Your telescope's photos, plans and forecast, on your own computer.

Nebulis imports every frame from your Seestar, DWARF or ASIAIR, plans the night, and controls a Seestar. Free, no account.

Download Free See what it does
v2.2.2 · Released Nov 11 · What's new
The California Nebula, NGC 1499, a two-panel mosaic imaged with a Seestar
NGC 1499, California Nebula
Mosaic · 625 frames at 30 s · October 9

What's in it

Every object you have imaged, with its type and number of observations. Open one to inspect a frame.

Made with it

Some of my captures.

These come straight from my own library. The mosaic above is one of them.

The Andromeda Galaxy, M31
M31, Andromeda Galaxy
1,497 frames at 30 s · September 20
The Horsehead region, IC 434
IC 434, Horsehead region
429 frames at 30 s · September 29
The Orion Nebula, M42
M42, Orion Nebula
254 frames at 10 s · March 30

Smart telescopes made imaging easy. Managing what they capture is still a pain.

  • Files are stuck in each scope's app.

    Every capture sits in its own app's format, on its own device, with no easy way out.

  • Planning is done by hand.

    Altitude, azimuth and rise times worked out by hand or guessed, night after night.

  • Weather is spread across apps.

    Clouds in one app, seeing in another, moon phase in a third. None of them are built for astronomy.

Nebulis puts all of it in one place.

It imports your captures, helps plan each night and shows the forecast, so you spend less time on files and more time under the sky.

Private.
Nothing leaves your network.
Local.
Runs on hardware you own.
Yours.
No accounts. No subscriptions.

Two things worth a closer look.

Get a night's frames in, then zoom in on them.

Import without moving your files

Point Nebulis at a folder on the machine. It indexes the images where they are and matches them to the catalog.

Inspect a frame at full size

Open a stack, go to 100%, and pan across the field. The filmstrip keeps the next frame one click away.

And everything else it handles

Smaller tools, same local-first server. No extra setup, no extra apps.

Local-First Privacy

Nebulis runs entirely on your own machine. Your images, your catalog, your plans. None of it ever touches a server you don't control.

FITS Viewer

See exactly what's in your raw frames before you stack. Inspect FITS headers and compare stacked vs. subframes.

Subframe Analysis

Every raw frame gets a score from 0 to 100 and a Good, Fair or Bad grade against the rest of its night. Flags call out clouds, soft stars, star trails, streaks and noise, so you know which frames to drop before you stack.

Automatic Imports

Give each telescope its own check-in interval and Nebulis pulls new sessions in on its own, taking only the frames it has not seen. Switch it off per scope whenever you want.

Multi-telescope

Manage multiple telescopes from one interface. Each scope keeps its own library while sharing the same catalog and planner.

Framing and Mosaics

Lay your telescope's field of view over any object before you spend a night on it. Nebulis tells you if the target fits, is a tight crop, or needs a mosaic.

Catalogs

Every target is matched to Messier, NGC, IC, Caldwell and Sharpless, with names, type and a short description. Keep a wishlist of what you have not shot yet and schedule it for a night.

Annotate

Open any image and Nebulis plate solves it, then draws rings and names over the objects in the frame, each with a details card.

iOS · tvOS · Android

Browse your full image library from your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Android device. On iPhone and iPad, Standalone mode works straight from your telescope, no server needed.

See the apps

One library. Every screen you own.

The Nebulis server runs on a Mac, Windows PC, or Docker host on your network. Every other device just connects to it, and iPhone and iPad can also work standalone, straight from your telescope. No relay, no third party in between.

  • One server, unlimited local devices
  • Same library on phone, tablet, and TV
  • Everything stays on your own Wi-Fi

From download to first import, in minutes

No cloud account. No subscription. Just download, connect, and go.

  1. 01

    Install Nebulis

    Download the Mac or Windows installer and run it. Setup takes under two minutes.

    Mac · Windows
  2. 02

    Connect your telescope

    Enter your telescope's IP address, or plug in via USB. Nebulis scans and imports automatically.

    ZWO SeeStar · ZWO ASIAIR · DWARFLAB Dwarf II · Dwarf 3
  3. 03

    Import your sessions

    Hit sync and Nebulis pulls in every session: JPEGs, FITS files, and subframes, matched against the NGC, Messier, and IC catalogs.

    FITS · JPEG · Subframes
  4. 04

    Explore your universe

    Browse your library, plan tomorrow's session, check tonight's forecast, and view raw FITS data. Everything in one window.

    Library · Planner · Forecast · Gallery

Download Nebulis

Install the Nebulis server where your images live: macOS, Windows, or self-hosted on Linux via Docker. Then connect from any device on your local network.

Install guide

No subscription, no cloud. Your data never leaves your network.

Server & Web Client

Runs on your machine · access from any device

Legacy builds · macOS 12.x

Clients

Browse your library from any device on your local network. iPhone and iPad can also go standalone.

About Nebulis

I've loved astronomy since I was a kid. In 2023 I bought a Seestar, and getting the images off it and organized was a pain. It was all manual file copying. I wrote a few scripts for myself, they kept growing, and now it's an app.

Nebulis is free. No accounts, no subscriptions, no ads. If it saves you some time, you can buy me a coffee.

Buy me a coffee Brent

Frequently asked questions

What Nebulis is, what it costs, and what it works with.

Is Nebulis free?

The Nebulis server and web UI are completely free. There is no subscription, no paid tier, no account to create, and no ads. The iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Android apps are sold through their app stores for a small one-time fee, which helps cover store and developer costs. Everything the apps do also works from the web UI at no cost. Nothing on the server is gated behind payment. If you love Nebulis and want to help support it, you can buy me a coffee .

What is Nebulis?

Nebulis is a self-hosted astrophotography library. It pulls the images off your smart telescope, organizes every capture into one searchable catalog matched against the Messier, NGC, IC, and Sharpless catalogs, and adds an observation planner and an astronomy-specific sky forecast. It runs on a computer you own and is reached from any device on your network.

Which smart telescopes does Nebulis support?

Nebulis imports natively from the ZWO Seestar S30 and S50, the DWARFLAB Dwarf II and Dwarf 3, and the ZWO ASIAIR (beta). It can also watch any folder over SMB or FTP, or ingest a USB drive, so images from almost any astrophotography setup can be brought into the library.

Does Nebulis need an internet connection or a cloud account?

No. There are no accounts and nothing to sign in to. The server and clients talk to each other over your local Wi-Fi. Nebulis only reaches the internet to fetch a weather forecast for your location and reference data for catalog objects.

How do I reset a forgotten password?

The Nebulis login page has no "forgot password" link, on purpose: anyone who could reach the page could use it to take over your account. Instead you reset it on the computer that runs the Nebulis server, by running the Nebulis program with the --reset-password flag and your username. It works offline and prints a new password to sign in with. The reset page has the exact steps for Windows, macOS, and Docker.

Open the password reset steps

Where are my astrophotography images stored?

On the machine where you install the Nebulis server. Your images, catalog, notes, and plans stay on hardware you control and are never uploaded to a server run by anyone else.

What platforms does Nebulis run on?

The Nebulis server runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux via Docker. The library is then browsable from any web browser on your network, plus native apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Android. On iPhone and iPad (Nebulis 2.1), Standalone mode also runs without a server by syncing straight from your telescope.

Can Nebulis import FITS files and sub-frames?

Yes. Nebulis imports stacked results, raw sub-frames, and JPEG or PNG previews. It has a built-in FITS viewer for inspecting headers and comparing stacked images against their sub-frames before you process them.