+60ยฐ ฮฑ WIZ the Wizard’s Hat - circumpolar, visible all year

Free · open beta · Windows · Mac · Linux

Your telescope caught it.
AstroWizard finishes it.

Turn a stacked image from your Seestar, Dwarf, or any telescope into a finished astrophoto - nine guided steps, one obvious button at a time. No manuals. No jargon. No 40-hour learning curve.

Download for Windows AstroWizard.exe · 109 MB Download for macOS Apple Silicon · 64 MB · Intel build in Downloads below Download for Linux AstroWizard-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz · 130 MB

current build 18 August 2026 · you’ll always find the newest version on this page · main link busy? mirror links below

Really free. Really private.

The Wizard (Luke) believes the magic of astrophotography should be for everyone - and that privacy is a right to be enjoyed by all, too. AstroWizard is completely free to use: no ads, no tracking, no accounts, in the app or on this site. The only time the app ever touches the internet is a quick check of this page at startup for a newer build - and the off-switch is right there in Settings. Hosted, maintained and built with coin from the Wizard’s own coinpurse (my pocket), and it stays free for anyone who wants it.

The Wizard has been known to reach out and personally thank the kind folks who keep the coffers full, the hearth stoked and the potions brewing (I need the coffee). All silliness aside - AstroWizard is founded on, and maintained by, kindness - and kindness is honoured back: tips to the coinpurse are remembered for all time in The Wizard’s Fellowship; Patreon and channel members are celebrated regularly in video credits; anyone who’s bought an RC-Astro tool through the app’s links has tipped the coinpurse mightily - and all of you are welcome on the wall too, just say the word:

☕ Tip jar ⭐ Patreon ▶ Subscribe 🪄 The Fellowship

The whole process

Nine steps. In order. That’s the trick.

Astro processing isn’t hard - it’s just usually presented in the wrong order, all at once, in software built for experts. AstroWizard walks you through the same professional workflow one step at a time, with a live preview and an Undo for everything.

  1. Load your image
  2. Crop the edges
  3. Remove the gradient
  4. Balance the colour
  5. Sharpen
  6. Reduce noise
  7. The Big Stretch
  8. Make it beautiful
  9. Export & share

Downloads

Install in about a minute

AstroWizard is in open beta and isn’t code-signed yet, so your computer will act suspicious the first time. That’s normal for independent software - here’s exactly what to click. It only happens once.

Windows WINDOWS 10 / 11

Download for Windows

Main link busy? Use the mirror - same file, byte for byte.

  1. Download AstroWizard-Windows.exe - nothing to install, it just runs.
  2. If a blue box says “Windows protected your PC”: click More info, then Run anyway.
  3. That’s it. Load an image and follow Step 1.

First-time setup · 2 minutes

Open โš™๏ธ Settings & Help and point AstroWizard at your AI tools - they usually live here:

GraXpert:
C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Programs\GraXpert\GraXpert.exe

RC-Astro:
C:\Program Files\RC-Astro\CLI\rc-astro.exe

StarNet2 (optional, free star removal): install from starnetastro.com - AstroWizard finds it automatically in the standard spot.

Then open GraXpert once on its own and run each tool - it downloads its AI models on first use.

Why the warning? Microsoft charges independent developers for a signing certificate; during the beta we skip it. The build on this page is always the official one.

macOS APPLE SILICON & INTEL

Download for macOS

Main link busy? Use the mirror - same file, byte for byte.

Download for Intel Macs2020 and earlier · same app, same steps

Intel link busy? Use the mirror - same file, byte for byte.

  1. Download AstroWizard-mac.zip and double-click to unzip.
  2. First time only: right-click (or Control-click) AstroWizard → Open → Open.
  3. On newer Macs (macOS Sequoia) that trick is gone: double-click it once (it gets blocked - that’s expected), then open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down to “AstroWizard was blocked…” and click Open Anyway.
  4. After that, open it normally like any app.

First-time setup · 2 minutes

Open โš™๏ธ Settings & Help and point AstroWizard at your AI tools:

GraXpert: just pick GraXpert.app in your Applications folder - AstroWizard finds the engine inside automatically.

RC-Astro: pick the single rc-astro file in /Applications/RC-Astro/CLI - one program runs all three tools.

StarNet2 (optional, free star removal): install the command-line version from starnetastro.com and AstroWizard finds it automatically.

Then open GraXpert once on its own and run each tool - it downloads its AI models on first use.

Why right-click? Apple’s yearly developer fee is skipped during the beta - right-click → Open is macOS’s official way of saying “I trust this one.”

Linux X86_64 · NEW

Download for Linux

Main link busy? Use the mirror - same file, byte for byte.

  1. Download and extract: tar -xzf AstroWizard-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz (or right-click → Extract Here).
  2. Run AstroWizard/AstroWizard. Nothing to install.
  3. Something odd? Launch it from a terminal and paste what it prints into a YouTube comment, with your distro. That’s the report that gets it fixed.

First-time setup · 2 minutes

Open โš™๏ธ Settings & Help and point AstroWizard at your AI tools:

GraXpert: pick the .AppImage file itself (mark it executable first if needed).

