Automatization around Siril (https://siril.org/) and ASIAIR for deep sky astrophotography.

What is it?

Poto-Siril is a CLI tool to automate the pre-processing of astrophotography images on top of Siril.

Poto-Siril's primary goal is to overcome the repetitive work when pre-processing multiple layers before compositing a (L)RGB image (e.g. narrowband filters with monochrome camera or color camera with dual-band filters). It works with images captured by a ZWO ASIAIR device out of the box or with any fit files that follows the same naming convention and directory structure.

Workflow 🚀

In detail

• Easy import lights and flats from ASIAIR and search for associated darks and biases in bank folder Import one or several night sessions (lights and flats from autorun or plan mode with ASIAIR) and automatically pick the darks and bias from the bank folder (matching bulb, gain, binning, ...). A summary resumes the light sequence(s) and the calibration files associated.
• Multi-layers project structure The imported files ☝️ are organized by filters and light sets (bulb, gain & binning, if there's multiple combinations). Each light set will map to a light sequence in Siril that you preprocess separately. 👉 You can easily work on a LRGB or LRGBHaOIIISII project.
• Batch Siril script execution to pre-process the data Generates and run a Siril script (.ssl file) for each light set to preprocess the images based on a ssl file template that can be customized.
• A/B testing (PLANNED) Run the (generated ☝️) Siril script with different parameters (e.g. rejection algo, sigma low/high thresholds) and compare the results. Or run several different pre-processing scripts and compare the results.

What it is not doing

Poto-Siril does not eliminate bad light images, and everything related to the final processing such as channel compositing, color calibration, background extraction, etc...

Usage

First installation

Install node latest version and run:

npm i

# For Unix based systems:
chmod +x ./poto.sh

Make sure to have siril registered in your PATH.

siril -v
# Should print `siril 1.2.3`.

Poto-Siril project architecture

The ASIAIR directory structure is as follows:

# Root dump directory of an ASIAIR session
├── Autorun
│   ├── Light
|   |   └── M42
|   |       ├── Light_M42_10.0s_Bin1_S_gain360_20240320-203324_-10.0C_0001.fit
│   |       ├── ...
|   |       ├── Light_M42_10.0s_Bin1_S_gain100_20240321-223159_-10.0C_0001.fit
|   |       └── ...
│   └── Flat
|       ├── Flat_1.0ms_Bin1_S_gain100_20240320-233122_-10.5C_0001.fit
│       └── ...
├── Plan
│   # Can be picked up by poto-siril with `-m plan` option.
│   # Same structure as Autorun.
├── Live
│   # Ignored in poto-siril
├── Preview
│   # Ignored in poto-siril
├── Video
│   # Ignored in poto-siril
└── log
    # Ignored in poto-siril

Poto project, once imported from the ASIAIR dump via the dispatch command, will be broke down into the following directory structure:

# Poto project root directory
├── S    👈 Directory for each filter.
│   ├── Light_M42_10.0s_Bin1_S_gain360    👈 Sub directory for each light set (BIN-GAIN-BULB combination).
|   │   ├── Light_M42_10.0s_Bin1_S_gain360_20240320-203324_-10.0C_0001.fit
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── Light_M42_10.0s_Bin1_S_gain100
|   │   ├── Light_M42_10.0s_Bin1_S_gain100_20240321-223159_-10.0C_0001.fit
│   │   └── ...
│   └── Flat_1.0ms_Bin1_S_gain100
|       ├── Flat_1.0ms_Bin1_S_gain100_20240320-233122_-10.5C_0001.fit
│       └── ...
├── H
├── O
├── ...
└── any    👈 Biases & darks falls here. lights & flats too if no filter.

💡 S, H, O are the filters names defined in ASIAIR (cf Filter Wheel settings).

The bank folder

The bank folder is where you store your darks and biases files. The bank folder does not expect a specific structure as long as files are following the ASIAIR file naming convention.

A good organization could be as follows:

# Bank directory
├── Bias_1.0ms_Bin1_gain100_-9.9C_2024
│   ├── Bias_1.0ms_Bin1_L_gain100_20240308-154935_-10.0C_0001.fit
│   ├── Bias_1.0ms_Bin1_L_gain100_20240308-154936_-9.9C_0002.fit
│   └── ...
├── Darks_300.0s_Bin1_gain100_-10C_2024
│   ├── Dark_300.0s_Bin1_L_gain100_20240308-172757_-10.0C_0001.fit
│   ├── Dark_300.0s_Bin1_L_gain100_20240308-160224_-10.0C_0002.fit
│   └── ...
└── ...

CLI commands

# The location of your raw ASIAIR root folder (also named dump folder).
export POTO_ASIAIR_DUMP=/Users/jorislacance/deepsky/dump_2024_08_10_veil-nebula

# Drop thumbnails and empty directories from the ASIAIR dump folder.
./poto.sh clean -a $POTO_ASIAIR_DUMP

# Import lights to project, grouped per filter, and then light sets (bulb, gain & binning)
# with the related calibration files (flats, darks and biases).
export POTO_BANK=/Users/jorislacance/deepsky/_bank
export POTO_PROJECT=/Users/jorislacance/deepsky/poto_2024_08_10_veil-nebula

./poto.sh dispatch -a $POTO_ASIAIR_DUMP -b $POTO_BANK -p $POTO_PROJECT -m autorun

# Process each light set based on a Siril script template.
export POTO_SCRIPT_TEMPLATE=src/process/mono_processing_process/1_preprocessing.ssf

./poto.sh preprocess -p $POTO_PROJECT -s $POTO_SCRIPT_TEMPLATE

Full pre-processing

See src/process/mono_processing_process/README.md for a full example of a pre-processing process.

Create your own process

You can easily create your own process by following the example of the mono_processing_process process.

Some remarks about Poto-Siril script templates:

• .ssf extension like regular Siril scripts.
• Poto-Siril overwrite the {{lights}}, {{flats}}, {{darks}}, {{biases}}, {{process}}, {{masters}} variables to the current light set to pre-process.

Side Notes

Sirilic and Sirilot are two alternatives to automate Siril. This project is another take that emphasize lazyness of manipulating files in the file system, the love of Siril Scripting and A/B testing.