DeepSkyStacker
DeepSkyStacker is free open-source software for Windows used to stack and process astrophotography images. It can align, stack, and enhance images to reduce noise and bring out details.
DeepSkyStacker: Free Astrophotography Image Stacker & Processor
Free open-source software for Windows, stacking and processing astrophotography images, aligning, stacking, enhancing images to reduce noise and bring out details.
What is DeepSkyStacker?
DeepSkyStacker is a widely used free open-source software application for Windows used by astrophotographers to stack and process images of astronomical objects like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. It is designed to facilitate the workflow of stitching together multiple long exposure images to reduce noise, increase detail and dynamic range, and bring out faint objects.
Some of the key features and capabilities of DeepSkyStacker include:
- Automatic alignment and stacking of images using star detection even if the images are unguided or have small tracking errors
- Supports common astrophotography image formats like FITS, TIFF, PNG, and JPEG
- Powerful stacking algorithms like Sigma Clipping to eliminate outliers and bring out details
- Integrated light pollution and green noise reduction
- Brightness, contrast, and color adjustment tools
- Support for calibration frames like darks, flats, and bias images
- Ability to output final stacked TIFF images for further processing
With its specialized toolset tailored for astrophotography workflows, active development community, and free open-source nature, DeepSkyStacker has become an essential image processing program for many amateur astrophotographers worldwide.
DeepSkyStacker Features
Features
- Aligns images using star detection
- Stacks images to reduce noise
- Enhances images to bring out details
- Supports RAW and JPEG image formats
- Supports TIFF and PNG output formats
- Automatic star detection and matching
- Comet and satellite tracking
- Dark frame subtraction
- Flat field correction
- Histogram transformation
- RGB image combination
Pricing
- Free
- Open Source
Pros
Free and open source
Easy to use interface
Effective at reducing noise in astrophotography
Supports many common image formats
Can improve image quality significantly
Cons
Windows only
Limited to astrophotography use cases
Requires some image processing knowledge
Lacks some advanced features of paid alternatives
Official Links
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