NightScape Lab vs Starry Sky Stacker
Starry Sky Stacker is the deep-sky sibling of Starry Landscape Stacker, from the same developer, and it's a focused, well-liked tool for exactly one job: stacking sky-only exposures shot on an equatorial mount. NightScape Lab is built for a different photograph entirely: the nightscape, where a landscape sits under the sky. It puts the whole landscape-astrophotography darkroom, calibrated stacking with foreground handling, star tools, a foreground sky merge, star trails, and a Lightroom round-trip, in one tool inside Photoshop, on macOS & Windows.
It does one job well, at a low price
If you shoot tracked, sky-only frames, Starry Sky Stacker earns its reputation. It reads RAW, TIFF, or JPEG sequences, aligns them to correct tracking errors, rates every frame's quality so you can drop the weak ones, and combines the rest to cut both shot noise and fixed-pattern noise. It's light on memory, simple to learn, and sold for $24.99 on the Mac App Store (August 2026), with a free trial from the developer's website. For a Mac deep-sky shooter who wants a clean stack without a PixInsight learning curve, it's an easy tool to recommend.
Built for nightscapes, with the whole darkroom to finish them
Starry Sky Stacker stacks the sky and stops. NightScape Lab is built for images with a landscape in them, and it carries the picture from RAW frames to the final grade without leaving Photoshop.
- ✓Foreground handling built in. Dual sky/ground stacking driven by an AI sky mask: the sky registers on stars while the ground stays sharp. The mask arrives as an editable Photoshop layer; paint it and restack until the boundary is right.
- ✓Fixed tripod, no mount required. NightScape Lab stacks untracked, ground-fixed sequences, which is how nightscapes are shot. Starry Sky Stacker requires an equatorial mount and sky-only frames by design.
- ✓Beyond the stack. White Balance, Defringe, Recipes, Star Removal with a Star Map layer, Declutter with Constellation Guard, a Foreground Sky Merge, and Star Trails in five looks, all in the same $129 purchase.
- ✓The Lightroom round-trip. Send a night's frames from Lightroom Classic; the stacked base image saves beside your RAWs, imports into your catalog automatically, and opens in Photoshop.
- ✓macOS & Windows. Starry Sky Stacker is Mac-only. NightScape Lab runs inside Photoshop 2023+ on both platforms.
Capability comparison
| Capability | NightScape Lab | Starry Sky Stacker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $129 once | $24.99 once (Mac App Store) |
| Platforms | macOS & Windows | macOS only |
| Made for | nightscapes: sky + landscape | tracked, sky-only deep-sky |
| Works untracked (fixed tripod) | ✓ | ✗ needs an equatorial mount |
| Calibrated RAW stacking | ✓ pre-demosaic darks, kappa-sigma rejection | stacks RAW/TIFF/JPEG with frame quality ratings |
| Foreground handling (sky + ground) | ✓ dual-stream, editable sky-mask layer | ✗ sky-only by design |
| Star removal / reduction | ✓ Star Removal + Declutter | ✗ |
| Foreground Sky Merge | ✓ | ✗ |
| Star trails | ✓ five looks | ✗ |
| Lightroom Classic round-trip | ✓ auto-import to catalog | ✗ |
| Runs inside Photoshop | ✓ panel | separate app |
| One-time or subscription | one-time | one-time |
Honest questions
I shoot tracked deep-sky. Should I buy NightScape Lab instead?
Probably not for that work. Starry Sky Stacker is built precisely for tracked, sky-only sequences, and at $24.99 it's an honest bargain for the job. NightScape Lab's stacking is designed around a fixed camera and a sky/ground boundary; dedicated tracked deep-sky imaging is not its focus. If nightscapes are what you shoot, the answer flips.
Is Starry Sky Stacker the same as Starry Landscape Stacker?
Siblings, not the same tool. Both come from the same developer. Starry Landscape Stacker handles images with a landscape in the frame; Starry Sky Stacker is the sky-only variant for tracked exposures. If you're weighing NightScape Lab against the landscape one, that comparison is over here.
Can NightScape Lab stack my tracked sky-only frames?
It's not the tool we'd point you to for that. NightScape Lab's stacking pipeline is built for ground-fixed nightscape sequences, and its Star Trails tool outright refuses tracker-aligned frames (trails need a fixed camera). For pure tracked deep-sky stacking, a dedicated deep-sky stacker like Starry Sky Stacker is the right fit.
Why is NightScape Lab $129 when Starry Sky Stacker is $24.99?
Because it's a different amount of tool. Starry Sky Stacker does one job. NightScape Lab covers calibrated stacking with foreground handling, White Balance, Defringe, Recipes, Star Removal, Declutter, the Foreground Sky Merge, Star Trails in five looks, and the Lightroom Classic round-trip, in one purchase, inside Photoshop. If you only need the one job, buy the one-job tool.
For the nights with a landscape in them.
The whole landscape-astrophotography darkroom in one tool inside Photoshop, with a Lightroom round-trip. macOS & Windows.
30-day money-back guarantee. If it's not for you, email for a full refund, no questions asked.