Stacking Software for a Mac...what do you use?

[Rock]

I went out to a friends house to his observatory tonight to help with getting some conjunction photos. He has Registax 6 for a PC. We aren't too familiar with it and I would like to try stacking the photos on my Mac. I have looked around a little bit but haven't seen anything about Mac software except using Paralells program and then use Registax 6. Does anyone have any experience using a Mac stacking program. Thanks

Rock

[szymon]

For planetary stacking, I run VMware fusion and either registax or autostakkert.  Siril native on the Mac can do planetary stacking by all accounts, I've seen some nice results but never tried it.  For DSO stacking I use PixInsight, but I don't think it's designed for planetary.

[Ouroboros]

I don’t do planetary imaging as a rule but wanted to have a go at Mars a few months ago. Try as I might I couldn’t find anything that allowed me to do the stacking and processing as well as Autostakkert in Windows. It’s not just the stacking. You also need to align the three colour channels, do a bit of sharpening with wavelets and so on. All of which Autostakkert allows you to do. In the end I gave in and used Autostakkert running in Windows 7 in parallels on my Mac. Fortunately I already had this. 
More generally I’m now pretty much Mac based both for telescope control and deep sky processing in Pixinsight. 

[Ouroboros]

PS If you find a way to do this on a Mac I’d be interested to know how. 

[Ouroboros]

PPS You can take a look at Linkeos which is discussed in this thread. 

 

[callump]

I don't really do planetary work, but used Lynkeos on the 2017 solar eclipse - I don't have anything to compare too, but seemed to do the job.

For Deep Sky I use Siril.

Callum

[Rock]

18 hours ago, szymon said:

For planetary stacking, I run VMware fusion and either registax or autostakkert.  Siril native on the Mac can do planetary stacking by all accounts, I've seen some nice results but never tried it.  For DSO stacking I use PixInsight, but I don't think it's designed for planetary.

Thanks for the information. I appreciate it.

Rock

[rickwayne]

 See also: https://www.macobservatory.com/blog/2020/7/30/the-growing-list-of-mac-planetary-imaging-and-processing-applications

[Rock]

Thanks for everyones help!

[cyteen02]

+1 for https://www.siril.org/ from me, mostly because it's free so I can learn with it

[Osiris777]

I got frustrated looking at all of the software available on PC but not Mac.. so I got a super cheap PC laptop on Amazon, and going to do all my guiding, capturing, and stacking on that comp.  My gf got me photoshop for Christmas for my MacBook Pro, so I'm going to be taking the stacked images off the PC then import into my Mac for processing the stacked file.

[JonCarleton]

+1 for Siril.  I run it under Linux, but it does a great job for planetary or deep sky.  Once you get used it and get your workflow down, it is very straightforward and fast.  I haven't used the scripts function yet, but I can see that happening if and when I can get some very large datasets.  I have tried some of the windows (eg: Registax) with an emulator, but it doesn't compare with speed or features.

I have used it for nearly a year now and see no need to try anything else.

[Dean Hale]

I know you want Mac specific software - Siril is ok but I've just downloaded Crossover and have run Pipp, autostakkert and registax without any issues on a mac plus much easier to use Takes around 10 mins to get up and running. Free 14 day trial too 

https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover

Edited December 29, 2020 by Dean Hale
More info added