The fastest astrophotography triage tool for macOS. Blink through hundreds of sub-exposures, find the bad ones, and move them aside — without deleting a single file.
Purpose-built interface for blinking, comparing, and AI-assisted quality analysis of your sub-exposures.
Automatically scores every sub-exposure relative to its group. Validated on 1,457 frames across 6 setups, 3 telescopes, mono + OSC, narrowband + broadband.
Absolute thresholds catch catastrophic failures — clouds, cable snags, tracking disasters.
Robust median/MAD statistics with weighted metrics rank every frame against its peers.
Pattern-based rules rescue unfairly penalized frames — fewer false positives.
Final validation ensures cull decisions are consistent and defensible.
Detects systematic tracking errors vs. normal optical aberration using circular statistics. Distinguishes between frames with consistent elongation patterns and those with random issues.
After 30+ frames, SmartCull recalibrates its thresholds to prevent the "death spiral" — where aggressive early culls skew statistics for remaining frames.
Choose Conservative, Balanced, or Aggressive modes. SmartCull handles 99% of quality decisions automatically.
SmartCull handles the rest. Spend your time imaging, not pixel-peeping.
Named after Isaac Newton. Powered by Claude (Anthropic). AIsaac has deep access to your session data and can both analyze and control AstroBlink via natural language.
FWHM, HFR, star count, noise, eccentricity, trailing score, quality reasoning, full FITS headers
Offline speech on Apple Silicon — talk to AIsaac hands-free at the scope
Auto-detects language from FITS coordinates — speaks your language, wherever you image
Learns your setup over time — knows your gear, your sky, your patterns
"Show me #42", "Mark the worst 5", "Stack the best 7" — natural language control
No personal data sent — only technical metadata. Your images stay yours.
AstroBlink is completely free. No subscriptions, no paywalls, no feature gates. Every astrophotographer deserves great tools — regardless of budget.
Download from the Mac App Store at no cost. All features included — SmartCull, LightspeedStacker, SSWEIGHT export, keyboard shortcuts. No premium tier, no trial expiration.
SmartCull's quality engine was validated on 1,457 real-world frames across 6 setups, 3 telescopes, mono and OSC, narrowband and broadband — contributed and tested by the astrophotography community.
The more setups SmartCull encounters, the smarter its calibration becomes. Community-driven learning means better culling for every telescope, every camera, every sky condition.
Full source code on GitHub. Inspect it, improve it, adapt it. Built transparently for a community that values trust and collaboration.
Most astrophotographers sit on large archives of sub-exposures collected over months or years — data that was stacked with whatever seemed okay at the time. AstroBlink is fast enough to re-evaluate hundreds of subs quickly. Drop a folder of old Hα subs, let SmartCull score them, and you might find that some were dragging your final stack down. Your data doesn't expire — but your cull decisions can always improve with better tools.
See How SmartCull Works →AstroBlink gets better the more real-world data it sees. You can help — transparently, safely, and on your terms.
Just image as usual and run SmartCull. That's it — you're already generating valuable quality data.
If you choose to, AstroBlink can export anonymized quality metrics — FWHM, HFR, eccentricity, star count, noise level, trailing score, sky coordinates, and SmartCull's cull decision per frame. No images. No filenames. No personal data.
Aggregated community benchmarks help refine thresholds, catch edge cases, and validate SmartCull across setups nobody on the team owns. A mono ASI2600 at f/2 in Bortle 2? An OSC 294MC under city skies? Your data teaches SmartCull what "good" looks like for every combination.
AstroBlink never permanently deletes anything. Culled frames are moved to a _predel/ folder, fully undoable with ⌘Z.
Drop a folder of FITS or XISF files. AstroBlink reads headers and extracts quality metrics instantly.
→The 4-stage engine scores every frame. AIsaac is ready for questions. Preview stack with LightspeedStacker.
→Export SSWEIGHT for PixInsight. Culled frames sit safely in _predel/ — always recoverable.
Seamless integration with the imaging and processing tools you already use.
AstroBlink is completely free, open-source, and built for the astrophotography community. Download it tonight.
Here are the most common ones. For the full FAQ, head over to the GitHub Wiki.
Hi, I'm Joerg — a software developer and astrophotographer. I built AstroBlink because I was tired of manually blinking through hundreds of subs at 2 AM after an imaging session. What started as a personal tool quickly grew into something I wanted to share with the community.
When I'm not coding or imaging, I'm usually tinkering with telescope setups, experimenting with narrowband palettes, or chasing clear skies. AstroBlink is a passion project — built in my free time, given away for free, and shaped by feedback from fellow imagers.
If you find it useful, a star on GitHub or a coffee means a lot. If you have ideas or find bugs — open an issue, I read every one.