---
url: https://superduperai.co/products/starlapse/
title: Starlapse
kind: app
description: Long-exposure night sky camera for iPhone: stacks hundreds of 1-second frames into one sharp photo and shows where to aim for meteors.
status: In the App Store
platforms: [ios]
price: Free; Starlapse Pro is a one-time $4.99 purchase
---

# Starlapse

Long-exposure night sky camera: stacks hundreds of 1-second frames and tells you where to aim for meteors.

Starlapse locks the iPhone camera for the night sky and builds long exposures by stacking frames, since a single iPhone frame stops at about one second. It focuses on starlight, aligns frames on the stars, and works out from your location where to point for tonight's meteors.

## Links

- page: https://superduperai.co/products/starlapse/
- site: https://starlapse.app
- app_store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6801191027
- github: https://github.com/fortunto2/starlapse
- privacy: https://superduperai.co/products/starlapse/privacy/
- support: https://superduperai.co/products/starlapse/support/

## Features

- **Stacking up to an hour of light.** From 10 seconds to a full hour, as pinpoint stars aligned on the stars themselves or as star trails with the ground kept sharp. The screen shows the arithmetic, e.g. '10 min of light = 600 x 1.00s'.
- **Autofocus on starlight.** Steps the lens across its range, measures star size at each position and stops at the smallest. Takes about a minute.
- **Where to aim.** Overlay of planets, bright stars and the Moon from location and motion sensors. For meteor showers it points 40 degrees off the radiant and away from the Moon (Pro).
- **Meteor detector and night time-lapse.** Detector watches the sky and saves a short clip around anything that crosses it; in time-lapse every video frame is its own stack.
- **Develop afterwards.** The stack is kept as accumulated light, so stretch (asinh curve), black point, exposure and saturation can be changed after the shot.

## FAQ

### Why stack instead of one long exposure?

An iPhone frame tops out at about one second. Starlapse takes hundreds of them and adds them up; noise falls with the square root of the frame count, and the same data can become pinpoint stars or star trails.

### Do I need a tripod?

Yes. Stacking assumes the phone does not move; handheld frames will not line up.

### Can it run with the screen off?

No. iOS stops the camera when an app leaves the screen, so Starlapse keeps the screen on and dims it with a red-on-black interface.

### What does Pro add?

A one-time $4.99 purchase: tonight's meteor showers with rates, the aim target 40 degrees off the radiant and away from the Moon, peak nights, and saves without the 'Shot on Starlapse' credit. Camera, stacking, detector and time-lapse are free.

### What is the sky dataset?

Optional. If you say yes (asked once after your first saved photo), each saved stack sends a sky brightness reading, a 2048-px photo and a location rounded to about 10 km to study light pollution. Settings > SKY DATASET turns it off or deletes everything you sent.