & Activation. Planning and the Sync plugin already existed in 0.11. The separate Director plugin remains in early beta; these changes do not announce direct acquisition.

Import and transfer catalogs

• Import into an owned catalog. Copy a local Target Scheduler file and keep its source connected, or create a catalog and pair the Sync plugin. Image-folder import stays alongside both choices. Standalone copies preserve embedded PSF Guard data without enabling sync. All three choices allow a custom destination path and never replace an existing catalog.
• Choose automatic sync. Local-file imports enable startup, change detection and five-minute scheduled sync, with grade writeback on a separate switch. Capture imports preserve local planning and reviewed grades; conflicting TS grades stay unchanged. Manual transfers still require Preview and Apply.
• Deliver approved planning. Director activation uses the saved TS connection and shows it in the preview. Failed deliveries remain pending and retry; grade conflicts do not block approved planning. Changes to the TS project require a fresh activation preview.
• Review new targets. Automatic import waits for your review before creating projects for unknown targets. Change New targets to skip them or create projects automatically.
• Exclude unwanted files. Include and exclude patterns, header and exposure filters, and .psfguardignore apply to every import, including scans started inside excluded folders. Unchanged excluded lights are not read repeatedly. The import preview explains that Skip processed files also skips calibrated and registered copies when pairing is off.
• Preserve capture plans. In projects it did not create, automatic import adds images only to existing exposure plans and leaves requested counts alone. Frames needing a new plan wait for Review. Matching respects filter, binning, exposure length and camera defaults for gain, offset and readout mode.
• Transfer calibration choices. Merge and sync preserve frame overrides and flat-group decisions. Previews count incoming Keep out and Use anyway choices, and destination choices survive differing source record IDs. Repaired duplicates do not return on a later pull.
• Rescan from the image view. Use ⋯ → Rescan image folders in Images or Sequence. Automatic folder refreshes continue.

Read Import Images and Data Transfer.

Build, process and export stacks

• Start builds without waiting for preparation. Build stacks, Build current set and Build on a channel card appear immediately as Preparing stack build, with Preparing… on the button. PSF Guard prepares frames in the background, then shows one build per channel. You can stop preparation before channel builds are queued. Requests keep their queue position after a restart, including during preparation.
• Check calibration and start exports sooner. Stack preparation reads each calibration file's header once per request instead of once per light, while other catalog requests can continue. The uncalibrated-lights check, calibration report, AstroBin export and Export also read the library once per request. Export skips the full image-folder rescan before starting.
• Choose new stretch modes. Median anchor and Layered add background, highlight and local-contrast controls. Layered also adjusts saturation while preserving color balance. Auto MTF remains the default.
• Calibrate color against Gaia stars. RGB, LRGB and one-shot-color previews use Gaia star colors to set white balance and neutralize the background. Install the optional Gaia colors catalog and solve the reference frame. The card reports the result or why calibration was skipped. See Color calibration.
• Avoid bands in rotated frames. Stacks with small rotations between nights no longer show cross-hatched bands on faint backgrounds. Reported SNR measures the real sky noise and may be about a tenth lower than before.
• Reuse stacks after engine updates. Updates that leave stacking output unchanged keep completed stacks, checkpoints and calibration masters. Build current set reuses them.
• Refresh previews without restacking. When an engine update changes only the display stretch, or an OSC stack's color calibration is out of date, Build current set refreshes the card preview from the saved FITS. The card and jobs list show Waiting to render preview and Rendering preview; processing and downloads stay available. Stopping preserves the stack, and a failure keeps the old preview. A successful refresh saves the new preview before reporting completion, so the card shows it immediately.
• Compose WBPP masters in their own card. Combine channel stacks shows a WBPP card alongside PSF Guard's stacks, including exposure groups. Source labels show the sub-exposure when known. Use Custom combination to choose between several masters of one filter or to mix WBPP and PSF Guard sources.
• Adjust color while stacks build. Short compositions you start can run alongside stack builds when they reuse prepared channels, or need no deconvolution or RC-Astro and no other composition is preparing the same inputs. After a build you start, each target's color can compose once its own channels finish. Only one short composition runs at a time; queued rows show Waiting for the composition ahead without a build-queue position. Automatic compositions and work that needs new tool results still use the build queue. An older composition cannot replace the latest preview after a channel rebuilds. See Compose color while stacks build.
• Track processing as a job. Stretch, deconvolution and RC-Astro runs on individual channel cards use the build queue, report what they are waiting for, and show progress. Runs survive server restarts and resume after the last completed tool step. Stack status updates also transfer less data.
• Control color processing. Stop a running color composition from the jobs list and follow its channel, tool and percentage. Completed tool steps stay cached. Unchanged channels reuse their tool results; changing the reference stack or enabling background extraction reruns all channels.
• Copy channel settings. In the color editor, Use each channel's processing copies the deconvolution and RC-Astro settings shown on each channel card into its input. The composition applies those settings to registered channels.
• Reapply processing after a rebuild. Refreshed stacks use the same stretch, deconvolution and RC-Astro choices automatically. The previous result stays visible with a progress label until processing finishes. Re-apply processing when a stack refreshes is on by default. After a build you start or take over, each channel's processing runs next, ahead of your other queued builds. Processing after an automatic refresh waits behind your work and builds of the same target.
• Map catalog filters to AstroBin. The filter editor offers missing catalog filters, fills in server-wide default IDs, and uses date pickers. Fields wrap to fit narrow windows.
• Read long server details. Server information scrolls its database list while its heading and close controls stay visible. Database IDs, files and image folders have separate labels; long paths wrap on small screens. Server details and databases have separate loading and error messages. Retry reloads only the failed request.
• Load the current UI after signing in. Successful browser sign-ins reload the current URL after PSF Guard checks that the session was saved. This picks up server updates while keeping your view and catalog scope. Failed sign-ins stay on the login form.
• Follow WBPP master copies. The dialog and jobs list show the current file and file counts. Copy controls stay disabled during a copy; a run requested as a copy starts joins the queue. The dialog also explains PixInsight's missing Gaia catalog message and labels initial disk space as free at start.
• Use consistent calibration. Stacks, WBPP, CLI and AstroBin exports use the same matching settings and flat groups. With Leave out lights that can't be calibrated on, exports omit those lights and report why. WBPP separates lights needing different flats, lists the settings used, and warns about frames left by an earlier export.

