AkastroidAstrophotography image processing software for Mac, Windows and LinuxDrop your frames in. Get a finished picture out.
Deep sky, planets, the Moon and the Sun in one app. Akastroid calibrates, aligns, stacks and finishes your images on its own, and writes every choice it made to a log you can read. Nightscapes too: open one finished Milky Way or aurora photo and edit it.
Free to try, no account. No AI in processing or stacking. It runs offline on your own computer.
Version 1.3.28 · What's new · All versions and requirements
Every subject, one app
One app, not six.
The usual workflow strings together a different program for each step. Akastroid does the whole job, whatever you point your telescope at.
Deep sky
Folders of light frames with darks, flats and bias, smart telescope sessions from Seestar and Dwarf, mosaics, mono LRGB and narrowband.
No separate DeepSkyStacker, Siril, PixInsight
Planets
SER, AVI and MP4 videos. Lucky imaging keeps the sharpest moments, aligns the colour and sharpens from the stack's own measured blur.
No separate PIPP, AutoStakkert, RegiStax
The Moon and the Sun
Lunar close-ups and full discs, white light and H-alpha solar video, stacked and finished in the same app.
The same app, the same one run
Nightscapes
Edit one finished Milky Way, aurora or moonlit landscape photo: exposure, highlights, colour, noise and sharpening, with optional Image Enhance. Nothing is stacked or processed.
Editing only, one picture at a time
Photo: ESO, CC BY 4.0
How it works
Three steps. No settings to learn.
Drop your folder or video
Lights, calibration frames, a smart telescope folder or a planet video. Akastroid reads what it is.
It does the processing
Frame grading, alignment, stacking, gradient removal, colour and sharpening, each chosen from measurements of your frames.
Fine-tune and export
Pick a look, adjust it if you want to, add annotations, and export a 16-bit TIFF, a FITS or a picture to share.
Results
Processed in Akastroid.
What people say
From people who use it.
★★★★★I’m relatively new to astrophotography, and most software felt overwhelming. Akastroid is different. The workflow is straightforward and the results are impressive. Upload the data, make a few tweaks, and you’re basically done.
★★★★★Finally, astrophotography without the complicated workflow. I’ve tried several astrophotography processing tools, but Akastroid makes the entire process incredibly simple. I can load my lights, darks and flats, make a few adjustments, and get a finished image without spending hours figuring out complicated settings
Why people choose it
Built for the nights you really get.
Made by an astrophotographer
I'm Akash Aggarwal. I built Akastroid because processing kept me from enjoying my own nights under the sky. It is tested on my own captures and on the data people send me.
Stuck on processing a picture?
Ask about any astrophotography processing question, in Akastroid or any other tool. Write to hello@akastroid.com and we reply as soon as we can.
Pricing
Try everything free. Pay once when you're ready.
Your next clear night, finished in one run.
Free to try with every feature. No account needed.