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Astro on Mac

Davey-T

By Davey-T
in Discussions - Software

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NickK

NickK

Posted
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Mac Book Pro 13" Mid 2012, 2.5ghz i5, Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024MB, 4GB Ram.

I have both versions of PHD working on Win 8.1 laptop which I think has the same Intel 4000 graphics.

Dave

Hmm I'll have a check - did it present a crash report or just didn't provide a calibration icon?

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NickK

NickK

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Hmm it's interesting - on the mac mini:

1) connect simulator

2) connect EQMac

3) Press the loop icon and select a star

4) The PHD icon is enabled and when you select it - it starts calibrating..

post-9952-0-16546300-1422220378_thumb.pn

But ... bitter experience has told me - working on the dev machine is one thing, working on the normal machine is another thing.. so there's something there causing a problem for you that I need to work out why..

I've tried the binary on the mini - it appears that if you don't connect a mount then it will not allow you to attempt calibration (the PHD target icon).

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NickK

NickK

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Sorry Nick, do you mean connect a mount via ST4 for guiding or mount control ?

Dave

I used EQMac which does the same as EQMOD. Pulse guiding through a USB-serial device attached direct to the mount.

It also works, for example if you put the simulator and then set the mount as "on camera". Then connect all (as you need to connect to both first).

Next press the cycle button.. the image will appear - select a star and the target PHD icon enables :)

I prefer EQMac/EQMOD because guide pulses are in realtime - this means you don't want to delay the pulses and if the camera is busy it may not be quite as accurate although this depends on the vendor and camera model..

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NickK

NickK

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Is EQMac the sama as EQMod in that it only supports Skywatcher mounts ?

I have a Meade LX200R in the obs'y and a iOptron iEQ 45 for star parties etc so probably cant use it.

Dave

Yup - EQMac is the mac equivalent of EQMOD that talks directly to the SW mounts.

So out of curiosity how do you connect to the mount? ST4? That should work however ATIK OS X driver ST4 guiding is something I'll be testing out soon (it should work but I've not got to test the PHD integration with it). All the other PHD options are simply down to PHD's own support - I have to say the main PHD code is theirs, mine is just the interface code for the ATIK OS X drivers (mine) which support image capture and ST4 Port on the camera.

It appears both mounts are normally connected via ST4 - that should be fine. The OpenPHD supports guiding through EQMac, Equinox 6, GC USB ST4, GPUSB and on-camera ST4 port.

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NickK

NickK

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Meade is ST4, iOptron ASCOM as it doesn't like ST4 for some reason.

Dave

I see the iOptron ASCOM is serial via the handset using a serial protocol they've provided here: https://ioptron.com/images/up/iOptron%20Mount%20RS-232%20Command%20language%202014%20V2.0.pdf .. I'm assuming they use a custom guide rate and then use the commands to vary the rates.

So OpenPHD would have support the iOptron protocol which is the gap in the chain at the moment. However it may be possible to use INDI instead.

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NickK

NickK

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Still pursuing my quest to get my imaging setup working on the Mac.

Can anyone recommend a Polar finder app, doesn't have to be free :)

Dave

OpenPHD does drift alignment analysis to help refine PA I'll be trying this out tonight.

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Davey-T

Davey-T

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According to system info this MBP has a USB3 High Speed Bus and a USB3 Super Speed Bus so what's the difference, it has two identical USB3 sockets and no mention of there being any difference between them in the blurb.

Dave

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JamesF

JamesF

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According to system info this MBP has a USB3 High Speed Bus and a USB3 Super Speed Bus so what's the difference, it has two identical USB3 sockets and no mention of there being any difference between them in the blurb.

Dave

I'd guess what they're trying to say is that it meets the specifications for both "High Speed" USB and "Super Speed" USB.  "High Speed" is USB2.  "Super Speed" is USB3.  I think USB3.1 will be "Super Speed+".  Presumably when we get as far as "Hyper Speed" we'll all be able to make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.

James

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David_Pickles

David_Pickles

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I may be too late, as it looks like you have gone down the bootcamp route, but I use Parallels 10 on my MacBook pro Windows 7 Ultimate and all my astro stuff works without any problems and all functions of the computer work well - including illuminated keyboard etc.  I also like that both operating systems run side by side, meaning I can switch seamlessly from one OS to the other without having to reboot. I can even guide using PHD on my Mac whilst using Win7 software for image capture. Maybe something to consider if bootcamp doesn't work out for you.

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Davey-T

Davey-T

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Thought there was some talk of Parellels being expensive and each upgrade being expensive.

The Bootcamp partition is hopefully temporary until I can get everything for imaging working on the Mac.

Thanks.

Dave

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David_Pickles

David_Pickles

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Parallels is a more expensive option at £65 but I love how integrated it feels and how all the other Mac features still work. For example, I use the screen share function to control my MacBook (which is outside) from my iMac in the comfort of my dining room. In all honesty I would prefer an all Mac setup and until recently I did just that, using Nebulosity 3, PHD and Stellarium. But I now I use Astrotortilla for plate solving and there is no reliable and cheap alternative that I have found for the Mac so the cost of Parallels is justified in my opinion, but if Bootcamp works for you then I'd stick with it until you get the Mac software sorted - this Astrophotography lark can get expensive can't it?

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NickK

NickK

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I started with Parallels after finding the old version of VMware a bit backwards. However I moved away from Parallels because every time apple updated OS X parallels needed a paid update - the crunch came when a simple OS X update required payment yet there was no warning of this ahead of the update, rather than staying with the previous working and is simply working but without any new bells or whistles..

The complaints on the Parallels forum resulted in a massive thread that was then deleted by Parallels administrators.

Oracle's Virtualbox on OS X had a bug (race condition) where you could only use one CPU core when using USB devices, the latest version doesn't work well and hangs so for Linux, I use a windows bootcamp with the windows version of virtual box - this works without any usb bugs or hangs.

Astrometry.net works nicely on OS X using homebrew, however it's not incorporated into a smart mount pointing system - although I assume INDI and Kstars attempt todo something in the same vein.

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David_Pickles

David_Pickles

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Those are very valid points Nick - I have not needed to upgrade Parallels since installing it and it worked fine with Mavericks and Yosemite (incl. Beta version) but I will review my decision if/when my current setup stops working as I don't like having to pay for minor upgrades, and poor customer service is no way to win customer loyalty.

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