EAA & Live Stacking

Electronically Assisted Astronomy (EAA) sits between visual observing and full astrophotography: a sensitive camera in the focuser feeds a screen, with a stacker accumulating frames in real time so a faint nebula appears in 30 seconds rather than a 4-hour session. It's the answer for outreach nights, light-polluted suburbs, and the "I just want to see what's there, I'm not making art" temperament. Smart scopes are EAA at heart — see Smart Telescopes. EAA with traditional gear is what this page covers.

For full processed images see Deep-Sky Stacking; for the capture engine see Image Acquisition; for the cameras see Astro Cameras & Sensors; for filters that help in light pollution see Light Pollution & Filters.

Free / paid live stackers (Windows)

• ★ ★ SharpCap Pro Live Stacking — paid feature in SharpCap Pro (~$15/yr). Best-in-class live stacker: per-frame plate-solve, automatic dithering, dark/flat library on the fly, AI denoise, gradient removal in real time. The 2026 EAA standard on Windows.
  • https://www.sharpcap.co.uk
• ★ N.I.N.A Live Stacker plug-in — free in N.I.N.A. Less full-featured than SharpCap's but works; per-frame plate-solve, dark subtraction, simple stretch.
• ASILive (ZWO) — free, ZWO-only. Locked to ZWO cameras. Easy mode for ZWO ecosystem.
• JoCloud — paid; live stacking for ZWO and others.
• DeepSkyStacker Live — free; older real-time mode of DSS; rougher than SharpCap.

Free cross-platform / Linux live stackers

• ★ Siril Live Stacking — free, GPL, Win/macOS/Linux + ARM. Newer (2024+); usable; lightweight; Siril's general processing pipeline can be applied per stack iteration. Cross-platform.
• ★ KStars Ekos Live Stack — free; Pi-friendly; integrates into the broader Ekos session manager.
• Lin_guider live stack — free, Linux; older; basic.

Mobile-app-driven (smart scope companion apps)

All smart scopes ship live stacking — see Smart Telescopes. For traditional gear with a phone:

• ASIAIR Preview — closed; simple live stack on ZWO cameras through ASIAIR.
• iAstroHub (paid) — Mac-side live stacking ZWO/QHY.

Hardware that helps EAA

• ★ Sensitive small-pixel CMOS — IMX585 (ZWO 585MC, Player One Mars-C / Saturn-C-2) and IMX678 are the 2024–26 EAA darlings; ultra-low read noise plus modest pixel size make 8–15 s subs possible from light-polluted skies. See Astro Cameras & Sensors.
• ★ Fast scope — f/4 to f/6 newtonians or RASA / hyperstar setups; faster scope = brighter live stack.
• ★ Multi-narrowband filter — Optolong L-eXtreme / L-Ultimate, IDAS NBZ; pulls Hα and OIII from emission nebulae out of urban sky glow. See Light Pollution & Filters.
• Computer at the scope — Windows mini-PC for SharpCap, Pi for Ekos / Siril.
• Big screen — outreach EAA wants a 24"+ external screen, not a phone.

"True EAA" mounts / setups

• Alt-az goto on a portable mount (SkyWatcher AZ-EQ5 in alt-az mode, Celestron CPC) — fine for short subs that don't need field rotation correction.
• EQ-mount for longer subs — see Mount & Session Control; for 30 s+ subs, EQ tracking matters.
• Smart scope — handles all this; downside is the closed ecosystem.

What's changing in 2024–2026

• IMX585-class sensors — pushed live-stack quality from "nebula blob" to "real detail" at 8 s subs.
• Smart scopes ate casual EAA — most newcomers in 2024–26 buy a Seestar instead of building a traditional EAA rig.
• SharpCap Pro AI — added GraXpert-style live denoise / gradient removal.
• Outreach community — Cloudy Nights "EAA forum" still alive and well; Stellarvue, Vaonis, ZWO all sponsor outreach gear loans.

License / pricing summary

• Free: SharpCap free tier (limited live stack), N.I.N.A live stacker, Siril live stack, Ekos live stack, ASILive, DSS Live, lin_guider.
• Paid (~$15/yr): SharpCap Pro (best paid live stacker).
• Paid hardware-bundled: smart-scope companion apps.

Pick this if…

• Best live stacker overall: SharpCap Pro ($15/yr).
• Free Windows: N.I.N.A live stacker plug-in.
• Free Linux/Mac/Pi: Siril live stacking or Ekos live stack.
• ZWO ecosystem, easy mode: ASILive.
• Outreach nights, kids, no laptop: smart scope (Seestar / Vespera).
• Best traditional-gear sensor for EAA: IMX585-based OSC.
• Light-polluted backyard: EAA + multi-narrowband filter is genuinely transformative.