Editing astro photos with Affinitiy Photo for iPad v2

[Peter vB]

Hey guys, how are you doing?
Is anyone using his/her APhoto V2 app on the iPad (Pro) for editing astro photos?

What is your experience with that and are there any documentation or tutorials/tips on that?

[walt.farrell]

I don't have any astrophotography experience at all.

But I would point out that the main astrophotography functions in Affinity Photo 2 are listed as being only in the Desktop versions of the program. From the Affinity Store, Technical Specifications for Photo 2: 

From that, I'm not sure how much to expect from trying it on the iPad. If others have tried it, perhaps they will respond.

[Peter vB]

Hey Walt.
when will the astrophotography persona come to iPad then?
I believe Serif promised us the full experience on iPad Pro..

Since the astroph. persona isn't available for the iPad yet:
Anyone using APhoto v2 for iPad for editing already stacked astro images?

I can do some basic editing to improve the overal image quality.
But I'm just curious about the experience of others who are actually using APhoto for iPad to edit their astro photos? 

[Dan C]

Hi @Peter vB,

Astrophotography stacking has been requested previously for the iPad versions and is something our devs may look to add in the future - though we have no timescale for this at this time, my apologies.

I believe as we support a wide range of iPad models, this is a difficult feature to implement on the older models that only support 2GB of RAM, due to the intensive nature of stacking astro files.

Unfortunately I don't have any personal experience editing pre-stacked astro images on the iPad, though other users may be able to advise further here.

I hope this clears things up

[Peter vB]

Yes, absolutely Dan.
Great to hear that you guys want to add this in the future.
And I understand that stacking is not something every iPad model is able to do.
But the top models are getting better and better, and more capable.
Even my 2020 iPad Pro (1 teraBytes) is (still) lightning fast.
If your concern is the older iPads, then why not show the Astrophotography persona only on supported iPads?

Besides that, maybe you can already add some astro editing features for single images and add the astro stacking feature later?

[Dan C]

2 hours ago, Peter vB said:

If your concern is the older iPads, then why not show the Astrophotography persona only on supported iPads?

This is certainly an option and I believe is under consideration by our development team - though of course we would prefer to implement the feature across all iPads if possible.

2 hours ago, Peter vB said:

Besides that, maybe you can already add some astro editing features for single images and add the astro stacking feature later?

I will be sure to add this to the internal development request for iPad Astrophotography features now, as this seems more feasible in the shorter term

[Peter vB]

Much appreciated Dan 👍 

[Peter vB]

Any news on this request?

 

[Astomer]

I second the request Peter vBs on both fronts. The iPad models are becoming extremely capable- stacking calibration and light frames for the app would be a huge selling point for the app on iPads for astronomy community. Nothing of its kind exists in any app today. Also, any astrophotography processing features would be much appreciated too!

 

Best,

Omer 

[Peter vB]

I thought the programmers of Affinity Photo 2 for iPad were able to do anything with their software.
It seems there’s a limit and that is editing astrophotos on the super fast iPad Pro it seems.
I give up.

[Critter]

I just finished stacking some Seestar subs on there.   After it finished couldn’t see much but I don’t know what I am doing yet and learning,  my new 2024 iPad with terabyte of HD and M4 processor finished 780 Seestar frames in less than 45 seconds.   Real game changer

[Peter vB]

Did you use fits files for stacking your Seestar subs?
I have a 2 teraBytes iPad Pro M4 and just tried, but when I choose the fits files, they are greyed out, so can’t select them.
And my previous sessions were all with fits files, so need to have a new session with tif subs I guess.
If only the weather was a bit better (worst spring/summer ever).

[Critter]

No Peter I was mistaken since I just started using the Affinity program for astrophototography .  The IMac version worked well MacBook Pro for stacking.  I used the iPad version to edit a stacked fits file and it worked pretty well of what I could figure out.  Looks like a good software program.

[Peter vB]

That’s interesting. How did you open a fits file in Affinity Photo 2 for iPad, because that would be wonderful if that is possible.

The Dwarf II stacks the separate subs into a stacked fits file.
So if stacking isn’t for the iPad then the ability to edit a fits file in AP2 for IPad would be a huge step forward.
 

[Peter vB]

I did find the JR afmacros for astrophotography a few days ago: see here: https://jamesritson.co.uk/resources.html
and they work on the iPad version of AP2 too.

I still have to learn which of those many tools work for the Dwarf II 16b file, but I believe this is what Iwas looking for.
Anyone already using these for editing Dwarf II files and what tools/workflow do you use?