AkastroidDownload Akastroid
Free to try on your own data. No account and no card; processing runs on your computer.
Akastroid runs on Mac, Windows and Linux
You are on a phone. Send yourself the link and download it on your computer.
One email with the link and nothing else. The address is not stored.
While you are here: the gallery · guides · Image Doctor
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Opening it on a Mac, the first time
- Drag Akastroid to your Applications folder.
- Open Terminal, paste this line and press Return:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Akastroid.app - Open Akastroid. From then on it opens normally.
Needed once because the app is not code signed yet. The file itself is fine.
Opening it on Linux (beta), the first time
- In a terminal, in your Downloads folder, make the file runnable:
chmod +x Akastroid_*.AppImage - Double-click it, or run
./Akastroid_*.AppImage. - If it does not start on Ubuntu 22.04 or later, install FUSE once:
sudo apt install libfuse2.
The Linux build is new: if something does not work, write to hello@akastroid.com. Linux reads SER and AVI video; MP4 is not supported there. On Ubuntu or Debian you can install the .deb package instead.
Opening it on Windows, the first time
- Run the installer you downloaded.
- If Windows shows "Windows protected your PC", clickMore info, then Run anyway.
- Open Akastroid from the Start menu.
Shown once because the app is not code signed yet. The file itself is fine.
Version 1.3.9 · 4 October 2026 · macOS 12+, Windows 10/11 and Linux · what changed in this version
macOS
Both slices are published: a native Apple silicon build for M1 and later, and an Intel build for pre-2020 Macs. Pick the one matching your machine. If you are not sure, the Apple menu's About This Mac says which. Neither is code signed yet, so the first time needs the one Terminal line in the steps above; right-click and Open is not enough for a downloaded, unsigned app.
Apple silicon · macOS 12 Monterey or later, Apple silicon · .dmg · SHA-256 c29a0336ac8c1d4769c032842f040b7b3577285ba1e167602bc7f21828f35349
Intel · macOS 12 Monterey or later, Intel · .dmg · SHA-256 d34433e2a20aa0c2fb647e1973d11a1b5a76eb42fca117cef9d3506c2d3c1b0b
Windows
The same engine, from the same source, at the same version. It is not code signed, so SmartScreen will stop it once on first run: click More info, then Run anyway. That is Windows telling you the publisher is unverified, which is true. It is not saying the file is unsafe. The SHA-256 below is there so you can check the download rather than take our word for it.
Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · .exe, SHA-256 c34fbd1d9dd8c7e3c121f9604dba70567cf77b5e6d82d3c8a3ae3d9f5630bbbb
Getting started
1 · Point it at your session folder
The layout every tutorial teaches is the layout Akastroid expects. Keep your lights, darks, flats and bias in folders named for them and it finds all of them:
M42/
lights/ IMG_7005.CR2 …
darks/ IMG_7260.CR2 …
flats/ IMG_7294.CR2 …
biases/ IMG_7300.CR2 …Without calibration frames, Akastroid notes it once and carries on.
2 · Read what it found
It tells you what you photographed, how many frames are worth keeping, and why it rejected the ones it did. Disagree with any of it and click the row.
3 · Press the button
A hundred-frame DSLR session takes under a minute on a recent machine; a 206-frame Seestar session took 22 seconds. You get three finished versions to choose between.