Mac software

Arthur Alchin (Arthur Alchin) · #1 23-05-2009, 01:30 PM

Hi all,
After much increasing frustration with the PC i have jumped the fence into MacLand and currently loving it.

Question: I have all Meade gear (DSI and LXD75 8"SN) and i am looking for any software that may be around to suit these

The scope is not a major problem as i can drive it from the MySky but some "visualisation / camera control" software for the DSI is what i really need.

I had both the meade software and IRIS on the PC but neither are compatible with the Mac therefore any suggestions are welcome.

Thankyou

Arthur

dpastern (Dave Pastern) · #2 23-05-2009, 04:37 PM

Two words:

bootcamp or (preferably), parallels.

bootcamp allows you to boot either OS X or Windows, whilst parallels is basically a VM. I can't guarantee that it'll work, sometimes hardware is a real bugger under emulation.

Good luck...all I can say is write to Meade and complain that there is no Mac version of their controlling software. Failing that, sell it and grab something else that does work. Sometimes, the only way to make manufacturers listen is not to give them any money, and to make a lot of noise as to why you're not buying their products. When they start losing sales, then, and only then, do they usually start to listen.

Dave

dannat (Daniel) · #3 23-05-2009, 06:09 PM

i didn't find any when i had an LPI,but check stark labs website - they have some mac stuff

higginsdj · #4 26-05-2009, 02:28 PM

Try "Astroplanner". It is written natively for the Mac and ported to Windows and it has Telescope control functionality built into it.

kumanday · #5 09-11-2009, 05:27 AM

Arthur, Equinox 6 is the best Mac software astronomy, telescope control, camera (CCD SDLR) robofocus. I highly recommend it.

I use it for two years with a Meade LX200 GPS and doing very well.

Greetings,

Jorge

troypiggo (Troy) · #6 09-11-2009, 06:42 AM

Recent convert to Mac here too. Had my first MacBook Pro use in the field the other night. At the moment I'm doing image capture fully with Mac native software - Nebulosity 2 for image capture, pre-processing/calibration, aligning and stacking; PHD for guiding; CS4 PS for post-processing; Cartes du Ciel for planetarium; Astroplanner for planning and recording info.

The only thing I'm using Windows for is EQMod/ASCOM for GOTO, so I've got a VMWare Fusion Windows virtual machine running at the same time.

Works fine. Shame there's no EQMod for Mac. If I wanted to, I could go fully Mac native by using the mount hand controller for GOTO and GPUSB for guiding.

pmrid (Peter) · #7 09-11-2009, 07:08 AM

This one is a bit different but interesting enough. Where is M13: www.thinkastronomy.com/M13/common/download.html
Peter

lacad01 (Adam) · #8 09-11-2009, 09:05 AM

Might also want to look at VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/) as an alternative to Parallels or VMware

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #9 09-11-2009, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lacad01

Might also want to look at VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/) as an alternative to Parallels or VMware

I've found Sun VirtualBox to be slightly faster than VMware on my QuadCore. I'm keen to see it run on a Mac one day soon. It's a nice product.

tonybarry (Tony) · #10 09-11-2009, 03:10 PM

Nebulosity 2 (Mac) works with the Meade DSI I, II, III; and SBIG models, and others too.
PHD does guiding with cameras that interface to Nebulosity.
You can use AstroPlanner for Goto (it's a great application).
Or Stellarium v0.10.2 as a planetarium program (free) with Meade LX connectivity.
Voyager 4.5 also does Mac Goto control very well.

Regards,
Tony Barry