Mac Observatory Suite
After years of reviewing every astronomy app on the Mac,
we started building what was missing.
The Mac Observatory Suite is a family of native macOS apps for amateur astronomers — built from scratch in Swift on Apple Silicon. No ports. No wrappers. No subscriptions.
Laminar
Planetary Capture
Real-time frame quality analysis tells you your session is sharp before you stack. Auto-tracks planets frame by frame. Metal GPU acceleration.
Beta
Free + $34.99 Pro
Strata
Planetary Stacking & Sharpening
GPU-accelerated stacking at 1,500 frames/sec. Replaces the entire Windows planetary processing workflow — AutoStakkert, Registax, PIPP — in one native app.
Coming Soon
Meridian
Deep Sky Imaging Archive
Point it at your folders — it reads every FITS header, resolves 41,730 objects across 20 catalogs, and builds a searchable visual archive. Never modifies your files.
Beta
Free + $34.99 Pro
Capture
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Laminar
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Stack & Sharpen
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Strata
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Archive
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Meridian
Swift & SwiftUI
Apple Silicon Native
Metal GPU
No Subscriptions
From the Blog
Latest articles
Tutorials, reviews, and field notes on astrophotography with the Mac.
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ZWO
Askar
Celestron
iOptron
Sky-Watcher

A modern guide to astrophotography on macOS: the best Mac-compatible apps for planetary and deep-sky capture, guiding, stacking, plate solving, and processing—plus practical workflows that actually work in 2025-2026.