RC-Astro: choose the rc-astro program from wherever its installer placed it. GPU acceleration on Linux currently needs NVIDIA; it runs on CPU otherwise.

StarNet2 (optional, free star removal): install the command-line version from starnetastro.com; AstroWizard checks the usual spots automatically.

Then open GraXpert once on its own and run each tool - it downloads its AI models on first use.

The newest build of the family - it compiles clean and boots clean, and Linux astro folk are hereby deputised as its test pilots. Expect rough edges; report them proudly.

The AI steps

Plays well with the professionals

For the heavy AI lifting, AstroWizard drives the same engines the experts use - point it at them once in Settings and the buttons light up.

FREE

GraXpert & StarNet2

GraXpert handles background gradient removal and AI denoising (open it once after installing so it fetches its models). StarNet2 - Mikita Misiura’s free neural net - handles star removal, so the whole star workflow now has a free path.

Get GraXpert →  ·  Get StarNet2 →

PAID · TRIAL AVAILABLE

RC-Astro - BlurX, NoiseX, StarX

The gold standard for sharpening, noise reduction, and star removal. These are affiliate links - buying through them supports AstroWizard at no extra cost to you.

Get the RC-Astro tools →

BUILT IN

Everything else

Stretching, colour balance, curves, narrowband palettes, star colour fixes - all native, all included, no extra installs.

Quick answers

Before you ask…

The five questions that cover 90% of the comment section.

What kind of computer do I need?
Windows 10 or 11, any Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel builds both provided), or Linux (x86-64). Older systems like Windows 7/8 can’t run it, sorry - the modern engine room won’t fit. Hardware-wise AstroWizard is not hungry: a modest machine is fine, and while the AI steps appreciate a decent graphics card, they run happily (just slower) on an ordinary CPU.
What files can I load?
Stacked FITS, TIFF or XISF from anything - Seestar, Dwarf, ASTAP, Siril, PixInsight, DeepSkyStacker. Yes, PixInsight’s native XISF walks straight in. AstroWizard figures out the format quirks (bit depth, pixel range, bloated headers) automatically. Stack first, then bring the result here.
I clicked a GraXpert button and nothing happened.
Open GraXpert itself once and run Background Extraction and Denoising one time each - it downloads its AI models on first use. After that, AstroWizard’s buttons work every time. (Recent builds will tell you this right in the console.)
The RC-Astro steps are slow on my machine.
Update the CLI: open a terminal and run rc-astro update --install. A bug that made some images take minutes was fixed in July 2026 - both by RC-Astro and inside AstroWizard itself. Still slow? The in-app console will say why.
Is it really free?
Really free. Not a trial, not “free until it gets popular” - free is the plan. Development runs on goodwill: a tip jar and a Patreon below if it makes you smile, and buying RC-Astro tools through the affiliate links here or in the app supports it at no cost to you.
My antivirus / Mac says it’s from an unidentified developer.
That’s the missing code-signing certificate, not a threat - see the install steps above. Only download AstroWizard from this page or the links in Lukomatico’s own videos.
“Too many users have viewed or downloaded this file”?
That’s Google Drive’s daily busy sign, not a problem on your end - on launch days the main links can hit Drive’s download limit. Use the mirror link under any download button above: same files, byte for byte, with published checksums. (Or simply try the main link again tomorrow.)

Observing log

Latest from the workshop

Small releases, shipped often. Re-download any time - newer is always better here.

2026 · AUGUST 18

Doors and Dials

Open with AstroWizard - drag a FITS onto the app, or right-click and Open with, and it loads itself; groundwork for broader tests of StackingWizard, the wizard’s own stacking app, built from the ground up and taking its first steps in the workshop now. The Big Stretch’s depth grid is redesigned - the classic stretches with their dial above, the deep stretches with theirs below, and the new Custom deep pane carries a keep colours tick: one slider, both deep moods, honouring your colour choice at last (Soft retired after an unclicked career - Custom ×50 recreates it exactly). Dials now dock to their own previews, the colour switch works on already-stretched images as a pure cast fix, JPEG exports save a touch richer, and the Fellowship wall rides at 350 lines - 334 wizards, each seated once in their highest hall.

2026 · AUGUST 15

The Quiet Cures

A release of things that fix themselves: blank previews self-heal (the view re-anchors itself when it renders white or black over healthy data), silent GraXpert crashes now trigger the automatic CPU retry too, older StarNet2 builds get a plain retry that still separates the stars, and the star engines no longer trip over their own earlier files after an Undo. Also aboard: saving leads with JPEG at a fraction of the old file size for easy sharing (FITS masters one click away), update RC-Astro from inside Settings with one button, the Stretch Wizard standing alone with manual stretches folded behind one click, and Seestar stacks setting their own profile on load. The Fellowship wall rides at 309 names - the biggest induction wave yet.

2026 · AUGUST 12

Four Platforms

Intel Macs join the family - a native build for pre-Apple-Silicon Macs, field-tested on the wizard’s own old MacBook (find it on the macOS card below). Also aboard: GraXpert graphics crashes now cure themselves (one automatic CPU retry, remembered ever after), and the white-screen-after-denoise mystery is solved for good - engine results are range-checked like every loaded file. The Fellowship wall rides at 256 names.

Full changelog - every release, in plain English →