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Software deep dives, equipment reviews, tutorials, imaging sessions, and field notes — everything published on Mac Observatory.

109 articles
Using the EKOS sequencer to capture the Wizard Nebula (NGC7380) on the Mac
Tutorials

Using the EKOS sequencer to capture the Wizard Nebula (NGC7380) on the Mac

This will be a general walkthrough of a typical capture session with my AstroTechAT6RC setup. This should be a good walkthrough for someone not familiar

Aug 24, 2018 6 min read
Getting Started with Astrophotography on the Mac
Field Notes

Getting Started with Astrophotography on the Mac

Recommendations for your start in imaging on the Mac There's a few things that need to be covered here as a starting point.

Aug 2, 2018 3 min read
An Overview of Double Stars on the iPhone
News

An Overview of Double Stars on the iPhone

Here's another well done, simple, and focused astronomy application that's been recently added to the App Store. Double Stars, as it&

Jul 23, 2018 2 min read
An Overview of MeteorActive on the iPhone
News

An Overview of MeteorActive on the iPhone

MeteorActive is a great way to stay on top of all the meteor showers headed your way. The iPhone application is very straight forward in

Jul 23, 2018 1 min read
An overview of Observer Pro on the iPhone
Software

An overview of Observer Pro on the iPhone

Observer pro is really an invaluable application to use for choosing targets in the night sky. It contains objects from all the large catalogs Messier,

Jul 23, 2018 3 min read
Celestron's C5 Spotting Scope: Maximize Your Grab-And-Go
Reviews

Celestron's C5 Spotting Scope: Maximize Your Grab-And-Go

Make no mistake, this is a BIG, little grab-and-go. The biggest I could fit on theiOptron Cube Promount. The AT60ED wasn't cutting it

Jul 13, 2018 1 min read
Celestron C5 Spotting Scope
Reviews

Celestron C5 Spotting Scope

Grab and Go The Celestron C5 is a 5" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with XLT Starbright anti-reflective coatings, delivering 1250mm of focal length at f/10

Jul 13, 2018 1 min read
Imaging the Elephant Trunk Nebula - IC1396
Imaging

Imaging the Elephant Trunk Nebula - IC1396

I imaged this nebula over two nights for a total of 14 hours. There are 7 hours of H-a, and 7 hours of OIII data.

Jul 8, 2018 2 min read
A Night At The George Observatory
Field Notes

A Night At The George Observatory

A few weeks ago, I was able to attend a 'special event' at the George Observatory in Brazos Bend Park just south of

Jun 20, 2018 3 min read
An Overview of EKOS Astrophotography Suite on the Mac
Software

An Overview of EKOS Astrophotography Suite on the Mac

EKOSis the capture suite that comes as part of theKStars Observatorysoftware package. It's a free, fully automated suite for capturing on Mac, Linux,

Jun 17, 2018 6 min read
The observatories on Haleakala
Field Notes

The observatories on Haleakala

My family and I took a trip to Maui this past week. While we were there we made the trek up Haleakala park mountain to

Jun 17, 2018 2 min read
This is what processing a stack of 720 light frames looks like on an iMac Pro
Imaging

This is what processing a stack of 720 light frames looks like on an iMac Pro

1,000% CPU utilization in Astro Pixel Processor. I'm three hours into processing this stack of 720 luminance images for M101. It'

May 8, 2018 1 min read