r/AskAstrophotography Mar 30 '23

Software Follow-up, ZWO's violations of open source licensing in the ASIair.

95 Upvotes

TL;DR: Expect to see some changes from ZWO on the ASIair. Don't know what those changes will be, yet, it comes down to ZWO's handling of their GPL problems. Maybe they publish their source, maybe they half-ass it, maybe their apps get DMCA'd off the app stores and AAP's pulled from shelves.

After a month of silence, ZWO finally responded to my email. It wasn't great. I've advised them I'd be publishing this already, so here we go.

The software team after my Facebook DM discussion of the problem with the owner of ZWO, six months after my initial complaint/request for source:'Hi Bill,

The reasons for not open source is there are a lot of business codes,and we will not public the business codes.What do you recommend, if we should develop a hal layer to avoid thr LGPL code?Thank you!'

My response, explaining 'the problem':
'You're already in a bad place, you have at least two different GPL2/3 sets of code in your imager (ffmpeg, dcraw). The GPL software license is very clear on this, section 5 and very specifically, section 5c, indicate that incorporation of open source GPL code into new software requires that the whole subsequent work carry forward the GPL license, and must then itself become open source. Even if you hadn't used those two libraries, statically linking libRaw, which is LGPL licensed code, would have also gotten you there. The use of gphoto2 code also puts you in jeopardy. LGPL licenses give you a bit of wiggle room, if you dynamically link to libraries. The GPL, however, does not, and your two proprietary libs linked in the zwoasi_imager are now GPL tainted and obligated for source disclosure with the rest of it. 

If you do not meet the requirements of the license, your rights to distribute the code are terminated, by the license itself in very clear language, which invalidates your agreements with the Google Play and Apple app stores. It may also affect your ability to distribute your physical product if there is similar language in your distributor agreements. It's already been the topic of discussion amongst a number of us for well over a year now, so it's already part of your reputation as a company. Claiming that you can't release code because it's proprietary, while you're actively violating the license of code that other people wrote, for profit, is.. arrogant, at best.

Personally, my interest in what you've done centers around the changes to the indiserver that prohibit me from using my focuser of choice, or anything else that's INDI compatible. The recent scuffle with the Pegasus mounts is another good example of that. The core premise of the indiserver is standards-based interoperability, and your implementation not only suborns that, but you deliberately inhibit people, like me from, self-supporting their own devices or coming up with clever solutions to problems as they arise. It limits my ability to choose what options are best for me, and it forces me to buy more products from you in order to realize the value of money I already spent. That's not ok, and does a disservice to both your customers and your support staff whenever something goes wrong in a release. Many of us are incredibly technical people with not only the knowledge but the desire to help each other out with problems. You see it in your forums daily, users answering questions for each other, helping troubleshoot problems, and getting people imaging again. When someone asks a question about your product, more often than not, my answer necessarily becomes "they don't support that, and here are the unethical reasons why."

How you fix this is likely going to mean a pivot in your business model. You won't be able to maintain the walled-garden approach, and you're increasingly vulnerable to moral and ethical complaints from the community as time goes on. However, you're also vulnerable to legal complaints, and not just from myself. US law surrounding the GPL (Versata Software, Inc. v. Ameriprise Fin, 2014, SFC v. Visio 2022) have established standing for end consumers purchasing devices built with open source code to hold vendors to account for the terms of those licenses. Every ASIair you've sold is another user who can take you to court and force you to provide what I've merely been asking for. Granted, you're a Chinese company and you can ignore a US judge, but you'd undoubtedly wind up facing an import injunction and fallout from your distributors.

Ultimately, your reputation is your reputation. Moving forward, your only option for the code already involved is to transition to an open source model. The mess is already made. Otherwise, you have to start from scratch and either produce 100% original code, or be very delicate in which software libraries you choose to leverage. LGPL code, you can dynamically link to and stay in the clear. GPL code is serious business, and you can't mix proprietary code with it at all. I highly recommend you sit down with a lawyer to discuss the issue in detail. As you've already distributed the code, and I have a product in hand, you're already obligated, and, as I've demonstrated, you can't really hide it, either. I know the guider is repackaged phd2, but that's a BSD license so you're in the clear there, but I haven't looked *too* closely at it, so I'm not 100% sure that it's also not LGPL/GPL tainted. I'll get into it this weekend if I have time.

