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I have a Mac... What are good programs for Astrophotography?


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Registax isnt available as a Mac program, and I'm not really interested in downloading a ton of other emulators or virtual systems to do so.

Do any of you have suggestions for a photo stacking program for Mac's. I only have a 10 inch Dob and a 5 inch reflector, neither have tracking or goto so I'm pretty limited either way. Thanks for any help!

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Hi Mate,

Nebulosity from StarkLabs, same programmer that created PHD Guiding... both of those programs are available in a mac version....

also for planet stacking there is "Lycos" for mac, its like RegiStax for Macs.

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There's also Siril, which is a stacking application for Linux, but will run on Macs too.  It's a bit of a fag to get to build at the moment though.

And of course for planetary capture there's the exceptionally cool oaCapture, which is written by a chap with whom I am moderately well acquainted :D

James

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Mac astro site may be if interest

That looks rather usefu, though some of the information is out of date.  AstroIIDC is mentioned for capture, for example.  The author appears to have abandoned that quite some time ago and it is no longer available as far as I am aware.

James

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I downloaded Lynkeos for my stacker. Just need a capture software now. Sharpcap is out of the question. I'll give oaCapture a shot, any other suggestions? Like I said, with a 10" dob, I'm pretty limited to planetary and moon shots. Maybe if I get these programs figured out, I'll try for the orion or ring nebulas. 

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I've not had much luck getting the XBox camera to work on OSX I'm afraid.  I had to hack the Linux kernel because despite the camera claiming to be UVC compliant (and therefore properly supported by the in-kernel driver) it appears to play a little fast and loose with the specs.  Thus far I've lacked the will to try to get it to work with my UVC library on a Mac.

James

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Welcome to the eternal struggles of trying to do astrophotography with a Mac. 

It doesn't have to be. Well, I know you don't want to fiddle around with VMs or BootCamp, but that's actually a rather painless approach. You have the full range of tools at your disposal, be it on OS X, Linux or Windows. I mainly use digiCamControl and capture software for my SPC9000, both without problems, on my MacBook Pro.

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I don't have any problems with Virtual Box or Boot Camp. I'm just lazy at the moment is all. I'll probably end up doing that as it's my only real option. Thanks everyone!

Except for buying Parallels for Mac and a copy of Windows. That's what I did and it has been completely succesful. In fact I've never had Windows run as well in any machine as it does on my Mac! What's nice about Parallels is that Windows and Mac OS (Yosemite in my case) run together seamlessly. I can run applications simultaneously in both operating systems and they access the same files and folders.

Having said all that, I don't think running Windows as a VM on a Mac is ideal. It's a layer of complexity in a a whole myriad of complexities that you wouldn't choose if you didn't have to. Looking at it now I'm not sure I would make the same decisions I made two years ago when I decided to move to a Mac - which I did because I hated Windows 8.1 plus a whole basket of other problems with Windows machines over the years. Firstly MS have introduced Windows 10 which must (surely?) be better than the pig's breakfast that was W8. Secondly, I am now aware that pretty much everything I do now using Windows 7 on my Mac could be done in Yosemite, as this thread illustrates very well. On the other hand I have generally found the Mac a pleasant change in terms of usability compared with my Windows experience. Yer pays yer money and takes yer choice!

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