What is ASIStudio and What Can It Bring Us?

What’s ASIStudio?

ASIStudio is an astronomy software package developed by ZWO, which currently including ASICap, ASIImg and ASILive.

• ASICap——specialized in planetary imaging, with an earlier release date, has experienced multiple iterations and gains a lot of popularity.
• ASIImg —— specialized in DSO imaging for desktop platform, is a great attempt to create a software by our years’ experience on development.
• ASILive—— specialized in live stacking. The first beta version was released at Nov 2019, is a strong competitor in live stacking software, also get many good reputations.

With this software, the future of ASIStudio is quite clear: ASIStudio will be a unified software package including all the imaging and post-processing work. Combined with popular ASI camera, a full-featured ecosystem for astrophotography will be built.

You don’t need to learn other complexity software, ASIStudio will be enough for you.

ASICap

ASICap is the first software in this collection, can be used for planetary, solar and lunar imaging. The UI is quite straightforward, you could easily adjust parameters, such as resolution, exposure time and gain. The software won’t let you miss a single clear night to take images.

ASIImg

ASIImg is the latest software in this collection. Currently could be used for DSO imaging with/without scheduled task. We plan to add sky chart, assist polar align, focusing and plate-solving in future versions in this year. Ultimately, it’s gonna meet all the demands for DSO imaging.

The development progress of ASIImg is steady, thanks to the experience for developing ASIAIR.

ASILive

ASILive is focused on live stacking. You could see the image stacked in real time with stretch and denoise automatically. A no-brainer experience for imaging.

Surprisingly, due to the convenient and easy to use of the software, ASILive has drawed attention from the fans of EAA.

Live stacking, 2 frames stacked

Live stacking, 109 frames stacked

What can ASIStudio bring us:

As a newborn software platform, ASIStudio is far from its ultimate goal. There are already many mature software, such as FireCapture, SharpCap, Maxim DL and NINA. You will be impressed if you are specializing some of these software.

But ASIStudio has its own advantages:

1.Completely complimentary

Like earlier software developed by ZWO, ASIStudio is also complimentary. You can download the software from any appropriate platform. Although ASIStudio only supports ASI camera, but we think most astronomy amateurs have at least one ASI camera. So, it is not a disadvantage.

2.Better support for ASI cameras

ASIStudio will be more robust because we focused on support our own cameras.

3.Easier learning curve

There are all kinds of astronomy imaging software, but most have a quite steep learning curve. ASIStudio is more user friendly because it has a simple, intuitive UI and more convenient operations.

4.More specialized software

Instead of integrating planetary/Solar/Lunar imaging, DSO imaging and Live stacking in one software, ASIStudio separates them into 3 individuals which can run independently: ASICap, ASIImg and ASILive. Some new features are under development, such as FITS viewer, will also been added as a gadget. This means you don’t need to download the entire software package for just a single feature (For example, purchase and download Maxim DL to view a FITS file). More flexibility for customers to imaging and post-processing.

5.Cross platform support

ASIStudio currently supports Windows 32-bit/64-bit, macOS, Linux (64-bit only). A great news for Linux and macOS customers.

The future of ASIStudio

ASIStudio is a long-term software project for desktop platform. We will keep shaping the software and add more features over time. We also keep a close eye on other great astronomy software, we may integrate it into our package after received their authorizations.

ASIStudio will become a full-featured, one-stop astrophotography software package, including the software developed by ourselves, gadgets and authorized third party software. ASIStudio will become the best solution for astronomy amateurs. We will make the astrophotography easier than never before.

When we start developing ASIStudio, someone told to us, we will never catch up the pace with software like SharpCap. Even some of our competitors stop developing similar software, as they think it is a totally waste of time. We know we have a vast gap from mature software, but it’s just a beginning.

As proven said: “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. A software project cannot become perfect from in a short time. We will never catch up the pace with others if we afraid of facing the failure. ZWO is working hard on astrophotography for 8 years, we will never give up.

We value your opinion!

To make ASIStudio better, we cherish your precious advices very much. If you have any feedback and suggestions, please do not hesitate to tell us via Facebook Messenger or E-mails.

You can send the email to:

ml.song@zwoptical.com

How to download ASIStudio:

Step 1: Check the link below

https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/software-drivers

Step 2: Go Software and find ASIStudio

You are welcome to download it and give us your feedback!