Frequently Asked Questions

If you are running MacOS Mojave (10.14) or later, my apps are available as bundles. Two bundles are available. Star Stacker Bundle includes Starry Landscape Stacker and Starry Sky Stacker. Image Stacker Bundle includes Starry Landscape Stacker, Starry Sky Stacker and Long Exposure Stacker. If you have already purchased an app that is included in a bundle, you get credit for the app[s] you have already purchased towards the purchase of the bundle. Bundles are only supported on MacOS Mojave and later. The links to the bundles in the App Store will not work with the older version of the App Store.

Is there a free trial version?

Yes. There are free trials for all of my apps.

Starry Landscape Stacker Free Trial

Starry Sky Stacker Free Trial

Long Exposure Stacker Free Trial

Starry Landscape Stacker vs. Starry Sky Stacker

Starry Landscape Stacker (SLS) is for shots of the night sky that have a foreground landscape.

Starry Sky Stacker (SSS) is for shots with only sky.

To use SLS the camera must be motionless relative to the foreground. This means the camera is rigidly mounted on a tripod. Typically a wide angle lens is used (often an ultra wide—14mm or wider). Typically 10 to 40 images will be stacked.

To use SSS an equatorial mount that tracks the movement of the sky must be used. Typically a medium telephoto lens or longer (e.g., a telescope) will be used. Often, over 100 images will be stacked..

To meet the needs of the different uses the programs are very different internally.

If you are uncertain about which to buy, consider trying the free trial versions or consider buying a bundle. (See "Buying and Installing" above).

Special case: Pentax K1 with the AstroTracer feature. Using this feature, each shot is tracked, but there is no tracking shot to shot. It is really in a place between SLS and SSS. SLS works for images captured with AstroTracer on a fixed mount. SSS does not work for images captured with AstroTracer in a fixed position due to the lack of tracking between shots. To use SSS, mount the camera on an equatorial mount and turn off the AstroTracer feature.

Install on a second computer, or re-install

All of my apps are sold through the Mac App Store which has rules that are very friendly to customers. Here is how to install one of my apps (or any other app you bought from the Mac App Store) on another computer. This also works if you have to reinstall.

Launch the Mac App Store on the computer you want to install the app on.

Click on the "Purchased" item. For Mac OS 10.13 (High Sierra) and older, this is at the top, near the middle of the App Store window. For Mac OS 10.14 (Mojave) and newer, this is in the side bar on the left of the window.

You will be shown a list of all the apps you have purchased. Click the "install" button for any apps you have purchased and want to install.

Updates

All updates are handled by the Apple App Store. The App Store should notify you when updates are available. If you have Automatic Updates turned on in the App Store preferences updates will be installed automatically (possibly without notification--I have not tried automatic updates).

You can manually check for updates in the App Store.

The most common cause of problems with updates is not being logged in to the App Store with the Apple ID you used to purchase the app you wish to update. If you are having problems, check that you are properly logged in to the App Store using the user id you originally used to purchase the app.

Problems buying, downloading, installing, updating

Many App Store problems can be solved by logging out of the App Store, quitting the App Store App, restarting the App Store and logging back in. You should try this before contacting Apple. If these quick and simple approaches do not work, you should contact Apple's customer support for the App Store. This varies by geography so a web search is probably the best way to find out how to do that where you live.

I Bought Starry Sky Stacker by Mistake. I wanted Starry Landscape Stacker.

Or the other way around. I cannot help with this, but the Apple Mac App Store Customer Support can. Use your favorite search engine to find app store customer support for your area. Contact them and ask for a refund for the app you bought by mistake. Then go back to the App Store and buy the app you want. I have never done this, but I know several people have been able to do this without much trouble.

Support for other Platforms

Is there a version for Microsoft Windows?

Unfortunately I do not have the time nor the money to develop versions of my programs for Windows. There is a free app, Sequator, for Windows that has similar capabilities to Starry Landscape Stacker. Deep Sky Stacker is an alternative to Starry Sky Stacker that runs on Windows.

Is there a version for Linux?

I know of no alternatives to my apps that run on Linux, and I do not have time to develop versions of my apps for Linux.

Is there a version for iPad?

Not yet, but I am working on a plan. At this point I do not know when I will have time to get to it.

Input Formats and Files

Will your apps support RAW files from my new camera?

Maybe. I rely on a RAW conversion library built and maintained by Apple. The library supports many cameras with new cameras added regularly. Normally, support for new cameras is only added on the latest version of macOS. The quickest way to find out if your camera is likely to be supported is to try to open one of your RAW files with the app Preview. It uses the same RAW library as my apps. Another test is to download the free trial of one of my apps and try it. I have instructions for working with RAW files, which includes links to the lists of supported cameras. While the list of supported cameras is large, Apple does not add support for new cameras as quickly as some other companies, such as Adobe and Capture One. If your camera is not supported, you can convert your RAW files to 16-bit TIFF files with any image processing tools that can read RAW files from your camera. There are instructions for this in the documentation for each of my apps (Starry Landscape Stacker, Starry Sky Stacker, Long Exposure Stacker). Unfortunately I essentially have no influence over Apple, so I cannot get them to prioritize support for your new camera (nor for my new camera).

