AstroShader vs SharpStacker

One-time purchase. No subscription. AstroShader is an astrophotography app for capturing, stacking and editing. All you need is a stand, tripod, telescope or rock (to lean your phone on). AstroShader lets you align and stack live during the image capture process. You can also align and stack images from you Photos library. No need to transfer images to a computer to align and stack them separately (but there is a built in intervalometer if you need it). To take an image follow these steps: • Use a stand, tripod, telescope mount (or lean your iPhone on a rock). • Zoom in on stars and set focus manually, or use autofocus. • Set the exposure time, ISO and white balance, or leave to auto-exposure. • Set the number of exposures to be automatically aligned and stacked. • Calibrate your images from the edit tools. • After the capture is complete you can edit and save your image—including as 16bit TIFF. • You can open images directly to use the edit tools in AstroShader - rather following a new image capture. Image capture options include: • Number of exposures to be aligned and stacked • Exposure time • ISO • White balance • Camera type • Countdown timer • Manual focus • Pause the capture to reposition iPhone or telescope Edit options include: • Stretch image • Background extraction • Dynamic background extraction (DBE) • x5 Histogram curves for fine tonal adjustment • x3 sharpen layers each with radius and intensity with layer blending rather than chaining • Brightness (low light enhancement) • Saturation • Black point • Temperature • Tint • Save format options; HEIF, PNG, JPEG, TIFF

SharpStacker turns a series of night-sky exposures into a single clean, detailed image. By aligning and stacking your shots, it reduces noise and reveals faint detail — stars, the Milky Way and deep-sky objects — that a single frame can't capture. It's built to make astrophotography stacking accessible to everyone: a deliberately simple interface gives you an immediate, intuitive workflow — without the cost or complexity of traditional desktop software. Full RAW support preserves maximum quality from capture to export. The blending mask is generated automatically by a machine-learning model — or drawn by hand — and can be fine-tuned manually for full control. • Full RAW import • Automatic star alignment and stacking • Noise reduction through stacking • ML-generated mask, editable by hand • Simple, immediate workflow • iPhone, iPad and Mac • On-device processing — your photos never leave your device Import your exposures, start the stack, and export a cleaner, more detailed night sky.