Read Stacks, WBPP Runs and Export & AstroBin.

More control over queued work

• Pause automatic jobs. From the header's jobs list, pause Analyzing database quality, Generating previews, Measuring flats or Reading frame sites for a database. Completed work is kept, and the row stays paused until Resume or a server restart. New automatic work waits too. Settings offers Resume for quality analysis; Calibration offers it for flat measuring and frame sites. Quality scans you start still run, and automatic stack refreshes do not wait for paused analysis. The header counts paused jobs separately from jobs waiting for your work.
• When preview pre-generation is enabled on the server, the header shows Generating previews for each database with previews to write, with a count of images processed. Pause keeps completed work and prevents further pre-generation until Resume or a server restart. Previews you open still generate as needed. When you start a job, pre-generation finishes the images already rendering, waits for your job, then continues from where it paused.
• Quality scans you start now queue when another scan runs on the same database. They run before database-wide quality analysis, which pauses and repeats its interrupted target afterwards.
• The header's jobs list now includes calibration grading, calibration health checks, light-header reads, flat matching and catalog upkeep. It also shows previews, imports, exports to the export folder, artifact searches and planning transfers to remote sites. Previews, imports, exports, artifact searches and star catalog installations have Stop. Stopping an import rolls it back. Stopping an export keeps completed files; the next export skips those files.
• When you add or change a database, PSF Guard builds its query indexes and reads older calibration frames' readout modes immediately. The jobs list shows this work and the pairing of calibrated copies with their lights.
• With Chosen by Seiza, the stack reference now comes from the largest orientation group when plate solves show several rotator angles. This avoids choosing a reference that excludes most frames for rotation. Orientation group margin in Settings → Stacking sets a margin inside Seiza's 10° rotation limit; the default is 1°. Existing stacks keep their reference until their frames change or you click Rebuild.
• Queued WBPP runs for other databases can start while one database copies masters to its process directory, as soon as PixInsight is free. Runs for the copying database still wait and keep their queue order.
• New builds you start join ahead of queued automatic builds. Starting a build pauses a running automatic build, which returns to the queue and resumes from its checkpoint after your work. Automatic reprocessing waits behind your work and builds of its own target, rather than all targets' builds.
• Queued stack builds and color previews read frames, grades and calibration again when they start. They use grades changed while they waited, and the card follows the new build if its frames changed. Artifact searches also join the stack queue, ahead of automatic work.
• Sync, import and export previews start immediately; a newer preview replaces one still running. In Data Transfer and Remote PSF Guard, changing options stops the current preview so you can preview the new choices. Starting an import also replaces its running import preview.