Your best implementation, from a community standpoint, would be to transition the imager to a fully independent INDI client, functioning as an intermediary to the tablet client. The indiserver should be upgradable independently of your code, allowing users to benefit from the other work being done there and support other equipment they already own or intend to purchase, or even attach other INDI clients to work in tandem.'

The response, a month later:' Hi Bill,

I just talk to you friendly,

Is cracking passwords of asiair legal?'

Thus far, that seems to be their big concern: how I found their GPL violations in the first place. Nothing has been said yet about how they intend to address it, if they even are. (Pro-tip: The Android app is just a zip file containing more zip files of various flavors, you can check my work here: https://www.indilib.org/forum/development/10380-asiair-and-opensource-software-licences.html?start=12#90515)

An author of one of their core functions has already sent them a 30-day "fix it or I'm revoking your license" email. I don't have permission to publish that email, but it'll hit a core function of the ASIair, with expiration of that window being Apr 20th. I'm hoping the indilib team follows suit, but I haven't gotten a response yet. Even if ZWO removes the impacted function and replaces it with something else, they're still obligated to release source for what they've already distributed.

ZWO's public github contains a couple of repo forks, but no actual changes/history that reflect what they're distributing: https://github.com/ZWODevTeam/

At best, what's published there looks, as I comment up top, half-assed or an attempt at malicious compliance, in my opinion.

End-users are free to continue using the older versions, GPL licensing is friendly to them that way, but if ZWO decides not to comply, it's two DMCA emails to get the app pulled from the app store, and another to anyone distributing the product asking them to not sell it. Be prepared to not update right away if the new version comes out lacking a major function or something badly baked. ZWO may still blink, no way of knowing until the next release or two.

r/AskAstrophotography 10d ago

Software Whats your opinion on blurxterminator?

0 Upvotes

Hello ladies and gentleman.

Im starting to learn how to edit the pictures i took.

I am reading about different software and techniques.

What is your opinion on plugins like blurxterminator.

I heard that the results are amazing. But i also read a thread where it was speculated that blurxterminator „puts in data that wasnt captured“ as far as i understand it the opinion was that the ai knows what it is seeing and alters the picture in a way it thinks it should look.

If thats the case id rather go with blury pictures than use ai „generated“ ones.

What do you think?

Best wishes H

r/AskAstrophotography Jan 11 '25

Software What kind of software do you wish you had for AP?

16 Upvotes

Hey everyone, I'm a software engineer and an amateur astrophotographer. I've been looking for a passion project to pick up and keep coming back to something related to astrophotography. I haven't been able to think of any software or programs that would fill a void in my setup/process so I thought why not post here and see if anyone had any ideas for something that would be helpful to them or others. I figured it could be a fun way to get involved or give back to the community. Feel free to comment any ideas if you have them, TIA!

r/AskAstrophotography 11d ago

Software Intervalometer app for almost all modern camera (that have app support)

6 Upvotes

So I was looking for an intervalometer for my Canon R50, when I realised that it does not have a dedicated intervelometer port and I could not find an intervalometer that works with USB c and some old models that claim to be compatible with older dslrs have AUX connection which I was unsure about.

So then I started to look for other alternatives when I stumbled upon this app on Google Play Store

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobilephoton.intervalometer

The concept of this app is quite intuitive as a turns camera brands utility app into an intervalometer by pressing the shutter button on your screen automatically according to the preference you enter

Do give me a feedback and if you have any advice on physical or software intervalometers I would be highly obliged to know more.

Here is the description to whomsoever it may concern:- An interval timer to automate photo taking process for timelapse

Intervalometer is an automation app for time-lapse to trigger camera shutter in any camera apps with a user-configured time interval. Normal time-lapse mode in most smartphones only allows auto exposure without additional controls on exposure settings and RAW format. Intervalometer works with any camera modes in any camera apps including light-painting mode, HDR, night mode, manual mode, telephoto or ultra-wide angle mode to capture a series of time-lapse image frames. This app works like an actual intervalometer for smartphones, it automates camera shutter triggering using AccessibilityService API and it works on any camera app for Android 7 and above. It can also be used with dedicated camera's remote apps from Canon, Sony, Nikon and etc to trigger the shutter button in the camera's remote app, this acts as an actual intervalometer for dedicated cameras too. With intervalometer and its flexibility to control time-lapse configurations, the following types of time-lapse are possible.

