The exchange format is the whole contract
Calibrated and registered frames come out as FITS with their headers intact, so anything downstream can pick them up. Nothing is stored in a private database you would have to migrate out of, and no step requires that the previous one was also done here. If you decide the tool is not for you, the files you already made stay usable.
Three ways people slot it in
None of these require abandoning the program you already know.
Calibrate and stack here, finish elsewhere
Run the night through calibration, registration and integration, then take the stacked result into whichever suite you already have muscle memory for.
Stack elsewhere, inspect here
Point it at a folder of frames another program produced and use the measurement side — per-frame quality, alignment residuals, plate solutions and the post-stack tools.
Stack the same night twice and compare
Run the frames through AstrylStudio and through your usual program, then compare the two results star by star — the inputs and outputs are ordinary files, so nothing stops you. That is how this program is developed.
| What you get | |
| Session structure | A night stays a night. Frames keep their identity through calibration, registration and integration, so you can still ask what any one of them contributed after the stack exists. |
| Measurement | Per-frame quality, alignment residuals and plate solutions are recorded rather than discarded — including why a frame was rejected. |
| Ordinary files | FITS and XISF in, FITS out. No project format, no library to import into, nothing that has to be exported back out again. |
| Scope | Windows only, private beta. It does not try to be the last program in your workflow. |