Startrails

Startrails is a lightweight software application designed specifically for helping you load star trail photos and dark frames, as well as create a time-lapse movie.

The comfort of working with portable tools

The portable running mode ensures your Windows registry doesn’t get clogged up with extra entries. It doesn’t leave configuration data in your system. You may run it by simply opening the executable file.
Getting rid of the program requires a simple deletion of the files that you have downloaded from the Internet. In addition, you may copy it on any USB flash drive or other devices and carry it with you.

Simple looks and supported file formats

You are welcomed by a clean and simple layout that does not embed complex configuration settings under the hood. The app keeps a list with all loaded photos and one with the dark frames. With just one click on the target file, you can preview the picture in the main window, and zoom in or out of it.
The utility works with the BMP, JPG and TIF file format and lets you import files in the working environment using the built-in browse button (there’s no support for drag-and-drop).

Editing options and video creation

Startrails gives you the possibility to edit images in order to obtain a good signal to noise ratio for the sky background or foreground. You may enter the number of images to be averaged. The resulting picture is lightened and combined with the star trail image.
What’s more, you are allowed to pick the blending mode, namely lighten with gaps or LSB. The first one is faster and offers you the option to save each image to a given folder, specify the filename, and pick the output file format.
When it comes to generating a time-lapse movie, you can accomplish this task by adjusting the size, specifying the framerate, and selecting the saving directory. The clip can be saved to AVI file format.

Bottom line

All things considered, Startrails comes with a handy suite of features for helping you work with star trail images. On the downside, there’s no support for a help manual so rookies may need extra time in order to decode the program’s functions.