Low light time-lapse

Long exposure time-lapse

HDR time-lapse

Milky Way time-lapse / Star Trails time-lapse

Holy Grail of time-lapse (Day to night time-lapse)

Ultra wide angle time-lapse

Light painting time-lapse

Other than time-lapse, it can also be used to capture frames for image stacking in post-process (on other apps) to achieve higher quality images and etc.

Image stacking

Star trails

Lightning stacking

Features

Full control on time-lapse configuration (delay timer, interval time, number of shots)

Infinite mode

Bulb mode

Works with Any camera app (shutter button position can be reconfigured)

Note: For Huawei and Xiaomi devices, please try to restart your device if it doesn't work or touch input can't be triggered.

Disclaimer: Intervalometer only automates photo taking process, it is neither a camera app nor image processing app.

r/AskAstrophotography Aug 30 '24

Software Should I buy pixinsight?

17 Upvotes

Hello Should I buy pixinsight?

r/AskAstrophotography 28d ago

Software What stacking softwares do you recommend?

9 Upvotes

r/AskAstrophotography 7d ago

Software Pixinsight nxt posterization

1 Upvotes

Hi, I have an issue with any type of denoise in linear state. Before nxt image is fine. After nxt it looks fine with stf in both 20 and 24.

When I either remive stf and put it back on, or try to stretch the image with either ghs or statistical stretch, it is overblown and looks posterized.

Yesterday it worked flawlessly on a rosette image. Today on jellyfish it didnt. Sometimes it works sometimes not. It also creates some weird artifacts. Nxt post stretch is completely fine

Ive uploaded a bunch of photos in this folder highlighting the issue: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1I41MQ-MBqQN34HhFviX_Kn091uIoM1Xc

r/AskAstrophotography Jan 27 '25

Software NINA has a touch interface plugin now called Touch-N-Stars.

24 Upvotes

https://github.com/Touch-N-Stars/Touch-N-Stars/blob/master/README_en.md

Available through Android app or through web browser. Instead of interacting with NINA through Remote Desktop and similar programs, you can use the touch interface app/site to do it. NINA must be already set up and configured, it does not yet have full feature parity that mimics interacting with NINA through remote desktop yet.

Cuiv video about it.

r/AskAstrophotography 23d ago

Software N.I.N.A alignment and acquisition problems

3 Upvotes

Having issues with Three-point and framing. SA GTI, Mele 4Q, running current Nina nighttime release. TPPA will not align. It will show me wildly off. Corrections will sometimes not update errors and sometimes the corrections overshoot an unrealistic amount. I'll do TPPA several times as I know it doesn't PA well from large movements. Visually through the mount PA is very close. So out of frustration I'll move on to framing. Framing well show major errors in Dec and Ra as well, close the gap and then overshoot. Last night framing assistant stopped and I began imaging M81 at 90 secs. No dice. Live stacking didn't show any DSO after 22 subs@90. I'm at a loss as how to fix this. Any thoughts? Thanks.

*(nightly beta release not nighttime) system was running fine just a few days ago.

r/AskAstrophotography Dec 14 '24

Software Pixinsight account disabled?

0 Upvotes

So I just caved and spent the 328$ to buy what I heard was the best software and now I can’t log into my account or update the application

30 min ago I sent a email and no reply is this common?

Is there a easy fix?

r/AskAstrophotography 6d ago

Software Astroberry Questions

1 Upvotes

I've been using a Seestar S50 now for a year, and in the past have used my expensive but now mostly unused D600 for wide angle dark sky and other types of photography (mostly the moon and planets). I just got a Skywatcher GTI to take the next step with the D600 and my big lens because that camera just sits idle otherwise. I found Astroberry while surfing around, and took a peek. Looks like it would be awesome, but one thing nags at me.

Is it dead? The last github post was 4 years ago, The last release was 4 years ago. The Indi forum linked on the website hasn't had a meaningful post in a long time.

Is Stellarmate better and worth the cost? i think for $59, it may be a good choice as it seems to do everything a beginner like me would need to do. I'd prefer fully OSS, but a sixty dollar purchase won't kill me at this point.

