Stacker software for mac

[Maged]

It would be great if anybody can recommend a stacking software for mac that can use either video or images as a source for stacking frames.

Many thanks 

[Davey-T]

There's a new Serif Affinity that was available free in beta, downloaded it but haven't got round to trying it yet so don't know if it stacks.

Dave 

[D4N]

I use AS!2 and registax, both running in Wine but I don't have any native OSX video stacking software.

For image stacking stacking then Nebulosity and PI both work natively in OSX.

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[NickK]

Lodestar Live (SX only), ImPP, PixInsight, Nebulosity.

There's also Registax in Wine (although this can be temperamental), also DeekSkyStacker will probably also work on WINE.

I've also been working on a realtime electronically assisted program.

[JamesF]

For planetary type stacking there's also Lynkeos, though I've not used it in anger.

James

[D4N]

DSS doesn't work properly in Wine, it is very glitchy and tends to fail a lot. It might work better on smaller images but I found it wasn't any use with a DSLR.

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[NickK]

DSS doesn't work properly in Wine, it is very glitchy and tends to fail a lot. It might work better on smaller images but I found it wasn't any use with a DSLR.

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Also WINE has limited multi-core CPU/threading support.. so you get a single core.. it makes Registax rather slow - better running a native tool.

[Ouroboros]

I have Parallels installed on my MacBook, which allows Windows to run as a virtual operating system on a Mac. It's an expensive option and only worth it if you need to run several Windows compatible applications. I run DSS, BackyardEOS and Photoshop CS5 (+ other stuff) this way on my Mac.

[JamesF]

I guess Bootcamp or VMware might also be worth a go?

James

[Maged]

Thanks all for the information. Looks like it's better and safer for me to run applications naively on their related operating systems.

In that case any recommendation for a stacker software that uses video files from DSLR for windows?

[JamesF]

If you push the video file through AstroPIPP as a first pass, then either AS!2 or Registax ought to cope with the video I think.

James

[Ouroboros]

I guess Bootcamp or VMware might also be worth a go?James

Bootcamp is free I believe but it is still necessary to buy a copy of Windows.

Now I'm not absolutely certain about this but I think you have to either run OSX or Bootcamp at any one time on a Mac.

The advantage of Parallels is that it runs as an application within the Mac operating system so you can swap between programmes running on the two operating systems simultaneously and access all the same files and folders.

[NickK]

With Bootcamp you run either windows or OS X - you boot from restart into the chosen operating system. My Mac Mini has a bootcamp with Windows7, OS X 10.10 Yosemite and a separate OS X 10.6.8 USB boot disk. The windows partition has a Linux VM under virtual box.

Virtual box under OS X is buggy - last time I tried it kept hanging Linux and when it did work with the windows install, it could only have one core assigned due to a USB race condition bug. VirtualBox under windows is fine and stable.

VMware is ok on OS X, however I stopped using Parallels at Parallels 4 because every time an OS X release came out you had to pay money - the biscuit came when the old version, after an update, failed to even work without paying money, effectively holding my data ransom due to a free OS X update. Never again with Parallels.

[D4N]

Unfortunately VMWare is not better than Parallels in that respect NickK. They do exactly the same thing on OSX updates.

I keep everything on a shared folder I can access from OSX to avoid the risk of data loss if I have a problem with VMWare or Windows.

Another option is to run a boot camp partition as a virtual machine. Then if you can't use the virtual environment you just reboot into windows instead. You do lose some of the VM functionality this way though.

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[Ouroboros]

VMware is ok on OS X, however I stopped using Parallels at Parallels 4 because every time an OS X release came out you had to pay money - the biscuit came when the old version, after an update, failed to even work without paying money, effectively holding my data ransom due to a free OS X update. Never again with Parallels.

I found this somewhat worrying, though in fact I've been through several OSX and Parallels uodates and never been asked to pay more.

[NickK]

I found this somewhat worrying, though in fact I've been through several OSX and Parallels uodates and never been asked to pay more.

It was more that the company didn't warn users that updating the OS would instantly make the their software incompatible - had I known that I would have stayed on the pre-update version, at least until I knew what I was going todo and recover the important data from it. Maybe they've learnt from the Parallels 4 fiasco - there was a very long and bitter thread on their forum that the mods deleted.

Examples:

http://www.selikoff.net/2012/07/25/os-x-mountain-lion-kills-parallels-6/

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6009404

[Ouroboros]

Interesting. I can understand the annoyance.

I'm on Parallels 10 now. I had to update it after Apple updated Mavericks to Yosemite. But as I say it was all free. As you say, perhaps they've learned from their mistake.

Anyway, we're drifting off topic.

[Maged]

Thank you all for your replies.

Yesterday I downloaded AstroPIPP and tried it on a movie I took for the moon through my DSLR attached to the telescope prime focus. I wanted to use AstroPIPP to prepare the movie to be stacked by registax 6 But It's very confusing as AstroPIPP degraded the movie quality in order to be used on Registax and the final picture I got was mediocre quality. So I'm sure I'm doing something wrong on both AstroPIPP and Registax. 

It will be great if you have any advises.

Thanks again

[cgarry]

Thank you all for your replies.

Yesterday I downloaded AstroPIPP and tried it on a movie I took for the moon through my DSLR attached to the telescope prime focus. I wanted to use AstroPIPP to prepare the movie to be stacked by registax 6 But It's very confusing as AstroPIPP degraded the movie quality in order to be used on Registax and the final picture I got was mediocre quality. So I'm sure I'm doing something wrong on both AstroPIPP and Registax. 

It will be great if you have any advises.

Thanks again

Hi,

I am a little confused as to what the issue is exactly.  What you mean by 'degraded the movie quality'?

Cheers,

Chris

[Maged]

Hi,

I am a little confused as to what the issue is exactly.  What you mean by 'degraded the movie quality'?

Cheers,

Chris

I mean that Astro PIPP decreased the resolution of the movie I took by the DSLR to a resolution similar to a movie taken by webcam

[cgarry]

Which options are you using?  PIPP can crop around the planet and remove the background, but the planet will cover exactly the same number of pixels.  This cropping can be disabled if that is not what you want.

If you want to just use PIPP to do just a simple video format conversion, then do not change any options and just hit the 'Do Processing' button.  Be warned that the output file could be very large!

Cheers,

Chris

[D4N]

If you don't crop a DSLR video then there's a good chance that Registax won't be able to process it anyway.

AS!2 seems to handle large files better but registax has better sharpening for the final image.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.