Noise-Free Astrophotography with Starry Landscape Stacker

Accessible astrophotography tools keep getting better and better. Here, I review and walkthrough of my new favorite piece of software for processing astrophotography: Starry Landscape Stacker.

In the video below, I walk through my entire process for combining multiple exposures into a single noise-free photograph of the night sky using Starry Landscape Stacker. Download Starry Landscape Stacker at the Mac App Store.

This video was shot on:
Sony a7S (B&H)
Zeiss Batis 18mm f/2.8 (B&H)
Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 (B&H)
Sirui T-025X Tripod (B&H)
Rode Video Micro (B&H)

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We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. We are also a participant in the B&H Affiliate Program which also allows us to earn fees by linking to bhphotovideo.com.

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Thanks so much for being a part of our astrophotography adventure.

-Ian

17 Replies to “Noise-Free Astrophotography with Starry Landscape Stacker”

  1. Hi Ian from South Africa (p.s. lots of dark night skies in southern Africa’s numerous wilderness areas). Thanks for all your tuts & tips. Exceptionally helpful! My question is how many images should one be taking of the same composition to optimise noise reduction? This video uses 19 images but I’m sure you will recommend a range from minimum amount to maximum optimisation. Many thanks, Rob

  2. I’m a night sky novice and really appreciate this video. Can black frames be included with same workflow or does it get more complicated?

  3. Starry Landscape Stacker is indeed an excellent piece of software! If you shoot a wide landscape Milky Way pictures, you won’t find a better software for stacking on macOS.

    Yet it does not do a really good job with a tracked, deep-sky objects’ pictures. To this task, I can recommend another app from the same author, Starry Sky Stacker. The interfaces of those two apps may look very similar, but the inside algorithms in Starry Sky Stacker are much better suited for tracked astrophotography. I use these two apps on a regular basis, and I cannot imagine my astrophotography life without them.

  4. Ian,
    I am a huge fan of your site, have been following it closely for 2+ years.

    Quick question, how does the starry landscape stacker work when there’s clouds in the sky?

  5. Ian, any thoughts in how this app works with stars and northern lights in the sky? I’m looking for a stacker to use on photos from Iceland.

  6. Hi Ian,

    Have you tried this process with frames from a timelapse that included motion like a pan or a slide? I would think that we might be able to use the same process but with a less precise map over the foreground.

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