DeepSkyCamera Pro

Michael Seeboerger-Weichselbaum

About this app

This app is for astrophotography with your smartphone. DSC Pro is the advanced app of DSC Free and provides these functions:

- photo function of the night sky with or without telescope (same as in DSC Free)
- photo live stacking in RAW and JPEG
- photo live stacking with tracked and untracked images
- viewfinder live stacking with max 10 sec max shutter speed for viewfinder to break the limitation of 1 sec max shutter speed for viewfinder
- live star trails
- star trails
- animated star trails video in mp4 (codecs AVC, HEVC)
- timelapse video in mp4 (codecs AVC, HEVC)

With Photo function you take pictures with long exposure times like classical astrophotography with a DSLR or CCD/CMOS camera.
DeepSkyCamera takes pictures of the stars including a plan. You take the pictures in RAW format. Android uses the format DNG which can be processed with the well-known stacking software. This is the same function DSC Free provides.

Photo live stacking works with images which a tracked by a telescope mount or tracker as well as with untracked images (phone on tripod, on a table, chair etc.). The images are analyzed and aligned so that the images can be stacked. The stacked result is saved in TIFF when you use RAW and its saved in JPEG when you use JPEG. Mostly you must post process the stacked result with other apps which provide postprocessing.
During photo live stacking essential information are displayed on the screen: number of frames, rejected frames, exposure time, integartion time, processing time and the shift in x and y axis as well as the rotation angle.

Primary goal of photo live stacking in this app is astrophotography - mainly it stacks images from the night sky. If you take images during daylight it can be stacked with DSC Pro but you have to change the settings of photo live stacking. Please check manual for hints and settings about stacking of daylight images.

Preview live stacking function is a quick stacking function which stacks images from viewfinder only. Lots of phones does not allow 1 sec or slower shutter speeds (f.i. 5 sec, 10 sec) for viewfinder. Camera sensors can become unstable and can crash when shutter speed is f.i. 5 sec. Lots of manufactuerers restrict max shutter for viewfinder at 1/3 sec or ½ sec. Thats not enough to see dark objects (f.i. M51, M57) in viewfinder when phone is attached to a telescope.

Astrophotography is not a 1 click solution and you should familiar with astronomy and astrophotography. The app is for astronomers who know what is a RAW file, what is stacking software and how to postprocess an image. The app is NOT a 1 click solution for pretty pictures without any work. This app helps astronomers and astrophotographers to take the images. You need knowledge about astrophotography and for some images you need a telescope. You must do post processing on your own.

These are the minimal requirements for DeepSkyCamera Pro:
• Android 6 or higher
• 3 GB RAM
• 64 GB flash
RAM is very important and DeepSkyCamera Pro runs on phones with 3GB RAM. Due to heavy memory operations (espcially during RAW photo live stacking) app can crash due to lack of memory. It depends on memory management of the phone. DeepSkyCamera Pro runs on Android 6 but there are a couple of minor issues on Android 6 and 7.
Best requirements for DeepSkyCamera Pro:
• Android 8 or higher
• 8 GB RAM
• 128 GB flash
More memory is always better for ever app or software. Its the same with DeepSkyCamera Pro.

You can install DeepSkyCamera Pro and DeepSkyCamera Free side by side.
Both apps are independent and you can use both apps. Updates of one app do not overwrite the other app.

Before you buy please check DSC Free first that it runs on your phone. If DSC Free runs on your device DSC Pro will also run. There is a huge compatability list available:
https://www.deepskycamera.de/en/smartphones.php

A manual of DSC Pro is here:
https://www.deepskycamera.de/manual_pro/DeepSkyCamera_Pro_manual_en.pdf

Ratings and reviews

(Pixel 9 pro) whenever I try and use this app it will freeze and lock up at around 40-50 image in. on the rare occasion it gets past 50 it works ok. but when it freezes and locks up it doesn't save any images or the stacked version when in stacking mode. So until this is fixed and I can use the app without being annoying into giving up. I'll be sticking with my phones inbuilt astrophotography mode and manually taking and stacking on my computer.(Edit: No, it didn't save anything there)

Ap delivers what promises. For me - just intervals for time lapse. I struggle though to have control fully over the sensor and cameras. It is allegedly 50mp sensor wide and ultrawide, but only wide is available. And I cannot find the app that is using its native 50mp, but only binned 12mp, which may be better for astro, although lack of ultrawide camera access is sad for milkyway landscape takes. Hopefully your app never dies and you will keep it for years to come.

this app makes no sense, read up on frames needed for stacking. flat frames it says are too dark in daylight with sheet of printer paper over lenses. WHAT? and darks gwt rejected because it can't find any stars...DUH. get it working properly before offering it on play store.

What’s new

App and manual in Spanish; New ‘Test Photo Live Stacking’ feature; New ‘Watermark’ feature added for the functions: Photo, Live Star Trails, Star Trails, Timelapse, Animated Star Trails; Live Star Trails Individual images can be now saved; Full support for Huawei Pura 80 models and max exposure times 60 seconds on all camera sensors on the Huawei Pura 80 Pro;Bug fix for Motorola Moto G 5G (2023) and Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2024);Vivo Y35: 32 sec max exposure;Bug fix Samsung M35 and A35