To find a complete list of cameras supported by the version of MacOS that you have installed on your computer, open System Information.app and, in the left pane, scroll to the bottom. In my Mac, the 3rd item from the bottom is "Raw Support". Click on "Raw Support" to see a full list of cameras supported in the right pane. The fastest way to launch System Information.app is to use Spotlight: press ⌘+space simultaneously to start a Spotlight search, then start typing "System Information", the first item found is likely to be "System Information.app". Double click it to start the app.

Do your apps support FITS files as input?

This is particularly relevant to Starry Sky Stacker. FITS is a flexible specification (the "F" stands for "Flexible"). It seems that camera manufacturers have latched on to the the flexibility and it seems that every vendor implements FITS differently. Supporting every variation of FITS currently in use is well beyond what I have time for right now. I would like to add FITS support, but it is unlikely that I will ever have time.

Do your apps support Bias Frames?

Bias frames are not needed and are not supported. Dark frames contain all of the information contained in bias frames, and more. If you are using dark frames there is no need for bias frames. You should be using dark frames.

Image Quality Issues

Why does my stacked image have a checker board or distorted checker board artifact?

Image courtesy of Adam Woodworth (www.adamwoodworth.com). This image has been manipulated to make the artifacts more visible. 60 images captured with a Nikon Z7, converted to TIFF with Lightroom and stacked with Starry Sky Stacker. There is no way to turn off lens corrections for this camera when using Lightroom, hence, the artifacts added by Lightroom when applying lens distortion correction are visible in the stacked result.

If your images looks like the image above after stacking then you probably had lens distortion corrections turned on in Lightroom when converting your RAW files to TIFF. If the lines are straight (resulting in a checkerboard pattern) then you probably resized the images during RAW conversion. Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW are known to add artifacts like this when applying lens corrections and resizing. There is something about these artifacts that interacts with stacking to make them more obvious. The solution is to apply lens corrections and resize after stacking. Turn off all lens corrections in Lightroom when converting RAW files to TIFF, and then apply lens corrections to the stacked result. Note that for some cameras and lens you cannot turn off lens corrections in Lightroom. I know this is true for the Nikon Z7 and I have been told it is true for many mirrorless cameras. In this case, you can process the RAW files directly with SLS, SSS or LES (if your camera is supported) or you have to strip the lens information from the RAW files (if you have the skills to do that, you have the search skills to find tutorials on how to do it). Alternatively you have to use a RAW converter other than Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW. Two possibilities are On1 and Capture One. I wish there was a better solution. As far as I can tell, Adobe made two mistakes: 1. The technique they use to implement lens distortion correction adds artifacts as does their resize function and 2. they made it impossible to turn off lens distortion corrections for some cameras.

I have been in touch with a photographer who is using a Fuji GFX mirrorless camera. He experienced much more subtle artifacts than in the image above, but the source of the problem was lens distortion correction in Lightroom which cannot be turned off for his camera. He solved the problem by switching to Capture One Pro for RAW conversion instead of Lightroom. It is important to disable lens corrections in Capture One.

You may want to apply lens distortion correction after stacking. To do that with Lightroom see the next question.

How do I apply lens profile corrections to my results with Lightroom?

Lens profile corrections, particularly distortion correction must be applied after stacking. After stacking you have a TIFF file and normally Lightroom only wants to apply profile corrections to RAW files. Here is a messy work around. This is Adobe's mess--please don't blame me.

This works on a Mac running macOS 11.4 and Lightroom Classic 10.2 Camera Raw 13.2

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/LensProfiles/1.0/

find a file that is appropriate for your lens. Ignore the camera body. In the file, change

CameraRawProfile=“True”

CameraRawProfile=“False”

save the resulting file in the folder

/Users/[your user id]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/LensProfiles/1.0/

Restart Lightroom.

For example, I wanted a profile for the Canon EF 11-24 f/4L USM lens that could be applied to TIFF files. The file I found was

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/LensProfiles/1.0/Canon/Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III (Canon EF 11-24mm f4L USM) - RAW.lcp

I copied this to

/Users/[my user id]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/LensProfiles/1.0/Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III (Canon EF 11-24mm f4L USM) - Not RAW.lcp

I then found every occurrence of CameraRawProfile=“True” in the file and replaced “True” with “False” and saved the file. (Over 100 occurrences! Automatic find and replace is needed). I used BBEdit but any decent text editor will do.

Restart Lightroom. Now I can apply the profile corrections to TIFF files representing images taken with my Canon 5D IV and Canon R5 using my Canon EF 11-24 f/4L USM lens. I repeated the process for all the other lenses I have.