What's new on DeepSkyLog

The DeepSkyLog Uploader: bring your FITS archive into DeepSkyLog

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Years of captures sit in folders on a disk or a NAS, and until now bringing them into DeepSkyLog meant the browser import or the command-line tool. The DeepSkyLog Uploader is a desktop app for exactly that, and it works on every plan.

What it does

Point it at your session folders and press Scan. It reads every FITS and XISF light frame, skips darks, flats, bias frames and stacked files, and shows what it found as sessions: one line per target, night and filter, with the frame count, the integration time and the star size.

Add your local horizon to improve planning

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A target at 40 degrees is no use if it’s behind your neighbor’s roof. Until now planning only knew a flat minimum altitude. Locations can now carry a local horizon, and every planning view uses it.

The rule

A target counts as usable when its altitude is above both:

the horizon at its current azimuth, and
your minimum altitude setting.

The minimum altitude keeps its job (seeing, airmass). The horizon only adds the obstructions. A location without a horizon behaves exactly as before.

Planning around the moon: which filter tonight?

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A bright moon doesn’t have to mean a lost night. It only rules out some filters. Plan Ahead now works out which ones.

Why the moon matters more to some filters

Moonlight is scattered sunlight, spread across the whole visible spectrum. A broadband filter (L, R, G, B) collects all of it, so LRGB wants the moon below the horizon.