What software do you use with mac?

[jana]

Hi just wondering what software others here use with a Mac as I have just switched to using a macbook after many years with pc, but after my last laptop died I decided to switch to Mac.

What software do you use for planetarium, imaging etc?

I am looking to get a DSLR soon and would like to get an idea of what software I need to process etc.

Also does anybody use a spc webcam with mac as haven't got round to trying that out yet either.

I know you can also dual boot with windows on a mac so is that a option that some people use to avoid compatibility issues with software???

cheers

Marc.

[NickK]

dual boot will work.

bootcamp wil save on battery power as windows can control the gnu in use. parallels works with windows but it forces the high power graphics chip to work. the result is 3 hrs of battery time

[Stephen]

Hi just wondering what software others here use with a Mac as I have just switched to using a macbook after many years with pc, but after my last laptop died I decided to switch to Mac.

What software do you use for planetarium, imaging etc?

I am looking to get a DSLR soon and would like to get an idea of what software I need to process etc.

Also does anybody use a spc webcam with mac as haven't got round to trying that out yet either.

I know you can also dual boot with windows on a mac so is that a option that some people use to avoid compatibility issues with software???

cheers

Marc.

In short, virtualisation software (Mac lover but realist.)

There are software options for the Mac, and a few people use them - but it's easier to run PC software due to the ease / support available for them.

If you really want to go down the mac road, look into Nebulosity and there is another one but the name escapes me at the moment ....

If you install MACAM, you can get the SPC to work under OSX.

[jana]

Thanks, I'm gonna go down the dual boot option i think. friend who's a bit of a whiz on the computers is gonna help get it all sorted. looks like the best option all around.

[James]

I've never really needed to dual boot myself. I currently use Nebulosity for capture, PHD for guiding, Pixinsight for stacking and processing; for planetarium software I vary between Stellarium, Equinox, Voyager and Sky Safari. There's also TheSkyX, Starry Night and more. For planning there's Astroplanner.

There's also AstroIIDC which I use for my Imaging Source camera, Keiths Image Stacker and a few others...

On top of that I use David Hulse's EQMac app for controlling my Skywatcher mounts...

No shortage of software really, all easy to use (well, except perhaps Pixinsight ) and all well supported by very active software authors and user groups

The only app that I've ever had to use Windows for in astronomy is CCDCalc...

James

[jana]

I have just finished installing windows 7 so can dual boot now on my macbook, very straightforward to do and has made software options a lot easier. just need to get myself a camera now and I can start to do some basic imaging.

[jgs001]

I use VMware fusion for stacking on an iMac. I use a windows laptop for control.

[CanesVenatici]

Rather than going the dual boot route, try running any PC software you need inside a virtual box controlled via VirtualBox from Sun systems. This fantastic software is also free!

https://www.virtualbox.org/

[NickK]

Just to add to the list of virtual machine users... I use Parallels 6 with windows 7 32bit.. that may all change in future

[Trull]

Why did you buy the MacBook? If you want to run everything inside a virtual machine I'd buy a crappy netbook and save myself the worry.

James uses the same setup as myself, and it rocks!

Just for the record - any cheap webcam will inevitably cost you in the long run with reliability and hassle. You are a Mac user - so get the best, and use proper cams from the likes of Imaging Source, SBIG, Fishcamp, Meade DSI...

[NickK]

The only reason I use Windows is that Nebulosity supports ATIK on Windows only.

Now oddly enough I'm in the middle of resolving that by working with ATIK to bring support to the Mac platform (in my spare time). I have my ATIK 383L+ up and running.

[Gina]

Interesting I'm on a MacBook writing this - I love it. But I'm not using it in my observatory - I use a netbook in there running Win XP. Only cost £130 from Morgans Quite good enough. On my main desktop I run Linux Mint. I think I would rate Mint and OS X similarly. XP has eventually become almost reliable after all the updates over the years Still comes third of the three though.

[515bonner]

I have NEVER been able to get macam to work on either my iMac or Macbook.

Have three cameras (Phillips, Logitech, another Phillips), and they connect and show to be connected.

Get screen showing image stream. When clicking on record, screen freezes and app crashes and quits.

Have had the macam component in the /library/quicktime/ folder on both user, root, and separately in user and root folders.

Doesn't make a difference where it is located or the number of circumstances.

Tried going back to previous versions and they all do the same. I just deleted it all off the computers and will use the

webcam module in Equinox pro.

Running OSX v10.6.8 (snow leopard) on both macs.

Rob Robinson

Kansas

[AlexB67]

Just to point out, but Virtual machines can have their down sides too. If you like to do some intensive things like playing a computer game, my main purpose for windows you can run into problems, also with hardware, plug and play and some stability issues at times. I don't know how it is in the mac world exactly these days, not having used them for some time, and for that matter not used virtual machines for some time either, though I expect things are improving. I still prefer the old dual boot method and run the OS natively. In Linux I can access all my windows files anyway when I need.

The other reason I mention when you come to plug something into a USB, should get any issues and want diagnose potential problems, virtual machines are not going to make thing easier when the OS is running inside a VM, certainly I've had experience of that years ago where external devices were not happy on VMware, or for that matter things like graphics cards also that cannot be utilised to their maximum potential in such environments.

If none of those things concern the user and everything works then why not use a VM, it can be very handy.

[earth titan]

I use Pixinsight and CS6 for the processing.

I tried using DSS and EQMOD running under a virtual machine, but found it too cumbersome, so still use an old laptop for the imaging.

[perfrej]

Just a brief comment about virtualization...

On the server side, VMWare is the gold standard for virtualization. A proverb would be "Windows Server runs best when not exposed to real hardware", and it is true. I simply NEVER reboot any of my 20-somewhat servers. The VMWare hosts are rebooted on extreme update occasions only - no more than three times a year.

Now, VMWare holds a number of cool patents relating to virtualization technology. The safest bet to get your virtual environment going in your standard PC or laptop or Mac is then to use VMWare Workstation (on a PC) or VMWare Fusion (on a Mac). The "other" products - Parallel's Desktop and Oracle VirtualBox - are fine but not really there in terms of stability. If you are looking for stability and 100% reliability you should go with VMWare. The second best (in my opinion) is VirtualBox, which by the way is free. Parallel's offers a great deal of window integration that is the best there is, but in terms of stabilty - naehh...

I have been down the Mac Track with astro software and have deduced that capture is best done in Windows, processing can be done on either platform. There is Pixinsight, Nebulosity, PHD and Phtoshop available. EQMac is good too for telescope control. If you want to do any serious automation, Windows is your operating system and CCDAutopilot or ACP your products.

That's a couple of twopences

/p