Comparison
NightScape Stacker vs. GradientXTerminator
RC-Astro's GradientXTerminator handles light pollution gradient removal inside Photoshop or Affinity Photo. It does that job well. The limitation is scope: it is a single-purpose plugin that requires a host application to run, and it addresses only the brightness gradient — not the color cast that sodium or LED streetlights leave on the sky. NightScape Stacker includes Light Pollution Removal as a built-in step alongside stacking, white balance, noise reduction, and star tools, with per-channel correction for color light pollution and no host application required.
GradientXTerminator
GradientXTerminator tackles the light pollution gradient problem: the uneven sky glow that shows up in images taken anywhere near a city, and the vignetting that creeps in from lenses and sensor edges. It handles corner gradients, edge gradients, and circular gradients, and it processes 32-bit, 16-bit, and 8-bit files. The results are reliable.
Worth noting: GradientXTerminator is Photoshop and Affinity Photo only. Unlike some other RC-Astro tools, it does not support PixInsight. So if your workflow runs through PixInsight, this plugin is not available to you without switching applications specifically for this step.
The cost is approximately $40 for the plugin, plus the cost of Photoshop ($20 to $55 per month) or Affinity Photo (around $70 one-time). It does only gradient removal. Stacking, denoising, star work, and everything else still require separate tools.
NightScape Stacker
Light Pollution Removal in NightScape Stacker is the final step of a complete pipeline: stack, white balance, denoise, star removal or reduction, then light pollution removal. Each step operates on the output of the previous one. No exports, no format changes, no switching applications. The light pollution tool handles both luminance gradients (vignetting, sky brightness falloff) and color casts from artificial light using per-channel correction surfaces.
NightScape Stacker is a standalone application. Mac, Windows, and Linux are all supported. There is no Photoshop subscription, no Affinity license, and no PixInsight required. The entire workflow costs $99 one-time for two seats with a perpetual license.
If you already have Photoshop and only need luminance gradient correction as a one-off fix, GradientXTerminator covers that. If you need light pollution removal — including color casts from city lights — as part of a complete landscape astrophotography workflow on any platform, including Linux, NightScape Stacker is the more direct path.
One app. Full workflow. No subscriptions.
$99 one-time · 2 seats · Mac, Windows, Linux · AI runs locally
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