![]() ![]() Many astronomers have a good, physical scientific calculator or two handy, such as the HP-35s from Hewlett Packard. This app can stack multiple frames from a single video file.Ħ. This app does a good job of that for individual images. Lynkeos Often, a better image can be obtained by digitally "stacking" or combining several shorter duration photos on a Mac/PC rather seeking to obtain one long duration photo.Some people, including me, prefer Graphic Converter. For merging photos, enhacing in various ways, creating animated GIFs to show object movement over time, and so on. Here are some image processing apps, in no particular order, that are typically used by amateur astronomers. For example, " Digital SLR Astrophotography" by Michael A. There are plenty of good books that will help you get started. Note that astrophotography will require some extra equipment and lots of trial and error to gain experience. If you move from introductory visual astronomy, simple gazing or things that can be done visually, such as sketching or double and variable star observations to astrophotography, you'll need a collection of apps that can process your images for research or publication. A planner will help with all that.ĪstroPlanner is a well regarded astronomy session planning app for the Mac. Your start time and the positions of the selected objects will determine when they go below the horizon, so you'll want to start in the western sky before they set. Once you've figured out the weather and what you want to look at or photograph, it's helpful to have a session planning app. Some amateurs have used this data to anticipate and photograph the International Space Station from the ground with stunning results.Ĥ. Satellite info is good in case you'd like to try to catch one with binoculars and need the azimuth and rise time. Two sites that help with that are 7Timer! and Clear Sky Chart.ģ. The phase of the moon will tell you whether you'll be doing some casual observing of the moon and planets during a bright full moon or perhaps some deep sky photography at new moon or after the moon in partial phase has set. The weather will help determine a start time and what clothing you'll need. ![]() Before you can start planning for an observing session, it's helpful to know what the weather is going to be that evening as well as the phase of the moon. Southern Stars also offers SkyFi, a Wi-Fi telescope controller to operate a GoTo telescope with a Mac (or PC, iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and, with some limitations, Android.) A description and list of compatible GoTo telescopes is on the SkyFi page.Ģ. Image Credit: Southern Stars, SkySafari Plus for Mac. ![]() ![]() Here's a review of the Mac version by a well-known amateur astronomer. Based on previous reviews of the Mac and the iPad versions, as well as the technical energy being put into continuous development, I have come to consider SkySafari Pro or SkySafari Plus by Southern Stars the best option for the Mac. They include, for example, Equinox, SkySafari, TheSkyX and Starry Night. There are several Mac apps that combine a sky chart with telescope control for compatible GoTo telescopes. I've defined six categories of apps: a sky chart that does telescope control, astronomy weather forecast, satellite look up, session planning, image processing and last but not least, a superb scientific calculator.ġ. It would be impractical to list every available app, and I recognize that many advanced amateurs will have their own favorites. The goal here is to recommend some very good, respected apps for beginners that are in typical use on the Mac. What are the essential Mac apps for the backyard astronomer? In this article, I've listed some of the most notable OS X apps that round out a complete technical package for the amateur astronomer. ![]()
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