Initial QT6 Support

This is a minor release intended to support QT6 as well as still supporting QT5. It is initially not released with binaries yet, but those may be added when I can make them. I need craft to make them and I need to make the release that supports QT6 before I can submit the recipes to get the binaries. To use this with QT6, set the option -USE_QT5 to OFF. By default, this option is turned on because KStars and other programs relying on StellarSolver still use QT5. There are also minor bug fixes in this release.

Minor Updates

In this release, the Keyword used for ASTAP parity was updated since some images were getting the opposite parity due to an issue with the other keyword. The Online flip for astrometry was removed since it was not needed anymore. Also, the Minimum MacOS requirement was updated due to a change in craft. Finally, the URL for Online astrometry was updated as well.

Stability Improvement

In this release, we improved on the code, correcting some things under the hood so it will hopefully become faster and more stable

Color Channel Selections and New Batch Solver

This release includes a number of improvements and bug fixes. Some of those improvements relate to memory management, others relate to performance, and still others improve the way it works with external programs.

The biggest change is that you can now select the color channel you would like to extract or solve, if it is an RGB image, or you can select to integrate or average the channels. This applies to both the internal methods and external methods. The default is now to use the green channel if RGB channels exist and to fall back to the single channel if it is not RGB. The reason for green is first because many people using OSC imagers will have Refractors or Reflectors which are optimized for performance at green wavelengths and the others might be a little out of focus. Secondly many OSC imagers have two pixels for Green, which means twice as much light to extract or solve which could mean shorter exposure times are needed.

Another big change is the addition of the StellarBatchSolver, which a person could use to automatically solve, extract, and export a large number of images. This new program is primarily meant for data reduction, but could also be used as a test for the library. Speaking of that, I reorganized the folders so now there are both demo programs and test programs for testing and working with the library.

StellarSolver 2 Stable

This version of StellarSolver should be able to be deleted without issue. It should also be better with memory management. It is a minor release of StellarSolver 2.0

Refinements

This is a minor release after the major release of 2.0. This version included many minor fixes and modifications made after extensive testing was done on 2.0 on various platforms by different people.

StellarSolver2.0!

StellarSolver 2.0!

This is a major release of StellarSolver full of many improvements. Some of the biggest are:

1. Eliminating the last external files: solved and cancel files from the internal solver
2. Making an interface between the C++ and astrometry.net logging that works well to fix logging issues
3. Making StellarSolver easier to use in a blocking way, including using it as a C++ temporary object
4. Making the convolution filter easier to generate and use as well as adding more types of filters
5. Significantly reducing the astrometry code needed for the solver
6. Adding support for a new external solver: the Watney Astrometry Solver
7. Improving the abort code so that it shuts down faster
8. Adding a number of demos to show how to use StellarSolver
9. Adding healpix and index series hints so that you can speed up solves in localized areas based on former solves
10. Making it possible to run two stellar solvers simultaneously
11. Adding some new options for star extraction
12. Making API simplifications
13. Fixing some memory leaks and other warnings on various operating systems
14. Removing some unused code

2022 Improved

There were just a couple of changes for compiling on windows and due to a change in astrometry in KStars on MacOS, this version is just an incremental improvement, but it is important for working with the other packages.

SnakeFree

With this newest release, it is now possible to use the external astrometry.net local solver without it needing to invoke python for any reason. This is a very important feature for KStars because many people have issues with their local python installations and this will avoid those issues. It is true that the use of the internal solver or the use of Sextractor avoids python, python still caused issues in local astrometry with astrometry's "built in" method of star extraction for some users. The "OnlySendFITSFiles" option should fix all that. it is turned on by default when accessed outside the Tester.

TrulyStellar

Since the Last Release, StellarSolver has undergone a lot of changes. For one, the name is now StellarSolver! The process of integrating it into KStars has allowed us to update lots of capabilities and functions, to test them in a real world program for astrophotography, and refine some of its features. This version includes a massive overhaul of Star extraction with SEP, so that it can now be done in parallel threads, greatly speeding up star extraction on large images. The interface was simplified to make it easier for testing different solving methods. And a number of potential astrometry.net leaks have been fixed. A number of bugs were also resolved over the last few months. StellarSolver is becoming truly stellar, a little at a time!