Backups, settings and background jobs

• Resize the desktop UI. Choose Zoom in, Zoom out or Reset to 100% from the hamburger menu. Cmd/Ctrl with +, − or 0 changes the whole UI from 50% to 200%, including Settings. The app saves the scale on this device. Image zoom stays separate; browser users keep their browser's zoom controls. Read Resize the UI.
• Back up settings and catalogs. Download one archive or save it to a folder, with versions and checksums. Catalog copies are safe while N.I.N.A. writes. Schedule daily or weekly backups and choose retention limits. Manual desktop backups and new desktop schedules include secrets by default; browser backups and the CLI exclude them by default. Saved schedules keep their existing choice. The CLI supports backups and dry runs; restoration remains manual.
• See all background work. The jobs list separates work you started from automatic work, with running, waiting, queued and needs-attention counts. Queued builds show their position; measurements show remaining work. Automatic jobs yield to your work and can resume once it settles.
• Choose which task runs next. Move to top moves a queued task under Started by you to the front of its stack/processing or WBPP queue, including past automatic work. The current task keeps running. The button is disabled when the task is already next.
• Restart without losing work. Shutdown stops jobs at safe points. Quality scans save results, stack builds checkpoint, and processing runs resume after restart. Desktop restarts wait for the old server to finish saving its queue. Catalog writes wait for competing writes instead of failing at once with a database-lock error.
• Protect unsaved settings. Settings asks before discarding unsaved changes when you close it. Rig and site forms retain edits when collapsed or switched, and reload warns before discarding them. Panels and fields have consistent layout and contrast; form controls follow the dark theme. Library project-state changes also ask for confirmation.
• Keep a stable desktop address. Set a fixed localhost port under Settings → Server for browser, API and agent connections. A port conflict opens settings so you can choose another port or Automatic.
• Separate editing from server paths. Editors can perform more catalog, calibration, sync and WBPP actions without database management. The gate still protects actions that choose server paths or storage settings. Viewers remain read only. WBPP files and calibration reads have stricter path checks.

Read Backups, Storage & Performance, Configuration & API and Server Accounts.

Agents and collaboration

• More MCP tools. Agents can inspect flat groups, changes, dust and project calibration; split or join groups; assign lights across changes; override suspect frames; check and repair duplicates; and create backups. Use pause_job and resume_job for quality analysis, preview pre-generation, flat measuring and frame-site reading. These replace cancel_flat_measuring, resume_flat_measuring, cancel_frame_sites and resume_frame_sites. Job queries include all background jobs and identify paused jobs. Tools use the app's access checks; MCP backups exclude secrets and do not return the archive.
• Deliver collaboration files. In the collaboration beta, send accepted raw lights with matched calibration inputs, or an existing PSF Guard or WBPP stack. Transfers support progress, Pause, Resume, Retry and Cancel. Receipts survive restarts and prevent repeated uploads of shared files. Automatic raw and PSF Guard stack delivery is opt-in.
• Preserve assignment constraints. Collaboration imports keep Starfront's physical-filter and data-band mapping, OSC camera limits and Bortle limits. Reports include data bands, and disabled project bands remain on hold.

Read MCP for Agents and Collaboration.

Other fixes

• When grading leaves fewer than two usable frames in a channel, its card stops showing the old stack and color compositions stop offering that stack as a source. Missing files or missing calibration alone do not remove it.
• A color preview requested while its target's channels are preparing, queued or building now waits and uses their new stacks. Its card shows Waiting for the channel builds to finish. The composition survives a server restart, and you can stop it while it waits.
• Import settings, satellite results, planning help and collaboration messages explain what PSF Guard does and what you can do next. Upgrade notices keep deprecations prominent in a neutral panel with an accent border.
• Planning no longer mistakes a cached survey image for a server update after every reload.
• Links to groups that no longer exist open the default groups instead of an empty view. Rapid changes to filters, groups and selections keep every change in the address.
• Calibration clears the old rig and filters when you switch databases. Each project opens on its own rig unless you chose another. A night's coverage link opens only that night's lights and preserves the night as other filters change.
• Dark and dark-flat uploads receive stray-light checks after uploads pause, without waiting for a server restart. The library shows their level and spread in ADU. A master's record lists only the frames it combined.
• Duplicate repair checks for changes to the duplicate records before applying. Unrelated master builds and grading no longer invalidate the repair. Read-only users can inspect duplicates; CLI and server repairs cannot run on the same catalog at once.
• Calibration health rechecks only lights whose files changed after its first pass. Missing files no longer leave stale findings once a folder refresh finds them.
• Flat measuring prioritizes the rig you are viewing. Changing grouping limits regroups saved measurements without regrading the library; rigs grouped by time do not need flat measurements.
• Stack builds interrupted by a server shutdown no longer count toward the restart limit that drops a build. Queued automatic builds resume after your builds finish; work you stopped yourself stays stopped.

Upgrading from 0.11

Read the upgrade notes before updating: backups, background checks, rebuilt results, saved links, activation changes and downgrade limits.

For the complete change list, see the 0.12 notes in the repository. See the 0.11 release notes for the previous release.