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Guide camera that plays nicely with Mac OSX?

Chinapig

By Chinapig
in Getting Started With Imaging

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Chinapig

Chinapig

Posted
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Hi Folks

Have recently joined this forum, and am about to invest in a new mount for my 8" SCT (probably a SW AZ-EQ6GT).

I've never tried guided AP before, but very interested in having a go. My laptop however is a Mac and, from my research so far, most of the affordable guide cameras seem to need Windows.

Apologies for what maybe a dumb newbie question, but if anybody could advise me on the best choice of a reasonably affordable guide camera that would work happily with OSX 10.6.8, probably using PHD, I would be very grateful!

Any comments welcomed.

Many thanks.

Cheers

Simon

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Chinapig

Chinapig

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Hi welcome to the forum.

I have a Starlight Xpress CoStar that I got to run on the Mac.. Well under Snow Leopard anyway. http://www.firstligh...autoguider.html

Bit pricey compared to the commonly used QHY5 ( I also have one) but the SX Cameras do seem to run on the Macs.

That's good to know. Many thanks for the suggestion - much appreciated.

Cheers

Simon

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Guiding at long FL is not easy and, with an SCT, is probably best done with an OAG so a sensitive guide camera is important. We run a Lodestar in Nebulosity on a Mac here. The setup isn't mine but I have to say that I'm beginning to warm to it...

Olly

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Chinapig

Chinapig

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Guiding at long FL is not easy and, with an SCT, is probably best done with an OAG so a sensitive guide camera is important. We run a Lodestar in Nebulosity on a Mac here. The setup isn't mine but I have to say that I'm beginning to warm to it...

Olly

Appreciate your advice Olly - many thanks.

I've recently acquired a .63 FR, which should hopefully reduce the FL issue a tad, but I realise it's still going to be quite a challenge!

Thanks again.

Simon

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ahanmal

ahanmal

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I just received a Starlight Xpress CoStar for my CGEM 800 and it seems to work great with my Mac and PHD. However, it may not be sensitive enough if you are planning to use an off-axis guider. The SX Lodestar might then be a better option.

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Sp@ce_d

Sp@ce_d

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I can only compare against the qhy5 and I find it a bit more sensitive though it has a wider fov so stars are smaller due to chip size. Having said that the qhy5 isn't Mac compatable anyway.. I wouldn't think it would be an issue with a OAG but the loadstar is the benchmark & the costar is CMOS not CCD if that bothers you...

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Chinapig

Chinapig

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Many thanks folks - really appreciate all the valuable advice!

A Lodestar or CoStar would seem to be the most viable contenders. I might go the piggyback route for the guidescope, as ultimately, as fond as I am of my SCT, I'll probably invest in a shorter FL refractor.

I'm enjoying the learning curve, even though it looks a a bit steep and rocky at times!

Thanks again everyone, and happy comet hunting...

Cheers

S

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Epicycle

Epicycle

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I am a Mac user and I have a CoStar as guider. It works very well with PhD. I have also used it with Nebulosity for lunar imaging, the fps is not great (5 at best), but I've been able to get some decent lunar shots.

If you need something ultrasensitive it seems that the Lodestar is the way to go with Mac,

cheers

E.

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mhard26339

mhard26339

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Hi Simon,

Another approach that I am considering is to install Windows 7 on my MAC; apparently it is not difficult, at least according to my son, you partition the drive and install windows, easy as that + a couple of updates to ensure the keyboard etc works. The complete how to do it is also on You Tube, you do have to have a copy of Windows 7 obviously but it does expand the number of options available to you.

Regards

Mike

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Sp@ce_d

Sp@ce_d

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Hi Simon,

Another approach that I am considering is to install Windows 7 on my MAC; apparently it is not difficult, at least according to my son, you partition the drive and install windows, easy as that + a couple of updates to ensure the keyboard etc works. The complete how to do it is also on You Tube, you do have to have a copy of Windows 7 obviously but it does expand the number of options available to you.

Regards

Mike

This is called BootCamp the other option is to use a Virtual Machine (VM)

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NickMorris

NickMorris

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Hi Simon,

Another camera you can use with Mac OSX and PHD is the Imaging Source firewire cameras (not USB though). I have used one of these in conjunction with a Shoestring Astronomy GPUSB box to connect the Mac to the ST4 port on the mount. It works quite happily and reliably. I use Nebulosity from Stark Labs to capture from a Canon DSLR in Mac OSX.

Hope that helps,

Nick

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Chinapig

Chinapig

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I am a Mac user and I have a CoStar as guider. It works very well with PhD. I have also used it with Nebulosity for lunar imaging, the fps is not great (5 at best), but I've been able to get some decent lunar shots.

If you need something ultrasensitive it seems that the Lodestar is the way to go with Mac

Many thanks for that - I suspect my final choice will come down partly to budget, and how far I evolve the rest of the rig (but that's for another thread!).

Cheers

S

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Chinapig

Chinapig

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This is called BootCamp the other option is to use a Virtual Machine (VM)

Many thanks to you, and Mike earlier, for the dual-boot idea. I had intended to keep everything Mac-native, but will certainly consider the VM or BootCamp idea.

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Chinapig

Chinapig

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Hi Simon,

Another camera you can use with Mac OSX and PHD is the Imaging Source firewire cameras (not USB though). I have used one of these in conjunction with a Shoestring Astronomy GPUSB box to connect the Mac to the ST4 port on the mount. It works quite happily and reliably. I use Nebulosity from Stark Labs to capture from a Canon DSLR in Mac OSX.

Hope that helps,

Nick

Cool, thanks. Very useful to know there's another proven option available.

Cheers

S

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