Altair Capture on Mac OS X

[Gmx76]

Hi, I just got a GPCAM2 290C and am using Altair Capture on a Mac OS X 10.15.5 (Catalina) 
Does this version have the same functionality as the Windows version? I can't seem to find how to do live stacking and don't have access to the top menu options visible in the Windows screenshots (Capture, Image, Process etc)

I have raised this question on Altair Astro's facebook forum but thought I'd check here to see if anyone has any experience of using this combo successfully (or suggestions for Mac compatible software that does something similar)?

Thanks

[MarkAR]

Not used the Altair software, I run KStars/Ekos for automation and capture on my Mac. It supports Altair Cams.

Ekos doesn't have live stacking, I don't think it's really necessary.

[JamesF]

I think all the rebranded versions of Touptek's software for MacOS and Linux are "Lite" versions of the Windows application (though I'm only going by what I've seen -- I've never used the Windows versions and rarely touched the MacOS/Linux versions).

Are you looking for EAA type work, or something else?

James

[Gmx76]

Thanks for your answers. The Kstars project looks interesting. I'm still new to this but for now EAA and planetary are primary focus 

[JamesF]

1 minute ago, Gmx76 said:

I'm still new to this but for now EAA and planetary are primary focus 

In that case, have a look at oacapture and oalive here: https://www.openastroproject.org/downloads/

I believe they should support your camera.  Embarrassingly I've not got around to writing a manual for oalive yet.  I'm happy to have feedback on ideas for improvements or if you find bugs (surely not! :)

(Actually I have to admit that there may be bugs.  Testing is becoming a monster task now.)

James

[Gmx76]

I came across these yesterday and will definitely give them a try,  thanks

[UKAstroBill]

I’m in this boat with my Mac and a new 269c Hypercam. 
 

1. MacOS Altair Capture works ok on my faster 2018 MacBook Pro but does not work properly on my older 2012 MBP with only USB2. I say OK because it appears to be limited to saving TIF files in 8 bits per channel. I’m not doing live stacking as I do that offline in APP.  I’ve got the Windows version working as of last night under Parallels and it appears to offer fits file saving using the full bit depth. I have raised a ticket with Altair on the question of the Mac version having fuller bit depth support.

2. Also working with KStars/INDi/EKOS. I have this running on my Mac and PHD2 also is fine using a ZWO guide cam and controlling my CEM40. But my 269c is not recognised and I am trying to find out from INDI and Altair why. 
 

3. the oa tools are something I have yet to try. On the list! 
 

[Gmx76]

Frustrating for us Mac users isn't it. I tried a few different tools but finally resorted to using the family Windows laptop with dodgy USB. After a frustrating session last night with the camera disconnecting every time I went near it I'm back to considering Mac options. I know Mac isn't high priority for Altair having discussed with them via Facebook. They were working on a Mac SDK, and I was hopinh that it could get included in Firecapture which seems to have what I want in a Mac compatible tool.  Don't think the sdk materialised though so will follow up with them again. 

Oacapture looks good,  Oalive also but doesn't support alignment in Live stacking. When I get time I'm going to try a combo of Oacapture to output FITS files and ALS to read the output folder and align and stack the images.  

[callump]

You could try Cloudmakers Astroimager http://www.cloudmakers.eu/astroimager/ which is a native MacOS app. It supports the Altair cameras but probably in the same way as INDI so might not recognise the camera if the problem is with the Altair driver.

There is a free 1 month trial.

Version 3 is currently the one that downloads, but there is a development version V4 available that does live stacking and sequencing (I have not tried it at the telescope yet, though).

Callum

[MarkAR]

Another alternative might be a Raspberry Pi running Astroberry, has KStars and OACapture and as it's Linux you can probably download other non Mac stuff. 

 

[JamesF]

59 minutes ago, Gmx76 said:

Frustrating for us Mac users isn't it. I tried a few different tools but finally resorted to using the family Windows laptop with dodgy USB. After a frustrating session last night with the camera disconnecting every time I went near it I'm back to considering Mac options. I know Mac isn't high priority for Altair having discussed with them via Facebook. They were working on a Mac SDK, and I was hopinh that it could get included in Firecapture which seems to have what I want in a Mac compatible tool.  Don't think the sdk materialised though so will follow up with them again. 

Oacapture looks good,  Oalive also but doesn't support alignment in Live stacking. When I get time I'm going to try a combo of Oacapture to output FITS files and ALS to read the output folder and align and stack the images.  

The SDK does exist, kind of.  It seems a bit haphazard to me though, and I don't really understand why it should be.  Touptek presumably do all the work.  All they'd really need to do would be to make the files available easily from their website (they didn't used to, but to be fair I've not checked very recently) and have some arrangement for reporting bugs.

I will add alignment in the live stacking for oalive.  Probably not in the next release as I'd like to get that out relatively soon, but perhaps in the release after that when I have more time to do the coding.

James

[UKAstroBill]

I'll give oalive a go when I have finished trying to make sense of deBayering what I got from Windows Capture under Parallels.

ADDED: Capture seems to like GBRG in APP and DSS for the 269c. I think it must be to do with ROWORDER things on the Bayer Matrix. APP reads the FITS files as RGGB and wants to process them that way. You have to use tab 0, and force the CFA to GBRG and then the stacked files look sensibly coloured. 

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by UKAstroBill
new information

[UKAstroBill]

OK so here is an interesting fact about oacapture and oalive. As they download right now they do not see the Hypercam 269c. BUT - if you grab the libaltaircam.dylib file from the latest Altair Capture and stick it into the oalive/capture package directory then the oa stuff does recognise the 269c, and as far as I can tell it works well apart from not having the  cooler controls. So it would seem to me that only a small amount of work recompiling with the latest SDK ought to enable it properly. Hint hint!

Altair Capture under MacOS works fine with the 269c apart from only saving 8 bit per channel files. I think thats probably the front end more than the library as the oa tools seemed to have more bit depth options. Without the cooling I did not want to probe extensively. I'll take a look at Cloudmakers next. As noted it will probably depend on which SDK has been used.

 

 

[JamesF]

I'll pull in the latest SDK with the next release, so that should support the 269C by default.

James

[UKAstroBill]

24 minutes ago, JamesF said:

I'll pull in the latest SDK with the next release, so that should support the 269C by default.

James

That's a great response. Look forward to trying it. Thanks!

 

By the way I just tried cloud makers and AstroImager looked like it could talk to my camera and I could operate the cooling and set some other choices, but was unable to capture a photo. Bizarre.