OriginStack 2.18.0

Which download?

You have	Download
Windows, want it installed	OriginStack-2.18.0-setup.exe
Windows, no install (one file)	OriginStack-2.18.0-windows-x64-portable.exe
Windows, no install (folder)	OriginStack-2.18.0-windows-x64.zip
Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later)	OriginStack-2.18.0-macos-arm64.zip
Mac with Intel	OriginStack-2.18.0-macos-x86_64.zip
Linux	OriginStack-2.18.0-linux-x64.tar.gz

ZWO Seestar S50 and S50 Pro sessions get a plate solve, Gaia colour and their full galaxy
halos; Andromeda, Orion and the Horsehead look right at the defaults; and a problem report
can be copied into an email or a forum post.

Added

• Seestar, Dwarf and other cameras that record their pointing get a plate solve and
  Gaia colour calibration. Without the Origin's session file the stack had no WCS, so
  colour calibration was skipped. The first sub is now solved from the RA/DEC, focal
  length and pixel size in its header and its solution carried onto the stack. Tested
  on a Seestar S50 (M101) and an S50 Pro (M31) session.
• Desktop app: Report a problem now offers Copy report as well as opening a GitHub
  issue, so a report (version, system, the error and the end of the log, with your home
  folder hidden) can go into an email or a forum post without a GitHub account. A failed
  run turns the link to the accent colour and says what it does; a finished run has a
  Result not right? Report it link next to its result buttons.

Changed

• README and website name the ZWO Seestar S50 and S50 Pro next to the Celestron Origin,
  and the Other cameras page has a Seestar section: where its frames are saved, which
  folder to choose, and what was tested.
• README opens with a before/after from one Origin session and three steps to get started.
• Bug report form: version placeholder, the Mac and Windows installer/portable builds, and
  the Mac log folder.

Fixed

• Galaxies no longer lose their outer disk when a session has no flats. The
  automatic settings built a flat from the lights themselves whenever flats were missing
  (every Seestar session). The target leaks into such a flat unless it moves well across
  the sensor, and dividing by it removed most of a galaxy's faint light: about 95% of
  M31's disk on an S50 Pro, 64-90% of M101's outer arms on an S50. --flat-from-lights
  is now only used when you ask for it, as its help always said.
• Frames copied from a Mac. A Finder zip holds a ._Light_�.fit file (resource-fork
  metadata) beside every frame and a __MACOSX folder; each was taken as a light (or a
  session folder). They are now ignored.
• No more 20 s stall when a catalogue server can't be reached. Where a server
  (SIMBAD, often) dropped connections silently, each lookup waited for Windows' ~21 s
  TCP connect timeout. A server is now checked with a 5 s handshake first; one that
  doesn't answer is skipped for 5 minutes. Behind an HTTP proxy the check is skipped.
• Dark discs around stars on galaxies. Star reduction treated whatever light sat
  above the background ring inside a star's radius as the star's wing, so on a galaxy
  disk (Andromeda) each reduced star left a disc darker than the disk around it. It now
  removes only the star's own radial profile, cut off where the profile no longer
  stands out of the light at that radius.
• Orion's core no longer renders as a jagged white cut-out. The Trapezium region
  clips in every sub, and the stack holds a flat plateau ending in a cliff; its outline
  is now feathered in the preview over a width that follows its size. Star cores are
  untouched.
• The Horsehead stands out against IC 434 again. When a faint nebula fills most of
  the frame, the background step measured "sky" on the nebula itself and subtracted it,
  leaving the horse against black. For emission nebulae, --auto now also masks
  H-alpha by colour (red light in excess of the frame's own sky colour), so the glow
  stays and a neutral gradient, such as a bright star's glare, is still removed
  (dbe_halpha_mask, saved in the run's config).