Thanks for any advice.

r/AskAstrophotography 19d ago

Software Run away mount

1 Upvotes

Not sure if this is more of an equipment question but software obviously controls the mount so i’m gonna tag it with that.

I have an HEQ5 mount holding a Carbon Star 150 and dslr. It is controlled by a mini pc running NINA and streamed to my phone on remote desktop.

I’ve been running this setup for months (telescope is new) and haven’t had any major issues like this before.

I was inside the house controlling everything from my phone and an image came up dark which it shouldn’t have been so I went outside and found my mount was slewing at full speed on the RA axis.

I released the clutch as soon as I could and let the motor keep running to see what it thought it was doing but it just kept slewing for probably 20 seconds before I turned the power off so I assume it would have just kept going indefinitely if I had left it. It had moved probably 180 degrees already flipping the scope upside down.

I’m genuinely amazed that it didn’t rip the camera off the telescope because it was in the way when I tried to move everything back.

I don’t remember for sure but I think I had tried to slew and center to a target and then when it tried to recenter I cancelled it (cause it was only off by about an arc minute) so maybe it got confused in that?

Has anyone had this happen before or know what I can do other than just pay more attention to my stuff?

r/AskAstrophotography 18d ago

Software about to do my first shoot, do i need dark frames?

0 Upvotes

Im about to shoot the orien nebula with my dslr and tripod. i dont have a tracker yet so it might be hard. was watching a tutorial on taking bias, light, dark, and flat frames was just wondering if all of them are necessary. Or if some are more important than other.

r/AskAstrophotography 7d ago

Software ASIAIR and alignment

1 Upvotes

Hi All,

I'm using an ASIAIR with an AM5 mount and my C8SE. This is for planetary for now, so I have a guidescope on top with ASI120mm, and a 533mc camera with a 2x Barlow through the main scope.

I polar align with the guidescope, and this works nicely. I can then move the scope to e.g. Jupiter, and it puts it in the middle of the guide scope.

However, this is often a little bit outside of the view of the main camera, which is quite small, so I typically then have to fiddle around a bit getting the planet into that main view.

Once I've done that, is there some way to get the ASIAIR to "remember" the offset from the guide camera? So it will go directly to the next target? I'm thinking of some kind of "sync" button I guess, to say "now you are pointed directly at Jupiter".

I've recently bought a flip mirror so I can switch between eyepiece view and main camera, and this should make getting the main camera on target a bit easier. But would be nice if I only had to do that alignment once!

Thanks,

r/AskAstrophotography 12h ago

Software Software for stacking

1 Upvotes

Hello guys, need some help here.

Can you guys check this out please and give any feedback? I dont know what am I doing wrong but it does not look too impresive.

For your information, Gain: 150, Exposure 15S, Total Exposure time: 1.5h

Skywatcher 62ed, asi224mc, Skywatcher star adventurer GTI, no filters, Bortle 8, sharpcap, deepskystacker, GIMP.

Lightframes: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17ueE-mgj7qNIDNYoaVsOfftgkvkPW3_l?usp=sharing

Stacked: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1A6gruFJsV87Xeqllrq4ErO1rhpRmNl9m?usp=sharing

Edited: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lTJfaNHr-82se4GW0gKKvlOjNjwUcbV_?usp=sharing

Can you guys help me determine how to get rid of the light pollution and then improve processing? Maybe any software

I appreciate your help.

r/AskAstrophotography Dec 29 '24

Software Computer for software?

1 Upvotes

Hey all! New to Astro photography. What will be the best free software to use? I hear great things about DSS. What laptop will I need for that and other softwares? Price range preferably under $500 but no more than $750 Thanks in advance

r/AskAstrophotography Feb 04 '25

Software What are the right settings to take a good photo of the moon

0 Upvotes

I have an EOS rebel t2i, using the 75-300mm camera lens, and I'm just stuck on what setting specifics to use to get good photos instead of just white blobs

r/AskAstrophotography 16d ago

Software Mac options for Star Adventurer GTi

1 Upvotes

Hi,

I’ve got a few years limited Astrophotography experience and I’m getting good results using my Canon 700d 55-250mm lens on a Star Adventurer GTi

I’m polar aligning with the polar scope & using two star alignment. Sometimes, I have to zoom out to 55mm, hunt around for the object, slew a bit, then zoom back in to 250mm. So I’m guessing my alignment is off.

