Andrew Burwell
Designer, astrophotographer, and Mac app developer. Founded Mac Observatory over 9 years ago to help astronomers get the most from their Macs. Now building native macOS apps for the astrophotography community. Based in Houston, TX.
vdB 5: The Star With a Name Written Backward
Nine hours of integration on vdB 5 and the Ghost of Cassiopeia around the star Navi, and a short story about a star named by an astronaut, and the ghost it is slowly burning away.
Seeing vs. Transparency: Why a Clear Sky Can Still Give Soft Planetary Images
A cloudless forecast says nothing about how steady the air is. How to tell blur from haze and dew, and what to check before you capture.
M63: Nobody Asked the Dwarf
Over 18 hours of integration on M63, the Sunflower Galaxy in Canes Venatici, and a short story about a retired insurance adjuster who photographs the remains of a galaxy that got eaten.
NGC 1990: The Nebula Nobody Could Confirm
Seven hours of integration on NGC 1990, the faint glow around Alnilam in Orion's Belt, and a short story about a clerk whose job is to confirm the sky is really there, and the one card he can't stamp.
How Many Frames Should You Stack for a Planetary Image?
There's no magic percentage, but there is a simple test that finds the right one for each capture.
Laminar 1.9.0 Adds Filter Wheels, Focusers, and Automated LRGB Sequences
Laminar 1.9.0 adds direct filter wheel and focuser control through INDIGO, plus sequences that automate LRGB captures.
Strata 1.3 Adds Warp+, and Here's What I Measured
Warp+ picks the sharpest frames separately at every alignment point. On a 799-frame Moon capture it gained about 14% local contrast at the median tile, at 2x to 3x the stacking time.
Why I Shipped Laminar's Interval Capture as a Shortcut Instead of a Feature
Two App Intents, a bundled shortcut, and the interface work that isn't ready yet.
Strata 1.2.1: How One Tester's Logs Cut a 19-Hour Solar Batch to Five
Sven ran the same 1,999 solar videos through Strata and Planetary System Stacker on the same Mac. Strata took 19.65 hours. PSS took 7.2. His logs found a GPU bug that was invisible on my own hardware.
How Long Does an EdgeHD Really Take to Cool Down?
EdgeHD focus data: 694 autofocus runs, one temperature coefficient, and a probe that lied for 23 nights
Two Free Planning Calculators: Deep-Sky Field of View and Planetary Capture
A deep-sky framing calculator that overlays your sensor on real survey imagery and counts your guide stars, and a planetary calculator that places any planet and its moons on your chip for any date and time, then finds your frame-rate ceiling. Both free, both in the browser, no account.
Strata 1.0 is out
Strata 1.0 is on the Mac App Store. The third stacking engine I wrote, six months of beta, 367 pieces of feedback, and the testers who shaped every part of it.