Stacking Software for MacBook

[Cpaulo]

Hi there I made the switch to MacBook earlier in the year as I started to get into photography and have been running Lightroom+Photoshop for a couple of months as my post processing package. As I have got a bit further into taking picture of the night sky I was wondering what software is best for stacking images on the Mac OS. I know I can stack photo's in Lightroom+Photoshop but I am not sure it's doing all the things that a dedicated astrophotography software package is doing. 

What are your thoughts on using Photoshop for stacking images, do people use this program for such a task or if you use a Mac what alternative software packages do you use for stacking images.

I would very much like to hear peoples views on the subject.

[PhotoGav]

I use Nebulosity3 on a macbook to do the stacking. It seems to work perfectly for me with DSO images. For planets and very widefield (ie. short camera lens) I do resort to the PC laptop and use DSS, PiPP, Autostackert and Registax etc.

[Owmuchonomy]

I'm just like Gav above but I have just started another thread to canvas opinion on Regim stacking software which runs on Mac OS. However, the lack of great response means I'll stick to DSS on my daughters PC!

[Cpaulo]

It does seem that as I explore the world of wide field I am going to have to get DSS which means going back to Windows 8. Not the end of the world, well not quite.

[Cpaulo]

Sorry hadn't quite finished, saw your thread Chris but not used Regim.

[James]

Nebulosity works well, Pixinsight even better

James

[NickK]

Nebulosity 3 - captures and processes. I started with Neb2 and still using on OSX as I did on windows. It's faster with 3 and is friendly.

Pixinsight - moved to this, I would say is better overall but it's a big learning curve. It can't capture. It is a different experience - think transforming the entire image rather than artistically manipulating/adjusting an image. Largest images I've been doing at about 2-6GB for the final image.

Using WINE I have stacked with Registax (windows software).

There's also some funky stuff around to - Paul's Lodestar Live (if you have Starlight cameras) and I've been playing with image processing for fast image processing (i.e. realtime video) using your graphics chip todo the work!

[NickMorris]

In my humble opinion, I would bite the bullet and get into Pixinsight.  It runs natively on the Mac and whilst it has a steep learning curve, gives good results for pre and post processing....

hope that helps,

Nick