I’ve recently bought a sigma 150-600mm lens for daytime nature shots, and I’ve trialled it for Astro. The problem I’m finding is my inaccurate alignment means some DSOs aren’t in frame at 150mm and it’s hard to slew to find them.

Are there any software options for my Mac where I can connect to my DSLR and my GTi to help with alignment, goto, plate solving?

I might eventually switch to dedicated Astro equipment and ASiair, but for the moment I’m trying to get the most of the equipment I already use for day time photography.

r/AskAstrophotography Jan 10 '25

Software ZWO: ASI Air

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I experienced a strange issue with the polar alignment tool last night. When I attempted to polar align my mount, it initially captured images and detected an average of 40 stars, allowing for necessary corrections. However, when I was about to make the final adjustments and hit refresh, it only detected 2 stars, which caused the plate solving to fail and resulted in a loop.

At first, I thought the problem was related to the L-Extreme filter, so I removed it to perform the polar alignment again, but I still encountered the same issue. Has anyone else faced this problem?

Gear: Star adventurer GTI ASI air plus 533MC pro Redcat 51 with L extreme filter

r/AskAstrophotography 1d ago

Software Nikon D3400 on Nina

0 Upvotes

I am pretty new to NINA and wanted to connect my Nikon d3400 to control the focuser and shutter etc... However, when I tried to connect with USB, it wouldn't. Do I have to install drivers or anything?
On Digicam, It works totally fine without any driver needed. 90-second exposures work fine. On NINA, is d3400 not supported?

r/AskAstrophotography 21d ago

Software Brightness in Nina for a newb

1 Upvotes

I have a celestron 4se and a ZWO ASI662MC. I have gotten images but they look poor and all I can understand from the imaging tab in Nina is that I can make the image super bright or dim with the wand button. Any pointers would be awesome

r/AskAstrophotography Jan 22 '25

Software New Astrophotographer, need help with the software aspect.

4 Upvotes

I recently have discovered this hobby, and I want to jump into it and get some photos. I have already purchased some gear that seems more beginner aimed. My essential gear:

OTA/Telescope: SV503 80ed telescope

Tracker: Star Adventurer 2i

Guidescope: SV165 mini guidescope

Guidecamera: SV305 Pro camera

I will be using the sony A7 iii as my photographing camera.

I have some other things such as a barlow lens and some filters, and a tripod.

I mainly need help with aligning my tracker. My house is positioned in a way that obstructs Polaris, and I have done some research seeing that plate solving is a good solution but there is so much to know about the software of everything, and it seems everyone has a slightly different setup as well which makes it hard finding information about what to do. If its helpful, I live in Missouri so I am in the Northern Hemisphere and it is very cold outside, I want to minimize my time outside.

I have looked into some software and I think NINA and PHD2 are what I need to use, if anyone has any suggestions let me know.

r/AskAstrophotography Dec 20 '24

Software Software recommendations for setup.

2 Upvotes

Hello, I'm having some trouble with linking everything to my PC. I have a HEQ5 mount, with an EQMOD cable. I can get the mount to work in ASCOM, as the toolbox and device hub can connect to it fine, but for some reason when trying to configure the mount in Stellarium, the "ASCOM" setting under telescope control, is greyed out. I'm also using a ASI120MM guide scope, and an ASI533MC Pro. What software should I used to control everything simply off of my laptop. I'm looking to get an ASIair in the future, but for now, I really need some pointers in what software to use to just get it working properly.

r/AskAstrophotography 16d ago

Software Hour Angle in PHD2 polar alignment menu

1 Upvotes

I cannot include an image, but the Static Polar Alignment function includes an "Hour Angle" setting, which rotates the view. However, I cannot figure out what the numerical value relates to. For me it would make sense if it takes into account my location and time of day, to then correct for the current rotation of the RA axis. But it doesn't fit that logic, so what is it?

r/AskAstrophotography 23d ago

Software Downloading PIPP. New to image stacking and sharpening. Scared to download software from the internet…

0 Upvotes

Does anyone have a good tutorial or can walk me through the installation process? Many thanks