It's been a good three years now since I swapped my HP laptop for a Macbook Pro. In the mean time, I've started doing a bit more astrophotography and of course the change of operating system has affected the tools I use to obtain and process photos.
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Amateur astronomers have traditionally mostly used Windows, so there are a lot of Windows tools, both freeware and payware, to help. I used to run the freeware ones in Wine on Ubuntu with varying levels of success.
When I first got the Mac, I had a lot of trouble getting Wine to run reliably and eventually ended up doing my alignment and processing manually in The Gimp. However, that's time consuming and rather fiddly and limited to stacking static exposures.
However, I've recently started finding quite a bit of Mac OS based astrophotography software. I don't know if that means it's all fairly new or whether my Google skills failed me over the past years :-)
Software
I thought I'd document what I use, in the hope that I can save others who want to use their Macs some searching.
Some are Windows software, but run OK on Mac OS X. You can turn them into normal double click applications using a utility called WineSkin Winery.
Obtaining data from video camera:
- oaCapture (MacOS X, free)
- AstroImager (Mac OS X, payware, free trial)
Format-converting video data:
Mac Os Updates
- Handbrake (Mac OS X, free, open source)
Processing video data:
- AutoStakkert! (Windows + Wine, free for non-commercial use, donationware)
Obtaining data from DSLR:
- AstroDSLR (Mac OS X, payware, free trial)
Processing and stacking DSLR files and post-processing video stacks:
- RegiStax (Windows + Wine, free)
- Nebulosity (Mac OS X, payware, free trial)
Post-processing:
- The Gimp (Max OS X, free, open source)
Telescope guiding:
Mac Imaging Software
- AstroGuider (Mac OS X, payware, free trial)
- PHD2 (Mac OS X, free, open source)
Hardware
A few weeks ago I bought a ZWO ASI120MC-S astro camera, as that was on sale and listed by Nebulosity as supported by OSX. Until then I'd messed around with a hacked up Logitech webcam, which seemed to only be supported by the Photo Booth app.
I've not done any guiding yet (I need a way to mount the guide scope on the main scope - d'oh) but the camera works well with Nebulosity 4 and oaCapture. I'm looking forward to being able to grab Jupiter with it in a month or so and Saturn and Mars later this year.
The image to the right is a stack of 24x5 second unguided exposures of the trapezium in M42. Not too bad for a quick test on a half-moon night.
Settings
I've been fiddling with Nebulosity abit, to try and get it to stack the RAW images from my Nikon D750 as colour. I found a conversion matrix that was supposed to be decent, but as it turns out that made all images far too blue.
The current matrix I use is listed below. If you find a better one, please let me know.
Imaging Software For Mac Os X 10.8
R | G | B | |
---|---|---|---|
R | 0.50 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
G | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
B | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.50 |
Macbooks or iMacs hardly require reinstallation of their Mac OS, but when they do then it’s a fairly difficult process especially if your secondary computer is Windows. Reinstalling Mac OS is a time-consuming process and requires a lot of patience that’s why recommend doing this process in your free time or weekends.
Free Mac Os Software Download
To get started with you require a USB drive with at least 8GB storage (16GB recommended). Then you need a working Mac OS ISO or DMG Installation Image. You can download it from the Apps Store or you can find Mac OS Image at ISORIVER.
There are 2 Methods to Create a Bootable USB drive of Mac OS on your Windows PC.
Method 1: Using TransMac
- Download TransMac’s latest version for Windows from this link.
- Connect your USB drive
- Right Click on your USB drive option in TransMac and select Format Disk for Mac
- After that, right-click the USB Drive and select Restore with Disk Image
- Point to your Mac OS .dmg or .iso file by clicking the add button.
- After that TransMac will create bootable Mac OS USB within few minutes.
- Then you can insert it into your Mac, hold down the option key while turn on and boot your system with this USB.
Method 2: Using PowerISO
Another disk image utility that you can use is PowerISO. It can be used for burning both ISO files and DMG files to USB to create a bootable drive. Follow the steps below to Create a Bootable Mac OS USB on Windows PC.
Step 1: Firstly Download PowerISO and install it in your Windows PC. Launch the app and insert a USB drive into your computer.
Step 2: Import the DMG / ISO file directly by clicking on ‘Burn’ in the toolbar.
Step 3: In the Burn window, select the DMG / ISO file from the Source File section.
Step 4: You can modify the settings to adjust burn speed. The default will be set to the maximum, so you can reduce that.
Step 5: You can choose to finalize the disk and verify it. Any errors in the bootable USB will show up at that point.
Step 6: Now click on “Burn” and wait for the progress bar to reach 100%.
After the successful creation of Bootable Mac OS USB, boot your Macbook from this USB drive by clicking the option button during bootup and select this USB drive.
Watch this Video Tutorial
That’s it for the tutorial If you face any issues or had any query then please let us know in the comment section below. You can also send us an email via the contact us page for personalized support.